New York State Route 175 is a west–east state highway located in
Onondaga County, New York, in the United States. The 15.46-mile
(24.88 km) route begins at an intersection with U.S. Route 20 east of
the village of Skaneateles. It heads towards the northeast as Lee Mulroy
Road, traversing farmland. It then passes through the village of
Marcellus before ending at a junction with U.S. Route 11 in Syracuse.
Designated in the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the
highway brought about an increase in population and development along
its route. The section of Route 175 from downtown Marcellus to New York
State Route 173 in Onondaga was built along the historical Seneca
Turnpike, which was established in 1800 and dissolved in 1852. At 157
miles (253 km), the turnpike was the longest in the state at the time
and was instrumental in the development of the villages of Skaneateles
and Marcellus.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Route_175>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1935:
In an effort to stay out of the growing European conflict, the
U.S. Congress passed the first of the Neutrality Acts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrality_Acts_of_the_1930s>
1997:
Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their
driver Henri Paul were killed in a car accident in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Diana,_Princess_of_Wales>
2016:
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was removed from office
following her impeachment on charges of criminal administrative
misconduct.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilma_Rousseff>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
chantwell:
(chiefly Trinidad and Tobago, music) A (generally female) lead singer of
traditional cariso music, or of a calypso band.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chantwell>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The role of art is to make a world which can be inhabited.
--William Saroyan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Saroyan>
House of Music is the fourth and final album by American R&B; band Tony!
Toni! Toné!, released in 1996 by Mercury Records. Bassist-vocalist
Raphael Saadiq (pictured), guitarist-vocalist D'wayne Wiggins, and
percussionist-keyboardist Timothy Christian Riley worked on its songs
independently before recording them together as a group. While doing
most of the production, Tony! Toni! Toné! emphasized musicianship and
expanded on their previous work's traditional soul influences with live
instrumentation and balladry. Music journalists have noted the album's
incorporation of old-fashioned and modern sensibilities, themes of love
and romance, and witty, sensitive lyrics. The album charted for
31 weeks on the Billboard 200 and sold over a million units in the
United States. Critics praised the musicianship and songwriting, later
deeming it a masterpiece of 1990s R&B.; Despite its success, the group
disbanded shortly after due to creative differences and Mercury's
management of the album's short-lived marketing campaign.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Music>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
American Civil War: Confederate forces won the Second Battle
of Bull Run in Prince William County, Virginia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Bull_Run>
1918:
Fanny Kaplan fired three shots with a pistol at Vladimir Lenin
in a failed assassination shortly before the beginning of the Red
Terror.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Kaplan>
1974:
An express train carrying foreign workers from Yugoslavia to
West Germany derailed in Zagreb, killing 153 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagreb_train_disaster>
1995:
Bosnian War: NATO forces began a bombing campaign against the
Army of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deliberate_Force>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
xerocracy:
(informal) Political influence achieved by copying and distributing
leaflets and similar material.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/xerocracy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Purpose crosses disciplines. Purpose is an essential element of
you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in
history. Your very existence is wrapped up in the things you are here to
fulfill. Whatever you choose for a career path, remember, the struggles
along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose.
--Chadwick Boseman
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chadwick_Boseman>
The Commissioner Government was a short-lived Serbian collaborationist
puppet government established in the German-occupied territory of Serbia
during World War II from 30 April to 29 August 1941. It was headed by
Milan Aćimović (pictured) and was pro-German, anti-Semitic and anti-
communist. The Aćimović government was merely an instrument of the
German occupation regime, carrying out its orders within the occupied
territory without appearing to moderate its policies. The government
actively assisted the Germans in exploiting the population and the
economy, and its members regarded their own participation in the
Holocaust as "unpleasant but unavoidable". By mid-July, the Germans had
decided that the Aćimović regime was incompetent, and the Commissioner
Government resigned at the end of August. It was succeeded by the
Government of National Salvation, in which Aćimović initially retained
the interior portfolio.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commissioner_Government>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1831:
Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, leading
to the formulation of his law of induction.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday%27s_law_of_induction>
1903:
The Russian battleship Slava, the last of the five Borodino-
class battleships, was launched.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Slava>
1930:
The last 36 residents of St Kilda, Scotland, now a UNESCO World
Heritage Site for its natural and cultural qualities, voluntarily
evacuated to Morvern.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Kilda,_Scotland>
1959:
Mona Best opened the Casbah Coffee Club with a performance by
the Quarrymen, the precursor of the Beatles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casbah_Coffee_Club>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ex contractu:
(law, postpositive) Of a legal obligation: arising from a contractual
relationship.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ex_contractu>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism,
false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate.
… President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to
Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the
president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair
questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to
spew propaganda and lies to the world. … No prior president has ever
abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President
Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for
America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us
who we are — a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of
liberty at home and abroad. American presidents must be the champions of
that cause if it is to succeed. Americans are waiting and hoping for
President Trump to embrace that sacred responsibility. One can only hope
they are not waiting totally in vain.
--John McCain
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_McCain>
The Réunion ibis (Threskiornis solitarius) is an extinct bird formerly
endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Réunion. Subfossil remains were
found in 1974, and it was formally described in 1987. Early travellers
described a white bird on Réunion that flew with difficulty, later
assumed to refer to a white relative of the dodo. The ibis subfossil
suggested that the tales referred to this bird instead. The ibis was
mainly white, although its wing tips and plume feathers on its rear were
black. The neck and legs were long, and the beak was relatively straight
and short for an ibis. Similar to its extant relatives but more robust,
it was about 65 cm (25 in) long. Subfossil wing-bones indicate that it
had reduced flight capabilities. The diet of the ibis was invertebrates
foraged from the soil. In the 17th century it lived only in mountainous
areas, perhaps due to predation by introduced animals and hunting by
humans for its tasty meat. These factors had driven the ibis to
extinction by the early 18th century.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9union_ibis>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1859:
A powerful solar storm began, later causing a coronal mass
ejection to strike the Earth's magnetosphere that generated aurorae
visible in the middle latitudes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_1859_geomagnetic_storm>
1901:
Silliman University in Dumaguete, Philippines, was founded as
the first American educational institution in Asia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silliman_University>
1950:
In tennis, Althea Gibson became the first African-American
woman to compete at the U.S. National Championships.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althea_Gibson>
1993:
243 Ida became the first asteroid found to have a moon when it
was visited by NASA's Galileo probe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/243_Ida>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Faustian bargain:
1. (idiomatic) An agreement in which a person abandons his or her
spiritual values or moral principles in order to obtain knowledge,
wealth or other benefits.
2. (idiomatic) A deal in which one focuses on present gain without
considering the long-term consequences.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Faustian_bargain>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no
longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows
the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.
--Donald Trump
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Trump>
Operation PBFortune was a covert United States operation to overthrow
the democratically elected Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz
(pictured) in 1952. The operation was planned by the Central
Intelligence Agency and authorized by President Harry Truman. It was
motivated by US fears that Árbenz was being influenced by communists,
and lobbied for by the United Fruit Company. The operation was planned
with the support of Anastasio Somoza García, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo
and Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the dictators of Nicaragua, the Dominican
Republic and Venezuela, respectively. The plan involved providing
weapons to the exiled Guatemalan military officer Carlos Castillo Armas,
who was to lead an invasion from Nicaragua. US secretary of state Dean
Acheson became concerned that the coup attempt would damage the image of
the US and terminated the operation. Two years later, another covert CIA
action, Operation PBSuccess, toppled the Árbenz government and ended
the Guatemalan Revolution.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_PBFortune>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1928:
The first three of more than sixty nations signed the
Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of national
policy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellogg%E2%80%93Briand_Pact>
1964:
South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Khánh entered into a
triumvirate power-sharing arrangement with rival generals Trần Thiện
Khiêm and Dương Văn Minh, who had both been involved in plots to
unseat Khánh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C6%B0%C6%A1ng_V%C4%83n_Minh>
1990:
American musician Stevie Ray Vaughan, one of the most
influential guitarists in the revival of blues in the 1980s, was killed
in a helicopter crash.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Stevie_Ray_Vaughan>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
as ever trod shoe-leather:
(idiomatic, archaic) As ever existed or lived.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/as_ever_trod_shoe-leather>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying, "Now you
are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the
leaders you please." You do not take a person who, for years, has been
hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of
a race and then say, "You are free to compete with all the others," and
still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not
enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have
the ability to walk through those gates. And this is the next and the
more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just
freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human
ability, not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a
fact, and equality as a result.
--Lyndon B. Johnson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson>
The Battle of Crécy was fought on 26 August 1346 in north-east France
during the Hundred Years' War. It resulted in a victory for a greatly
outnumbered English army led by King Edward III over the French led by
King Philip VI and heavy loss of life among the French. The English
prepared a defensive position on a hillside near Crécy-en-Ponthieu.
After the French mercenary crossbowmen were routed by English
longbowmen, French cavalry made repeated charges. They had to force
their way uphill over muddy ground across pits dug by the English, while
taking heavy casualties from the longbowmen. The ensuing hand-to-hand
combat against the English men-at-arms was described as "murderous,
without pity, cruel, and very horrible". The French charges continued
late into the night, all with the same fierce fighting, until the French
were repulsed. The battle established the effectiveness of the longbow
as a dominant weapon on the Western European battlefield.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cr%C3%A9cy>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1071:
Byzantine–Seljuq wars: Seljuk Turks led by Alp Arslan
captured Byzantine emperor Romanos IV at the Battle of Manzikert.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manzikert>
1914:
First World War: The German colony of Togoland surrendered to
French and British forces after a 20-day campaign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togoland_Campaign>
1970:
Betty Friedan and the National Organization for Women organized
the Women's Strike for Equality in New York City, in which 50,000 women
protested the continuing lack of gender equality.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Strike_for_Equality>
1980:
A bomb was planted at Harvey's Resort Hotel (detonation
pictured) in Stateline, Nevada, which the FBI later described as the
most complex improvised explosive device ever created.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey%27s_Resort_Hotel_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
doldrums:
1. Usually preceded by the: a state of apathy or lack of interest; a
situation where one feels boredom, ennui, or tedium; a state of
listlessness or malaise.
2. (nautical) Usually preceded by the: the state of a sailing ship when
it is impeded by calms or light, baffling winds, and is unable to make
progress.
3. (nautical, oceanography, by extension) Usually preceded by the: a
part of the ocean near the equator where calms, squalls, and light,
baffling winds are common.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doldrums>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then
there is no hurt, but only more love.
--Mother Teresa
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa>
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is a 2005 action-adventure video game, the
first in the Castlevania series by Konami to be released on the Nintendo
DS. It was written and produced by Koji Igarashi (pictured) and directed
by Satoshi Kushibuchi. Incorporating many elements from its predecessor,
Aria of Sorrow, it was commercially successful, selling more than 15,000
units in its first week in Japan and 164,000 in the United States within
three months. The protagonist, Soma Cruz, manages to escape the fate of
becoming the new Dracula with the help of allies. The game has platform
and role-playing elements, with a dark, gothic atmosphere. It introduces
a multiplayer mode and a "Magic Seal" system that requires the use of
the DS stylus to draw a pattern to defeat enemies. The game received
high scores from many video game publications and was considered one of
the best games on the Nintendo DS for 2005. (This article is part of a
featured topic: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Castlevania:_Aria_o…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1609:
Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei demonstrated his first
telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei>
1875:
Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English
Channel, completing the journey in approximately 21 hours 40 minutes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Webb>
1975:
Bruce Springsteen released his commercial breakthrough album,
Born to Run.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Run>
2012:
NASA's robotic space probe Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause and
entered interstellar space, making it the first spacecraft to do so.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
or bust:
(chiefly US, informal) Used to indicate one's intention to do everything
possible to achieve a goal, with failure being the only alternative.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/or_bust>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Weapons are like money; no one knows the meaning of enough.
--Martin Amis
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Amis>
The California Pacific International Exposition half dollar is a fifty-
cent piece that was struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in
1935 and 1936 as a commemorative coin. Its obverse depicts Minerva and
other elements of the Seal of California; the reverse shows buildings
from the California Pacific International Exposition (held 1935–1936),
which the coin was issued to honor. Legislation for the half dollar
moved through Congress without opposition in early 1935, and Robert I.
Aitken was hired to design it. The San Francisco Mint produced 250,000
coins, but expected sales did not materialize. The Exposition
Commission, left with over 180,000 pieces they could not sell, sought
and obtained legislation authorizing new coins. Although there was a
spike in prices for many commemorative coins in 1936, the Exposition
Commission's new coins also sold poorly, and 150,000 pieces were
returned to the Mint.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Pacific_International_Exposition_h…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1814:
War of 1812: British forces invaded Washington, D.C., setting
fire to various U.S. government buildings, including what is now the
White House (damage depicted).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington>
1889:
The predominantly Māori New Zealand Native football team
played the last match of their 107-game tour, the longest in rugby union
history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1888%E2%80%9389_New_Zealand_Native_football_t…>
2004:
About 90 people died after suicide bombers attacked two
airliners flying out of Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Russian_aircraft_bombings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bandura:
(music) A Ukrainian plucked stringed instrument with a tear-shaped body,
like an asymmetrical lute or a vertical zither, which is played with
both hands while held upright on the lap.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bandura>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing
just as he pleased — short of altering any of the things to which I
have grown accustomed.
