Tropical Storm Ileana was a small tropical cyclone that affected western
Mexico in early August 2018. The eleventh tropical cyclone and ninth
named storm of the 2018 Pacific hurricane season, Ileana originated from
a tropical wave that left the west coast of Africa and traveled across
the Atlantic Ocean before crossing into the eastern Pacific Ocean early
on August 4. The system began to strengthen on August 5, becoming
Tropical Storm Ileana. On August 6, it began to develop an eyewall
structure as it reached its peak intensity with winds of 65 mph
(100 km/h) and a pressure of 998 mbar (29.47 inHg). The storm became
intertwined with Hurricane John; the circulation of John disrupted
Ileana before absorbing it on August 7. Paralleling the coast of Mexico
for much of its existence, Ileana killed four people in Guerrero and
four others in Chiapas. There was flooding in the Mexican states of
Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Estado de México.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Ileana_%282018%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1911:
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by
museum employee Vincenzo Peruggia and was not recovered until two years
later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa>
1945:
American physicist Harry Daghlian accidentally dropped a
tungsten carbide brick onto a plutonium bomb core, exposing himself to
neutron radiation and later becoming the first Manhattan Project
fatality due to a criticality accident.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Daghlian>
2013:
Syrian civil war: Rockets containing sarin struck opposition-
controlled areas in the Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, resulting in at
least 281 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghouta_chemical_attack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
anhedonic:
(psychiatry, also figurative) Showing anhedonia; having no capacity to
feel pleasure.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anhedonic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society — for
nothing suffocates the promise of America more than unbounded cynicism
and indifference. We must reclaim the tradition of community in our
society. Only by recognizing that we share a common obligation to one
another and to our country can we ever hope to maximize our national or
personal potential. We must reassert the oneness of America. America has
been and must once again be the seamless web of caring and community.
--Joe Biden
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joe_Biden>
George Tucker (August 20, 1775 – April 10, 1861) was an American
lawyer, politician, author, and educator. He wrote the first in-depth
biography of Thomas Jefferson, the first fictional account of colonial
life in Virginia, and the four-volume History of the United States.
Despite a social life which had been profligate, and at times even
scandalous, at age 50 he was named Professor of Moral Philosophy at
Jefferson’s newly founded University of Virginia and served in that
post for twenty years. A son of the first mayor of Hamilton, Bermuda, he
immigrated to Virginia at age 20, was educated at the College of
William and Mary, and was admitted to the bar. He was elected in 1816 to
the Virginia House of Delegates, then served in the United States House
of Representatives from 1819 to 1825. In 1827 he wrote A Voyage to the
Moon, one of America's earliest works of science fiction. He also
produced diverse compositions on slavery, suffrage, morality,
intracoastal navigation, wages, and banking.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tucker_%28politician%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1882:
The 1812 Overture by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
debuted in Moscow, conducted by Ippolit Al'tani.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Overture>
1920:
The American Professional Football Association, a predecessor
of the National Football League, was founded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League>
1950:
Korean War: United Nations forces repelled an attempt by North
Korea to capture the city of Taegu.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Taegu>
2008:
Spanair Flight 5022 crashed just after take-off from Madrid's
Barajas Airport, killing 154 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanair_Flight_5022>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gamin:
(dated, also attributively) A homeless boy; a male street urchin; also
(more generally), a cheeky, street-smart boy.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gamin>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To see a promising solution to a dilemma and then just leave it
to questionable development at its own pace without trying to aid its
implementation would seem a dereliction.
--Roger Wolcott Sperry
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roger_Wolcott_Sperry>
Hyborian War is a play-by-mail game set during Robert E. Howard's
Hyborian Age in the world of Conan the Barbarian. The Origins
Award–winning game, published by Reality Simulations, Inc., has been
continuously available for play since 1985. The game’s genre is heroic
fantasy, also known as sword and sorcery. Conan appears as a wandering
hero whom players can employ until fortune takes him elsewhere. The game
designer wove multiple aspects of Howard's stories into Hyborian War
including diverse landscapes and cultures, grand armies, large-scale
battles, powerful wizards, and courageous and heroic deeds. Gameplay is
multifaceted and complex. Players choose from 36 kingdoms of small,
medium, and large sizes, each with different victory conditions. A
central focus of the game is conquest and expansion through military
action and diplomacy. Intrigue, magic, and other tools of statecraft in
a fantasy setting are available to players. The game retains an active
player base in the 21st century.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyborian_War>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1745:
Bonnie Prince Charlie (portrait shown) raised the Jacobite
standard at Glenfinnan, Scotland, in an attempt to regain the British
throne for his father, beginning the Jacobite rising of 1745.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobite_rising_of_1745>
1920:
Russian Civil War: Peasants in Tambov Governorate began a
rebellion against the Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tambov_Rebellion>
2003:
A Hamas suicide bomber killed 24 people and wounded more than
130 others, many of whom were Orthodox Jewish children, on a crowded
public bus in Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmuel_HaNavi_bus_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
humanitarian:
Concerned with people's welfare, and the alleviation of suffering;
compassionate, humane.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/humanitarian>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have no desire to get ugly, But I cannot help mentioning that
the door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the
pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly.
