State Route 76 (SR 76) is a state highway 52.63 miles (84.70 km) long
in the U.S. state of California. It is a much-used east–west route in
the North County region of San Diego County that begins in Oceanside
near Interstate 5 (I-5) and continues east. It passes through the
community of Bonsall and provides access to Fallbrook. East of the
junction with I-15, SR 76 goes through Pala and Pauma Valley before
terminating at SR 79. A route along the corridor has existed since the
early 20th century, as has the bridge over the San Luis Rey River near
Bonsall. The route was added to the state highway system in 1933, and
was officially designated by the California State Legislature as SR 76
in the 1964 state highway renumbering. Originally, the entire highway
was two lanes wide. Conversion of the highway to an expressway west of
I-15 was completed in May 2017. East of I-15, SR 76 is mostly a two-
lane highway.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_76>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1900:
Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army began a 55-day siege
of the Legation Quarter in Beijing.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_the_International_Legations>
1960:
The Mali Federation gained independence from France, but
dissolved into Mali and Senegal two months later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_Federation>
2009:
Iranian student Neda Agha-Soltan was shot dead in Tehran during
the presidential election protests; footage of her death was widely
distributed over the Internet, making it "probably the most widely
witnessed death in human history".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Neda_Agha-Soltan>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
steatopygous:
(physiology) Pertaining to steatopygia; having fat or prominent
buttocks.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/steatopygous>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The colours of the pales are those used in the flag of the United
States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness
& valor, and Blue, the colour of the Chief signifies vigilance,
perseverance & justice. The Olive branch and arrows denote the power of
peace & war which is exclusively vested in Congress. The Constellation
denotes a new State taking its place and rank among other sovereign
powers. The Escutcheon is born on the breast of an American Eagle
without any other supporters to denote that the United States of America
ought to rely on their own Virtue.
--Charles Thomson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Thomson>
George Washington was a slaveowner and Founding Father who became uneasy
with the institution of slavery but provided for the emancipation of his
slaves only after his death. Most of his slaves worked on his Mount
Vernon estate. They built their own community around marriage and
family, and resisted the system by various means, from feigning illness
to absconding. As a young planter, Washington demonstrated no qualms
about slavery. His first doubts about the institution were economic,
prompted when the transition from tobacco to grain crops in the 1760s
left him with a costly surplus of slaves. After the American Revolution,
he privately expressed support for the abolition of slavery by a gradual
legislative process but never spoke publicly on the issue. In the mid-
1790s, he considered plans to free his slaves, but his business remained
dependent on slave labor. He stipulated in his will that his slaves were
to be freed on the death of his wife.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_and_slavery>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1867:
Second French intervention in Mexico: Emperor Maximilian I of
Mexico was executed by firing squad in Querétaro City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_I_of_Mexico>
1970:
The international Patent Cooperation Treaty was signed,
providing a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect
inventions in each of its contracting states.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_Cooperation_Treaty>
1978:
Garfield, created by Jim Davis, debuted in American newspapers
nationwide, eventually becoming one of the world's most widely
syndicated comic strips.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield>
2010:
The royal wedding of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and
Daniel Westling took place in Stockholm Cathedral.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_of_Victoria,_Crown_Princess_of_Sweden…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Juneteenth:
(US) Also more fully as Juneteenth Day: a holiday celebrated in many
states of the United States of America on June 19, commemorating the end
of slavery.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Juneteenth>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hope remains even in the most difficult of times … I hope today
serves as a reminder that however hard things get, we will meet again.
