Bill Kibby (15 April 1903 – 31 October 1942) was a British-born
Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for
gallantry in the face of the enemy that could be awarded to a member of
the Australian armed forces during World War II. In 1940, Kibby
enlisted in the all-volunteer Second Australian Imperial Force and
joined the 2/48th Infantry Battalion. He was injured before the Siege of
Tobruk, but was with the battalion during the First Battle of El Alamein
in July 1942. In October, the battalion was committed to the Second
Battle of El Alamein. Between 23 and 31 October, Kibby went forward
alone and silenced an enemy machine gun post, mended a telephone line
under heavy fire, and pressed forward under withering machine gun fire
to help his company capture its objective. After this final action
ultimately cost him his life, the Victoria Cross was awarded for his
inspirational leadership.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Kibby>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1913:
Public-transportation workers in Indianapolis went on strike,
shutting down mass transit in the city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_streetcar_strike_of_1913>
1973:
Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped from
Mountjoy Prison in Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter that landed in
the prison's exercise yard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountjoy_Prison_helicopter_escape>
1999:
All 217 people on board EgyptAir Flight 990 perished when the
aircraft suddenly crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of
Nantucket, Massachusetts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bunny boiler:
(slang, humorous, derogatory) A person who acts (or may supposedly act)
obsessively or even dangerously towards another person with whom they
were previously, or wish to be, in a relationship.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bunny_boiler>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
From ghoulies and ghosties, And long-leggedy beasties, And
things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!
--prayer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Prayer>
The European storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) is a small, square-
tailed seabird with a fluttering flight. It is black except for a white
rump and a white band under its wings. Most birds breed on islands off
western Europe, with a separate subspecies occurring in the
Mediterranean. The storm petrel lays a single white egg in a burrow. The
adults share incubation and feeding the chick. This bird is oceanic
outside the breeding season, wintering off the western coasts of Africa.
It feeds on small fish, and can find oily edible items by smell. The
chick is fed with an oily liquid regurgitated by the adults. Silent at
sea, the storm petrel has a chattering call given during courtship, and
the male has a purring song. The storm petrel cannot survive where rats
or cats have been introduced, and it is killed by large birds such as
gulls. It is classified by the IUCN as being of least concern. Folklore
claiming that the bird can foretell or cause bad weather has led to its
use as a symbol by some revolutionary groups.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_storm_petrel>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1950:
Blanca Canales led the Jayuya Uprising against the
U.S.-supported Puerto Rican government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayuya_Uprising>
1960:
Michael Woodruff performed the first successful kidney
transplant in the United Kingdom at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Woodruff>
1993:
The Troubles: Three members of the Ulster Defence Association
opened fire in a crowded pub during a Halloween party, killing eight
people and wounding nineteen others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greysteel_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
escarole:
(Canada, US) A subspecies or variety of broad-leaved endive (Cichorium
endivia subsp. endivia, syn. Cichorium endivia var. latifolium), which
is eaten as a vegetable.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/escarole>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Metaphysicians and politicians may dispute forever, but they will
never find any other moral principle or foundation of rule or obedience,
than the consent of governors and governed.
--John Adams
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Adams>
Portrait of Mariana of Austria is a 1652 or 1653 oil-on-canvas painting
by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. Its
subject, Dona Mariana (known as Maria Anna), was the daughter of Emperor
Ferdinand III and Maria Anna of Spain, and was nineteen years old when
the painting was completed. Although vivacious and fun-loving in life,
she is given an unhappy expression in Velázquez's portrait. The
painting is bathed in harmonious shades of black and red, and her face
is heavily made up. Her right hand rests on the back of a chair, and she
holds a lace handkerchief in her left hand. Her bodice is decorated with
jewellery, including a gold necklace, bracelets and a large gold brooch.
The clock placed on the scarlet drapery behind her indicates her status.
Three full-length versions of the portrait survive, as well as a number
of half-length variants. The version in the Museo del Prado (detail
pictured) is known to be the original and is dated on the basis of a
matching description of a canvas sent to Ferdinand in Vienna in
December 1651.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Mariana_of_Austria>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1618:
English courtier and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh was executed
in London after King James I reinstated a fifteen-year-old death
sentence against him.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Raleigh>
1948:
Arab–Israeli War: As the Israel Defense Forces captured the
Palestinian Arab village of Safsaf, they massacred at least 52
villagers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safsaf_massacre>
1960:
A C-46 airliner carrying the Cal Poly Mustangs football team
crashed during takeoff from Toledo Express Airport in Ohio, U.S.,
resulting in 22 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Polytechnic_State_University_footb…>
2013:
The first phase of the Marmaray project (train pictured) opened
with an undersea rail tunnel across the Bosphorus strait.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmaray>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
signage:
1. (uncountable) Signs, particularly those imparting commercial,
directional, or road traffic information, taken collectively.