--Ogden Nash
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ogden_Nash>
The naval Battle of Lagos took place between a British fleet commanded
by Sir Edward Boscawen and a French fleet under Jean-François de La
Clue-Sabran over 18–19 August 1759 during the Seven Years' War. The
French Mediterranean Fleet successfully passed through the Strait of
Gibraltar, but was sighted by a British ship. The British fleet in
Gibraltar was undergoing a major refit and left port amidst great
confusion, with many ships delayed and sailing in a second squadron.
Aware that he was pursued, La Clue changed course, but half of his ships
failed to follow him in the dark. The British caught the French south
west of the Gulf of Cádiz, fierce fighting ensued, and one French ship
was captured. The British pursued the remaining six French ships
overnight and two managed to escape. The four survivors attempted to
shelter in neutral Portuguese waters near Lagos, but Boscawen violated
that neutrality, capturing two of the ships and destroying the other
two.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lagos>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1590:
John White, governor of the Roanoke Colony, the first English
settlement in North America (located in present-day North Carolina),
returned after a three-year absence to find it deserted (depicted).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony>
1940:
Second World War: During the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe
made an all-out effort to destroy RAF Fighter Command, with both sides
combined losing more aircraft on this day than at any other point during
the campaign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hardest_Day>
2017:
Two people were killed and eight others wounded when a rejected
asylum seeker went on a knife rampage in Turku, Finland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Turku_attack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
disquisition:
1. (archaic) A methodical inquiry or investigation.
2. A lengthy, formal discourse that analyses or explains some topic;
(loosely) a dissertation or treatise.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disquisition>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The true and best way of learning any Art, is not to see a great
many Examples done by another Person, but to possess ones seIf first of
the Principles of it, and then to make them familiar, by exercising ones
self in the Practice. For it is Practice alone, that makes a Man perfect
in any thing.
--Brook Taylor
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brook_Taylor>
The Daily News was a newspaper published in Los Angeles from 1923 to
1954, founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt IV as the first of several papers
he wanted to manage. After quickly going into receivership, it was sold
to Manchester Boddy, a local businessman. Boddy was able to make the
newspaper succeed, and it remained profitable through the 1930s and
1940s, taking a mainstream Democratic perspective at a time when most
Los Angeles newspapers supported the Republican Party. The newspaper
began a steep decline in the late 1940s, continuing into the early
1950s. In the 1950 election, Boddy ran in both the Democratic and
Republican primaries for the United States Senate. He finished a distant
second in each, and lost interest in the newspaper. He sold his stake in
the paper in 1952 and publication ceased in December 1954. The business
was sold to the Chandler family, who merged it with their publication,
the Los Angeles Mirror, firing all Daily News employees without
severance pay.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illustrated_Daily_News>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1916:
World War I: Romania signed a secret treaty with the Entente
Powers to enter the war in return for territorial concessions in
Austria-Hungary.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Bucharest_%281916%29>
1945:
The independence of Indonesia was proclaimed by Sukarno and
Mohammad Hatta, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the
Dutch Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_National_Revolution>
1977:
The Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika became the first
surface ship to reach the North Pole.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arktika_%281972_icebreaker%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
fatberg:
A large accumulation of fat and discarded toiletries which clogs sewers.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fatberg>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Poems get to the point where they are stronger than you are. They
come up from some other depth and they find a place on the page. You can
never find that depth again, that same kind of authority and voice. I
might feel I would like to change something about them, but they’re
still stronger than I am and I cannot.
--Ted Hughes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ted_Hughes>
The 2019 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker
tournament that took place from 20 April to 6 May at the Crucible
Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 43rd consecutive year the
World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible, and the 20th
and final ranking event of the 2018–19 season. The winner of the title
was Judd Trump (pictured), who defeated John Higgins 18–9 in the final
to claim his first World Championship, completing the Triple Crown.