--Vera Lynn
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vera_Lynn>
Meinhard Moser (1924–2002) was an Austrian mycologist. His work
principally concerned the taxonomy, chemistry, and toxicity of gilled
mushrooms (Agaricales), especially the genus Cortinarius. Moser
completed his doctorate at the University of Innsbruck in 1950, then
briefly worked in England. He joined Austria's Federal Forestry Research
Institute in 1952, conducting research on the use of mycorrhizal fungi
in reforestation. He began lecturing at Innsbruck in 1956, becoming a
professor in 1964. He became the inaugural head of Austria's first
Institute of Microbiology in 1972. He remained with the Institute until
his retirement in 1991, and his scientific studies continued until his
death in 2002. He was an influential mycologist, describing around
500 new fungal taxa and publishing several important books. In
particular, his 1953 book on European mushrooms, published in English as
Keys to Agarics and Boleti, saw several editions both in German and in
translation.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meinhard_Michael_Moser>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1858:
Charles Darwin received a manuscript by fellow naturalist
Alfred Russel Wallace on natural selection, which encouraged Darwin to
publish his theory of evolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace>
1940:
World War II: Charles de Gaulle gave his Appeal of 18 June
speech, often considered to be the origin of the French Resistance.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_of_18_June>
1983:
Iranian teenager Mona Mahmudnizhad and nine other women were
hanged in Shiraz because of their membership in the Baháʼí Faith.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Mahmudnizhad>
2012:
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was appointed crown prince of
Saudi Arabia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_of_Saudi_Arabia>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
meet one's Waterloo:
To be decisively defeated by an encounter with a powerful opponent or a
problem that is too difficult.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/meet_one%27s_Waterloo>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hey Jude, don't make it bad Take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her into your heart Then you can start to make it
better.
--Paul McCartney
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney>
Nestor Lakoba (1893–1936) was an Abkhaz Communist leader. In the
aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Lakoba helped establish Bolshevik
power in Abkhazia in the Caucasus region of the Soviet Union. As the
head of Abkhazia after its conquest by the Bolshevik Red Army in 1921,
Lakoba saw that Abkhazia was initially given autonomy as the Socialist
Soviet Republic of Abkhazia. Though nominally a part of the Georgian
Soviet Socialist Republic with a special status of "union republic",
Abkhazia was effectively a separate republic, made possible by Lakoba's
close relationship with Joseph Stalin. In 1931 Lakoba was forced to
accept a downgrade of Abkhazia's status to that of an autonomous
republic within Georgia. Another confidant of Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria,
summoned Lakoba to visit him in Tbilisi in December 1936. Lakoba was
poisoned, allowing Beria to consolidate his control over Abkhazia and
all of Georgia.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestor_Lakoba>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1795:
French Revolutionary Wars: Off the coast of Brittany, a Royal
Navy squadron commanded by William Cornwallis fended off a numerically
superior French Navy fleet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwallis%27s_Retreat>
1940:
Second World War: RMS Lancastria was sunk by German aircraft
near Saint-Nazaire, France, causing thousands of fatalities in Britain's
worst maritime disaster.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lancastria>
1952:
Guatemalan Revolution: The Guatemalan Congress passed
Decree 900, redistributing unused land greater than 224 acres
(0.91 km2) in area to local peasants.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decree_900>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gastrodiplomacy:
A type of cultural diplomacy where relations between representatives of
different cultures are improved by the means of gastronomy and the
promotion of national cuisines.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gastrodiplomacy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The politicians' stirring phrases are meant to keep our eyes
averted from the reality of war — to make us imagine heroic young men
marching in parades, winning glorious battles, and bringing peace and
democracy to the world. But war is something quite different from that.
It is your children or your grandchildren dying before they're even
fully adults, or being maimed or mentally scarred for life. It is your
brothers and sisters being taught to kill other people — and to hate
people who are just like themselves and who don't want to kill anyone
either. It is your children seeing their buddies' limbs blown off their
bodies. It is hundreds of thousands of human beings dying years before
their time. It is millions of people separated forever from the ones
they love. It is the destruction of homes for which people worked for
decades. It is the end of careers that meant as much to others as your
career means to you. It is the imposition of heavy taxes on you and on
other Americans and on people in other countries — taxes that remain
long after the war is over. It is the suppression of free speech and the
jailing of people who criticize the government. It is the imposition of
slavery by forcing young men to serve in the military. It is goading
the public to hate foreign people and races — whether Arabs or
Japanese or Cubans or Serbs. It is numbing our sensibilities to
cruelties inflicted on foreigners. It is cheering at the news of enemy
pilots killed in their planes, of young men blown to bits while trapped
inside tanks, of sailors drowned at sea. Other tragedies inevitably
trail in the wake of war. Politicians lie even more than usual.