2. (countable, chiefly India, elsewhere regarded as nonstandard) A
sign, a signboard.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/signage>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A wise man ought not to desire to inhabit that country where men
have more authority than laws.
--Walter Raleigh
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Raleigh>
Cetiosauriscus was a sauropod dinosaur that lived between 166 and
164 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic. It was a herbivore
with a moderately long tail and long forelimbs, compared to other
sauropods. It has been estimated at about 15 metres (49 ft) long and
between 4 and 10 tonnes (3.9 and 9.8 long tons; 4.4 and 11.0 short tons)
in weight. Its only known fossil includes a hindlimb and most of the
rear half of a skeleton. Found in Cambridgeshire, England, in the 1890s,
it was described by Arthur Smith Woodward in 1905 as a new specimen of
the species Cetiosaurus leedsi, which was moved to the new genus
Cetiosauriscus in 1927 by Friedrich von Huene. In 1980, Alan Charig
proposed the current name Cetiosauriscus stewarti. The fossil was found
in the marine deposits of the Oxford Clay Formation alongside many
invertebrate groups, marine ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and crocodylians,
a single pterosaur, and various dinosaurs, including an ankylosaur,
stegosaurs, and an ornithopod.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetiosauriscus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1707:
The Hōei earthquake ruptured all segments of the Nankai
megathrust simultaneously – the only earthquake known to have done
this.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1707_H%C5%8Dei_earthquake>
1918:
The Czechoslovak provisional government declared the country's
independence from Austria-Hungary, forming the First Czechoslovak
Republic in Prague.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_declaration_of_independence>
1940:
World War II: Italy invaded Greece after Greek prime minister
Ioannis Metaxas rejected Benito Mussolini's ultimatum demanding the
cession of Greek territory.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Italian_War>
1995:
A fire broke out on a Baku Metro train in Azerbaijan's capital,
killing 289 people and injuring 270 others in the world's deadliest
subway disaster.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Baku_Metro_fire>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
townland:
(Ireland) A geographical unit of land smaller than a parish.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/townland>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When I was a kid, the disaster we worried about most was a
nuclear war. That’s why we had a barrel … down in our basement,
filled with cans of food and water. When the nuclear attack came, we
were supposed to go downstairs, hunker down, and eat out of that barrel.
Today, the greatest risk of global catastrophe doesn’t look like this.
… If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades,
it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war.
Not missiles, but microbes.
--Bill Gates
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates>
The first game in the history of the Wales national football team was in
1876, making Wales the third-oldest side in international association
football, after Scotland and England. Wales played annual games against
Scotland, England, and later Ireland, which became the British Home
Championship. Wales won their first championship in the 1906–07
tournament, three more titles during the 1920s, and four in the six
years prior to World War II. After the war, Wales played teams from
other European nations and began competing in the FIFA World Cup, but
failed to qualify in 1950 and 1954. Wales qualified in 1958, being
defeated by Brazil in the quarter-final. The side declined in the 1960s,
failing to qualify for a World Cup or the European Nations' Cup. Wales
won their last British Championship during the 1969–70 season, before
the competition was discontinued. Manager Mike Smith led the side to the
quarter-finals of the 1976 European Championships in their centenary
year, when they were defeated by Yugoslavia.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Wales_national_football_team_%…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1942:
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy achieved a Pyrrhic
victory against the United States at the Battle of the Santa Cruz
Islands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Santa_Cruz_Islands>
1967:
American Catholic priest Philip Berrigan led a protest against
the Vietnam War by pouring blood over Selective Service records in
Baltimore, Maryland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Berrigan>
1999:
Armed men led by Nairi Hunanyan attacked the National Assembly
of Armenia, killing prime minister Vazgen Sargsyan, president of the
National Assembly Karen Demirchyan, and six others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vazgen_Sargsyan>
2011:
Michael D. Higgins was elected president of Ireland with far
more votes than any politician in the country's history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Irish_presidential_election>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
get a word in edgewise:
(US, usually in the negative) To break into or participate in a
conversation.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get_a_word_in_edgewise>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Men with the muckrake are often indispensable to the well-being
of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck, and to
look upward to the celestial crown above them. … If they gradually
grow to feel that the whole world is nothing but muck their power of
usefulness is gone.
--Theodore Roosevelt
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt>
William Anderson (1840 – October 26, 1864), known as "Bloody Bill"
Anderson, was one of the deadliest pro-Confederate guerrilla leaders of
the American Civil War, leading a band of volunteer partisans who
targeted Union loyalists and federal soldiers in Missouri and Kansas.