--Max Beerbohm
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Beerbohm>
The Parachute Jump is a defunct amusement ride on the Riegelmann
Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Listed on the U.S.
National Register of Historic Places and protected as a New York City
designated landmark, it consists of a 250-foot-tall (76-meter), 170
-short-ton (150-metric-ton) open-frame, steel parachute tower. The ride
has twelve cantilever steel arms radiating from the top of the tower.
When it was in operation, riders were belted into a suspended two-person
canvas seat, lifted to the top, and dropped; a parachute and shock
absorbers slowed their descent. The jump was the tallest structure built
for the 1939 New York World's Fair at Flushing Meadows. The ride was
moved to its current location in 1941, where it operated until the
1960s, when the Steeplechase amusement park shut down. After a period of
neglect, the frame was restored and fitted with a light-show system in
2006.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachute_Jump>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1873:
The Albert Bridge, spanning the River Thames in London, opened.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bridge,_London>
1943:
Second World War: A decisive Soviet victory against German
forces at the Battle of Kursk gave the Red Army the strategic initiative
for the rest of the war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kursk>
2010:
A former Philippine National Police officer hijacked a tourist
bus in Manila and held its occupants hostage for nearly 11 hours before
being killed by police.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_hostage_crisis>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
limn:
1. (transitive, also figurative) To draw or paint; to delineate.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To illuminate, as a manuscript; to decorate
with gold or some other bright colour.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/limn>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We must expect for a long time yet to see capitalists still
striving to obtain the highest possible profits. But observe, that the
passion for wealth is certainly in some senses new. It grew up very
rapidly at the beginning of the present century; it was not so strong in
the last century, when men were much more content to lead a quiet easy
life of leisure. The change has really influenced the relations between
men; but in the future it is quite possible that the scramble for wealth
may grow less intense, and a change in the opposite direction take
place.
--Arnold Toynbee
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arnold_Toynbee>
John W. Beschter (1763–1842) was a Catholic priest from the Duchy of
Luxembourg who emigrated to the United States in 1807 to become a
missionary of the Society of Jesus. He took up ministry in rural
Pennsylvania, and was soon made the pastor of St. Mary's Church in
Lancaster. As pastor, Beschter was praised by Archbishop John Carroll
for ministering to Catholic congregations of three distinct ethnic and
linguistic groups, and quieting a parochial dispute over the nationality
and language of their pastor. In 1812, Beschter went to Maryland to
become the master of novices at the new Jesuit novitiate in White Marsh.
After two years, he returned to ministering in rural Pennsylvania and
Maryland. He became the pastor of the German congregation of St. John
the Evangelist in Baltimore, a position he held until 1828. The
following year, he became the president of Georgetown College. After
several months, he left the office, and returned to ministering in
Paradise, Pennsylvania, where he lived out his final years.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Beschter>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold used a ruse to
convince the British that a much larger force was arriving, causing them
to abandon the siege of Fort Stanwix.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Fort_Stanwix>
1864:
Under the leadership of Henry Dunant and the International
Committee of the Red Cross, twelve European states and kingdoms signed
the First Geneva Convention, establishing rules for the protection of
victims of armed conflict.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Geneva_Convention>
2015:
A Hawker Hunter aircraft crashed at an airshow at Shoreham
Airport, England, killing eleven people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Shoreham_Airshow_crash>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
lorry:
1. (road transport, Britain) A motor vehicle for transporting goods, and
in some cases people; a truck.
2. (dated) A barrow or truck for shifting baggage, as at railway
stations.
3. (dated) A small cart or wagon used on the tramways in mines to carry
coal or rubbish.
4. (obsolete) A large, low, horse-drawn, four-wheeled wagon without
sides; also, a similar wagon modified for use on railways.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lorry>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero
to be one of those men who goes into battle.
--Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Schwarzkopf,_Jr.>