Secrecy and cover-ups become the rule rather than the exception. The
press becomes even less reliable. War is genocide, torture, cruelty,
propaganda, and slavery. War is the worst cruelty government can
inflict upon its subjects. It makes every other political crime —
corruption, bribery, favoritism, vote-buying, graft, dishonesty — seem
petty.
--Harry Browne
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Browne>
The 1944 Cuba–Florida hurricane was a large Category 4 tropical
cyclone that caused widespread damage across the western Caribbean Sea
and the Southeastern United States. It inflicted over US$100 million in
damage and was responsible for at least 318 deaths. The unprecedented
availability of meteorological data during the hurricane marked a
turning point in the United States Weather Bureau's ability to forecast
tropical cyclones. The system became a tropical storm on October 12 and
intensified into a hurricane the next day. On October 18, it made
landfall on western Cuba at peak strength with reported winds of
145 mph (230 km/h). At least 300 people were killed in Cuba, which
suffered extensive damage from winds and storm surge, especially in the
Havana area. Numerous ships sank in Havana Harbor. On October 19 the
storm made a final landfall near Sarasota, Florida, as a Category 2
hurricane. Eighteen people were killed in Florida, half of those from
the loss of a ship in Tampa Bay.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1944_Cuba%E2%80%93Florida_hurricane>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1755:
After a two-week siege, the French commander of Fort
Beauséjour in present-day New Brunswick, Canada, surrendered to British
forces, marking the end of Father Le Loutre's War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Beaus%C3%A9jour>
1904:
Irish author James Joyce began his relationship with Nora
Barnacle, and subsequently used the date to set the actions for his 1922
novel Ulysses.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joyce>
1911:
The technology company IBM was founded as the Computing-
Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing-Tabulating-Recording_Company>
2010:
The Tobacco Control Act of Bhutan came into force, banning the
sale and production of tobacco in the country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_Control_Act_of_Bhutan_2010>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nuke:
1. (transitive, chiefly US, colloquial) To use a nuclear weapon on a
target.
2. (transitive, chiefly US, colloquial, figuratively) To destroy or
erase completely.
3. (transitive, Internet slang, by extension) To carry out a denial-of-
service attack against (an IRC user).
4. (transitive, chiefly US, colloquial) To expose to some form of
radiation.
5. (transitive, chiefly US, colloquial) To cook in a microwave oven.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nuke>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this
government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do
not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to
fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become
all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will
arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind
shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate
extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become
lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.
--Abraham Lincoln
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln>
A Song Flung Up to Heaven is the sixth book in a series of
autobiographies by author Maya Angelou (pictured). Set between 1965 and
1968, it begins where her previous book All God's Children Need
Traveling Shoes ends, with her return to the United States from Accra,
Ghana, where she had lived for four years. The assassinations of
Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. frame the beginning and end of
the book. Angelou describes how she dealt with these events and the
sweeping changes both in the country and in her personal life, and how
she coped with her return home. The book ends with Angelou writing the
opening lines to her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings. Angelou wrote Song in 2002, sixteen years after All God's
Children. By that time she had received recognition as an author, poet
and spokesperson. A recorded version of the book received the Grammy
Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2003. (This article is part of a
featured topic: Maya Angelou autobiographies.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Maya_Angelou_autobi…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1520:
Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Exsurge Domine, censuring 41
propositions from Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses and subsequent
writings, and threatening him with excommunication unless he recanted.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exsurge_Domine>
1920:
Three African-American circus workers were lynched by a mob in
Duluth, Minnesota (memorial pictured), a crime that shocked the country
for having taken place in the Northern United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duluth_lynchings>
1996:
The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a
truck bomb in the commercial centre of Manchester, England, injuring
more than 200 people and causing widespread damage to buildings.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Manchester_bombing>
2012:
American acrobat Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk a
tightrope stretched directly over Niagara Falls.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nik_Wallenda>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Magna Carta:
1. (law, historical) A charter granted by King John to the barons at
Runnymede in 1215, which is one of the bases of English constitutional
tradition; a physical copy of this charter, or a later version.
2. (figuratively) A landmark document that sets out rights or important
principles.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Magna_Carta>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We believe in only the government we need, but we insist on all
the government we need. We believe in a government that is
characterized by fairness and reasonableness, a reasonableness that goes
beyond labels, that doesn't distort or promise to do things that we know
we can't do. We believe in a government strong enough to use words like
"love" and "compassion" and smart enough to convert our noblest
aspirations into practical realities. We believe in encouraging the
talented, but we believe that while survival of the fittest may be a
good working description of the process of evolution, a government of
humans should elevate itself to a higher order.
--Mario Cuomo
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mario_Cuomo>
Operation Inmate was an attack by the British Pacific Fleet against
Japanese positions on the isolated islands of Truk Atoll in the central
Pacific Ocean during the Second World War. On 14 June 1945, British
aircraft from the aircraft carrier HMS Implacable conducted a series of
raids against Japanese positions. The next morning, several islands were
bombarded by British and Canadian cruisers, though with little success.
Further air strikes took place in the afternoon and night of 15 June
before the Allied force returned to its base. The attacks were conducted
to provide combat experience ahead of the fleet's involvement in more
demanding operations off the Japanese home islands. The attack was
considered successful by the Allies, with ships and air units gaining
useful experience while suffering two fatalities and the loss of seven
aircraft to combat and accidents. The damage to the Japanese facilities
in the atoll was modest.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Inmate>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1821:
The Funj Sultanate, in present-day Sudan, was conquered by
Egypt without a fight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funj_Sultanate>
1900:
The second of the German Naval Laws was passed, doubling the
size of the Imperial German Navy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Naval_Laws>
1940:
The Soviet Union issued an ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding
that the Red Army be allowed to enter the country and form a pro-Soviet
government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_ultimatum_to_Lithuania>
2017:
A fire severely damaged Grenfell Tower in North Kensington,
London, killing 72 people and destroying 151 homes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bloviation:
(US, possibly originally Ohio, informal) A boastful or pompous manner of
speaking or writing; a lengthy discourse delivered in that manner.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bloviation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I think I’ve done more for the black community than any other
President — and let’s take a pass on Abraham Lincoln, because he did
good — but although it’s always questionable — you know, in other
words, the end result.
--Donald Trump
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Trump>
Omphalotus nidiformis, or ghost fungus, is a bioluminescent gilled
mushroom that occurs primarily in southern Australia and Tasmania, and
has been reported from India. The cream-coloured fan- or funnel-shaped
caps, up to 30 cm (12 in) across, have shades of orange, brown,
purple, or bluish-black. The white or cream gills run down the length of
the stalk, which is up to 8 cm (3 in) long and tapers in thickness to
the base. The fungus is both saprotrophic and parasitic, and its fruit
bodies are generally found growing in overlapping clusters on a wide
variety of dead or dying trees. First described scientifically in 1844,
O. nidiformis (from Latin for 'nest-shaped') was known by several names
before Orson K. Miller Jr. assigned its current name in 1994. Similar in
appearance to the common edible oyster mushrooms, O. nidiformis is
poisonous, with compounds called illudins that can produce severe cramps
and vomiting.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalotus_nidiformis>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1805:
Lewis and Clark Expedition: Meriwether Lewis became the first
white American to sight the Great Falls (Black Eagle Falls pictured) of
the Missouri River.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Falls_%28Missouri_River%29>
1944:
Second World War: At the Battle of Villers-Bocage, German tank
commander Michael Wittmann destroyed around 30 Allied vehicles in less
than 15 minutes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wittmann>
1970:
"The Long and Winding Road" became the Beatles' twentieth and
final number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_and_Winding_Road>
2019:
Two oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman amidst
heightened tensions between Iran and the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2019_Gulf_of_Oman_incident>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nitrox:
1. (metallurgy) An industrial process for case hardening (imparting
greater surface hardness to) metal objects, involving nitrocarburizing
(the diffusion of carbon and nitrogen into the metal) followed by
oxidation.
2. (underwater diving) A mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, the nitrogen
content being lower than what is normally present in air, which is used
in place of air as a breathing gas.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nitrox>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A powerful class by terror, rhetoric, and organised
sentimentality, may drive their people to war but the day draws near
when they cannot keep them there.