Defending champion Mark Williams lost 9–13 to David Gilbert in the
second round. The tournament featured 100 century breaks, the highest
number ever recorded at an official snooker event. The final match alone
included 11 centuries, the most ever scored in the final of a ranking
event. Higgins compiled the highest break, a 143, in his semifinal win
over Gilbert. Shaun Murphy defeated Luo Honghao in the first round
10–0, the first whitewash at the World Championship since 1992.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_World_Snooker_Championship>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1896:
A group including George Carmack and Skookum Jim Mason
discovered gold near Dawson City, Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold
Rush.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush>
1920:
The Battle of Radzymin, one of the bloodiest and most intense
battles of the Polish–Soviet War, concluded with a Polish victory.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Radzymin_%281920%29>
1946:
Widespread riots between Hindus and Muslims took place in
Calcutta as a result of the All-India Muslim League's call for an
independent Pakistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_Day>
1977:
American singer and actor Elvis Presley was found dead in his
home in Memphis, Tennessee.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pie-eyed:
1. (informal, originally US) With one's eyes wide open and staring in an
expressionless manner; wide-eyed.
2. (informal, by extension) (Extremely) drunk or intoxicated.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pie-eyed>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I've been & am absurdly over-estimated. There are no supermen &
I'm quite ordinary, & will say so whatever the artistic results. In that
point I'm one of the few people who tell the truth about myself.
--T. E. Lawrence
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/T._E._Lawrence>
The surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, brought the hostilities of
World War II to a close. Together with the British Empire and China,
the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese
armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. Japan's
leaders privately made entreaties to the publicly neutral Soviet Union
to mediate more favorable peace terms. On August 6, the United States
detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. On August 8, the Soviet Union
invaded the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Hours later, the United
States dropped a second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki. Emperor Hirohito
intervened and ordered that the Allies' terms for ending the war be
accepted. Hirohito gave a recorded radio address transmitted across the
Empire on August 15, announcing the surrender of Japan. The surrender
ceremony was held aboard the battleship USS Missouri, at which
officials from the Japanese government signed the Japanese Instrument of
Surrender (pictured).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1461:
Byzantine–Ottoman wars: The Empire of Trebizond, the longest-
surviving Byzantine successor state, was conquered by Ottoman forces
following a month-long siege.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Trebizond_%281461%29>
1914:
On the day of his dismissal, an employee at Taliesin, Frank
Lloyd Wright's estate, killed seven people with a hatchet and set the
house on fire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliesin_%28studio%29>
1975:
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's founding leader, was
assassinated with most of his family in a military coup.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_August_1975_Bangladesh_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
2005:
The Helsinki Agreement between the Free Aceh Movement and the
Government of Indonesia was signed, ending more than 28 years of
fighting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_Aceh>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
neroli:
More fully neroli oil or oil of neroli: an essential oil distilled from
the blossoms of the bitter orange or Seville orange (Citrus × aurantium
subsp. amara) used to make perfumes.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/neroli>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
What are we? What is the future? What is the past? What magic
fluid envelops us and hides from us the things it is most important for
us to know? We are born, we live, and we die in the midst of the
marvelous.
--Napoleon I of France
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France>
Almost There is the first studio album by the American Christian rock
band MercyMe (singer and drummer pictured), released on August 14,
2001, by INO Records. Characterizing it as contemporary worship and pop
rock, music critics praised the album's songwriting, especially on "I
Can Only Imagine", but gave its sound mixed reviews, ranging from
"fresh" and "innovative" to derivative. CCM Magazine cited it in the
25th anniversary edition of their 100 Albums You Need to Own list.
"Bless Me Indeed (Jabez's Song)" was released as the album's lead
single, but it underperformed on the charts. The second single, "I Can
Only Imagine", boosted sales for the album, and crossed over to
mainstream radio in 2003. The album peaked at number 39 on the
Billboard 200 and number one on the Billboard Christian Albums chart.
Billboard ranked it as the fourth best-selling Christian album of
2000–2009 in the United States. Both the album and the single "I Can
Only Imagine" have sold more than 3 million copies.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_There_%28album%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1888:
One of the first music recordings ever made, of Arthur
Sullivan's "The Lost Chord" (audio featured), was played at a press
conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Chord>
1941:
After a secret meeting in Newfoundland, British prime minister
Winston Churchill and U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the
Atlantic Charter, establishing a vision for a post–World War II
world.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Charter>
2010:
The inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games opened in
Singapore for athletes between 14 and 18 years old.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_Olympic_Games>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
en masse:
In a single body or group; as one, together.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/en_masse>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Of all kinds of human energy, Art is surely the most free, the
least parochial; and demands of us an essential tolerance of all its
forms. Shall we waste breath and ink in condemnation of artists, because
their temperaments are not our own?