After his father was killed by a Union loyalist judge during the war,
Anderson killed the judge and fled to Missouri where he robbed travelers
and killed several Union soldiers. In 1863 he took a leading role in the
Lawrence massacre and later participated in the Battle of Baxter
Springs. By 1864 Anderson was the leader of a group of raiders in
Missouri. In September 1864, he led a raid on the town of Centralia,
where his men captured a passenger train; they executed 24 unarmed Union
soldiers in the Centralia Massacre. Later that day they killed more than
a hundred Union militiamen in an ambush. Anderson died in battle a month
later.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Anderson>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1892:
Ida B. Wells began to publish her research on lynching in the
United States, for which she was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize
in 2020.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_B._Wells>
1955:
Ngô Đình Diệm proclaimed himself president of the newly
created Republic of Vietnam after defeating former emperor Bảo Đại
in a fraudulent referendum supervised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_State_of_Vietnam_referendum>
1994:
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty, settling relations
between the two countries and pledging that neither would allow its
territory to become a staging ground for military strikes by a third
country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Jordan_peace_treaty>
2000:
Following protests against military leader Robert Guéï,
Laurent Gbagbo became the first elected president of Ivory Coast.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Gbagbo>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sheepshank:
(nautical) A type of knot which is useful for shortening a rope or
taking up slack without cutting it.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sheepshank>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Simply caring is not enough. To drive real progress, you have to
change both hearts and laws. You need both understanding and action.
--Hillary Clinton
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton>
Soultaker is an American fantasy horror film written by Vivian Schilling
and directed by Michael Rissi, released on October 26, 1990. It stars
Joe Estevez in the title role, alongside Schilling, Gregg Thomsen, Chuck
Williams, Robert Z'Dar, and David "Shark" Fralick. The film follows a
group of young adults who try to flee from the Soultaker when their
souls are ejected from their bodies after a car accident. Inspired by
discussions with Action International Pictures producer Eric Parkinson,
the script was based on a real-life car accident Schilling was involved
in. The film was shot in five weeks on a $250,000 budget. Originally
planned for a direct-to-video release, it saw limited theatrical
screenings, with eight prints distributed in United States. Since its
release, the film has received negative reviews, but won the Saturn
Award for "Best Genre Video Release" in 1992. A sequel was planned but
never made, and Schilling turned its premise into a novel titled
Quietus, published in 2002. Soultaker was featured in the tenth-season
premiere episode of the comedy television series Mystery Science
Theater 3000 in 1999.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soultaker_%28film%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1920:
Irish playwright and politician Terence MacSwiney died after a
hunger strike in Brixton Prison, bringing the Irish struggle for
independence to international attention.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_MacSwiney>
1950:
Korean War: The People's Volunteer Army ambushed the South
Korean II Corps and elsewhere engaged the 1st Infantry Division, marking
China's entry into the war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Unsan>
1980:
Proceedings on the Hague Abduction Convention, a multilateral
treaty providing an expeditious method to return a child taken from one
member nation to another, concluded at The Hague.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hague_Convention_on_the_Civil_Aspects_of_Inte…>
2010:
Mount Merapi in Central Java, Indonesia, began an increasingly
violent series of eruptions that lasted over a month.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_eruptions_of_Mount_Merapi>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
croft:
An enclosed piece of land, usually small and arable and used for small-
scale food production, and often with a dwelling next to it; in
particular, such a piece of land rented to a farmer (a crofter),
especially in Scotland, together with a right to use separate
pastureland shared by other crofters.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/croft>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Who are those who are really disloyal? Those who inflame racial
hatreds, who sow religious and class dissensions. Those who subvert the
Constitution by violating the freedom of the ballot box. Those who make
a mockery of majority rule by the use of the filibuster. Those who
impair democracy by denying equal educational facilities. Those who
frustrate justice by lynch law or by making a farce of jury trials.
Those who deny freedom of speech and of the press and of assembly. Those
who press for special favors against the interest of the commonwealth.
Those who regard public office as a source of private gain. Those who
would exalt the military over the civil. Those who for selfish and
private purposes stir up national antagonisms and expose the world to
the ruin of war.
--Henry Steele Commager
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Steele_Commager>
Super-Science Fiction was an American digest science fiction magazine
published from 1956 to 1959, edited by W. W. Scott and published by
Feature Publications. Robert Silverberg and Harlan Ellison were already
selling crime stories to Scott for his other magazines, Trapped and
Guilty, and started bringing him scores of science fiction stories as
well. Many of the magazine's stories were sent in by literary agents,
and generally comprised material rejected by other magazines first,
though Scott did obtain two stories from Isaac Asimov. After a couple of
years Feature switched the focus to monster stories, hoping to cash in
on the trend that was making Famous Monsters of Filmland a success at
that time, and four more issues appeared before Super-Science Fiction
was discontinued in 1959. The magazine is not highly regarded by
critics, though Silverberg considers the material he wrote for Scott to
have helped him learn his trade as a writer.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Science_Fiction>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1851:
William Lassell discovered the Uranian moons Umbriel and Ariel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_%28moon%29>
1918:
The Battle of Vittorio Veneto, the last major engagement on the
Italian front of World War I, began.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vittorio_Veneto>
1945:
The UN Charter, the constitution of the United Nations, entered
into force after being ratified by the five permanent members of the
Security Council and a majority of the other signatories.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_United_Nations>
1960:
A prototype of the Soviet R-16 intercontinental ballistic
missile exploded on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the
Kazakh SSR.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedelin_catastrophe>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
coin of the realm:
1. (law, dated) The legal money of a country.
2. (figurative) Something that is valued like money within a particular
context.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coin_of_the_realm>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success;
leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right
wall.
--Stephen Covey
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Covey>
William Cragh (born c. 1262, died after 1307) was a medieval Welsh
warrior and supporter of Rhys ap Maredudd in his rebellion against King
Edward I of England. Captured in 1290, Cragh was tried and found guilty
of having killed thirteen men. He was hanged just outside Swansea twice,
as the gallows collapsed during his first hanging. Signs of life were
noticed the next day, and in a few weeks he had made a full recovery; he
lived for at least another eighteen years. The main primary source for
Cragh's story is the record of the investigation into the canonisation
of Thomas de Cantilupe, which is held in the Vatican Library. Cragh's
resurrection was one of thirty-eight miracles presented to the papal
commissioners who in 1307 were charged with examining the evidence for
Cantilupe's saintliness. The hanged man himself gave evidence to the
commission, after which nothing more is known of him.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cragh>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1850:
The first National Women's Rights Convention, presided over by
Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis, began in Worcester, Massachusetts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Women%27s_Rights_Convention>
1942:
World War II: Japanese troops began an unsuccessful attempt to
recapture Henderson Field on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands from
American forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_Henderson_Field>
1956:
The Hungarian Revolution began as a peaceful student
demonstration that attracted thousands while marching through central
Budapest to the parliament building.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
manageable:
1. Capable of being managed or controlled.
2. Capable of being done or fulfilled; achievable.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/manageable>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The conjuror or con man is a very good provider of information.
He supplies lots of data, by inference or direct statement, but it's
false data. Scientists aren't used to that scenario. An electron or a
galaxy is not capricious, nor deceptive; but a human can be either or
both.
--James Randi
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Randi>
The Battle of Goodenough Island was a battle of the Pacific campaign of
World War II fought between 22 and 27 October 1942. Japanese forces had
been stranded on Goodenough Island, Papua, during the Battle of Milne
Bay. Aircraft and ships headed from Milne Bay to Buna and vice versa had
to pass close to Goodenough Island, and a presence on the island could
provide warning of enemy operations. The island also had flat areas
suitable for the construction of emergency airstrips. The Allies
attacked the island prior to the Buna campaign. A force consisting of
the Australian 2/12th Battalion and attached units landed on the
southern tip at Mud Bay and Taleba Bay on 22 October and, following a
short but heavy fight, during which the Australians found it difficult
to advance, the Japanese forces withdrew to Fergusson Island on 27
October. The island was developed by the Allies after the battle and
became a major base for operations later in the war.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Goodenough_Island>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1895:
At Gare Montparnasse in Paris, an express train derailed after
overrunning the buffer stop and crashed through the station wall, with
the locomotive landing on the street below (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montparnasse_derailment>
1940:
After evading French and Spanish authorities, Belgian prime
minister Hubert Pierlot arrived in London, marking the beginning of the
Belgian government in exile.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_government_in_exile>
1966:
With their album The Supremes A' Go-Go, the Supremes became the
first all-female group to reach number one on the Billboard 200 chart.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Supremes>
2015:
A sword-wielding man attacked students and teachers in a high
school in Trollhättan, killing three people in Sweden's deadliest
school attack.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trollh%C3%A4ttan_school_attack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
lady-in-waiting:
1. A lady, often a noblewoman, in the household of a queen, princess, or
other woman of higher rank who attends her as a personal assistant,
generally a role considered an honour.
2. A woman who is a maid or servant to a lady, similar to a valet for a
gentleman.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lady-in-waiting>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more
stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always
known. They have known for thousands of years that to lock a sick person
into solitary confinement makes him worse. They have known for thousands
of years that a poor man who is frightened of his landlord and of the
police is a slave. They have known it. We know it. … You and I are the
boulder-pushers. All our lives, you and I, we’ll put all our energies,
all our talents into pushing a great boulder up a mountain. The boulder
is the truth that the great men know by instinct, and the mountain is
the stupidity of mankind.
--Doris Lessing
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Doris_Lessing>