--The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Autobiography_of_William_Butler_Yeats>
Milorad Petrović (18 April 1882 – 12 June 1981) was a lieutenant
general in the Royal Yugoslav Army who commanded the 1st Army Group
during World War II. He was commissioned into the Royal Serbian Army in
1901 and served in staff positions during the Balkan Wars and the
Serbian campaign of World War I. After the 27 March 1941 Yugoslav
coup d'état, he was appointed to command the 1st Army Group,
responsible for the northern borders of Yugoslavia with Italy, Germany
and Hungary. His formations were only partially mobilised when the
German-led invasion of Yugoslavia began on 6 April. Significant fifth
column activities affected the Yugoslav units from the outset. On
10 April, two determined armoured thrusts by the Germans caused the 1st
Army Group to disintegrate, and the following day Petrović was captured
by fifth columnists. He was soon handed over to the Germans and spent
the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp in Germany. After the war,
he chose to return to communist-led Yugoslavia, living in Belgrade, and
remaining active, swimming daily in the Sava well into his nineties.
(This article is part of a featured topic: 1st Army Group (Kingdom of
Yugoslavia).).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/1st_Army_Group_%28K…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1954:
Dominic Savio (portrait shown), who was 14 years old when he
died, was canonised by Pope Pius XII, making him one of the youngest
non-martyred saints in the Catholic Church.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Savio>
1967:
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws restricting interracial
marriage in the landmark civil rights case Loving v. Virginia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia>
1994:
The Boeing 777, the world's largest twinjet, made its maiden
flight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_777>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tokamak:
(nuclear physics) A torus-shaped chamber used in nuclear fusion research
in which a plasma is magnetically confined.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tokamak>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Now, those who were killed and injured here were gunned down by
a single killer with a powerful assault weapon. The motives of this
killer may have been different than the mass shooters in Aurora or
Newtown. But the instruments of death were so similar. And now another
49 innocent people are dead; another 53 are injured; some are still
fighting for their lives; some will have wounds that will last a
lifetime. We can’t anticipate or catch every single deranged person
that may wish to do harm to his neighbors or his friends or his
coworkers or strangers. But we can do something about the amount of
damage that they do. Unfortunately, our politics have conspired to make
it as easy as possible for a terrorist or just a disturbed individual
like those in Aurora and Newtown to buy extraordinarily powerful
weapons, and they can do so legally.
--Barack Obama
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barack_Obama>
The First Silesian War was a conflict between Prussia and Austria
lasting from 1740 to 1742, which resulted in Prussia's seizure of most
of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland). The war was
fought mainly in Silesia, Moravia and Bohemia and was part of the wider
War of the Austrian Succession. The war commenced in late 1740 with an
invasion of Habsburg Silesia when Maria Theresa's contested succession
to the Habsburg Monarchy provided an opportunity for Prussia to expand.
It ended in a Prussian victory with the 1742 Treaty of Berlin. The War
of the Austrian Succession continued, and would draw Austria and Prussia
into the Second Silesian War only two years later, which also ended in
Prussian control of Silesia. The First Silesian War marked the
unexpected defeat of the Habsburg Monarchy by a lesser German power and
initiated the Austria–Prussia rivalry that would shape German politics
for more than a century. (This article is part of a featured topic:
Silesian Wars.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Silesian_Wars>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1847:
Prince Afonso died at the age of two, leaving his father
Pedro II, the last emperor of Brazil, without a male heir.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso,_Prince_Imperial_of_Brazil>
1920:
During their national convention in Chicago, Republican Party
leaders gathered in negotiations at The Blackstone Hotel to select their
presidential candidate, leading to the phrase "smoke-filled room".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blackstone_Hotel>
1955:
Two cars collided during a running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans,
resulting in 84 deaths making it the deadliest accident in motorsport
history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Le_Mans_disaster>
2007:
Mudslides caused by heavy monsoon rainfall and exacerbated by
hill cutting killed at least 128 people in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Chittagong_mudslides>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
esquamulose:
(botany, mycology) Not covered in scales or scale-like objects; having a
smooth skin or outer covering.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/esquamulose>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike; One doth not stroke me,
nor the other strike.
--Ben Jonson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ben_Jonson>