--John Galsworthy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Galsworthy>
Westgate-on-Sea is a seaside town and civil parish in northeast Kent,
England, with a population of 6,996 at the 2011 Census. It is within the
Thanet local government district and borders the larger seaside resort
of Margate. Its two sandy beaches have attracted tourists since the
town's development in the 1860s from a small farming community. The
local St Mildred's Bay was the site of a Royal Naval Air Service
seaplane base, which defended the Thames Estuary coastal towns during
World War I. The town is the subject of John Betjeman's poem "Westgate-
on-Sea". Residents have included the 19th-century surgeon Erasmus Wilson
and former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple. The artist William
Quiller Orchardson painted several of his best-known pictures while
living in Westgate-on-Sea. The British composer Arnold Cooke and Eton
headmaster Anthony Chenevix-Trench attended local schools as children
during the early 20th century.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westgate-on-Sea>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1650:
General George Monck founded the predecessor to the Coldstream
Guards (soldier pictured), the oldest regiment of the British Army in
continuous active service.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldstream_Guards>
1704:
War of the Spanish Succession: The Duke of Marlborough led
Allied forces to a crucial victory at the Battle of Blenheim.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blenheim>
1868:
A major earthquake near Arica, Peru (now in Chile), caused an
estimated 25,000 deaths; the subsequent tsunami caused considerable
damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1868_Arica_earthquake>
1906:
Members of the U.S. Army's all-black 25th Infantry Regiment
were accused of killing a white bartender and wounding a white police
officer in Brownsville, Texas, despite exculpatory evidence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownsville_affair>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
meteorwrong:
(humorous) A rock that is believed to be a meteorite, but is in fact
terrestrial in origin; a pseudometeorite.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/meteorwrong>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is not possible to enter into the nature of the Good by
standing aloof from it — by merely speculating upon it. Act the Good,
and you will believe in it. Throw yourself into the stream of the
world's good tendency and you will feel the force of the current and the
direction in which it is setting. The conviction that the world is
moving toward great ends of progress will come surely to him who is
himself engaged in the work of progress. By ceaseless efforts to live
the good life we maintain our moral sanity. Not from without, but from
within, flow the divine waters that renew the soul.
--Felix Adler
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Felix_Adler>
Nyuserre Ini was a pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, the sixth ruler of the
Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. The younger son of
Neferirkare Kakai and queen Khentkaus II and the brother of the short-
lived king Neferefre, Nyuserre probably lived in the second half of the
25th century BCE and reigned for more than two decades. He was
succeeded by Menkauhor Kaiu, who could have been his nephew and a son of
Neferefre. Nyuserre built three pyramids for himself and his queens and
completed a further three for his father, mother and brother, all in the
necropolis of Abusir. His temple dedicated to the sun god Ra was named
Shesepibre or "Joy of the heart of Ra"; it is the largest such temple
that survives from the Old Kingdom. He also completed the Nekhenre, the
Sun Temple of Userkaf in Abu Gorab, and the valley temple of Menkaure in
the Giza necropolis. The state-sponsored funerary cult established at
Nyuserre's death lasted until the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyuserre_Ini>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1914:
World War I: Belgian troops were victorious at the Battle of
Halen, but were ultimately unable to stop the German invasion of the
country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halen>
1945:
An official administrative history of the Manhattan Project,
written by American physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth, was released to the
public just days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smyth_Report>
1969:
Riots erupted in the Bogside area of Derry and spread across
much of Northern Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Northern_Ireland_riots>
1990:
Near Faith, South Dakota, American paleontologist Sue
Hendrickson found one of the most complete discovered skeletons of
Tyrannosaurus rex.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_%28dinosaur%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sericulture:
(agriculture) The rearing of silkworms for the production of silk.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sericulture>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
People in power are trying to convince us that the villain in our
American story is each other. But that is not our story. That is not who
we are. That’s not our America.Our United States of America is not
about us versus them. It’s about We the people!And in this moment, we
must all speak truth about what’s happening.Seek truth, speak truth
and fight for the truth.
--Kamala Harris
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris>