Herbert Maryon (1874–1965) was an English sculptor, conservator,
goldsmith, archaeologist and authority on ancient metalwork. Maryon was
the first director of the Arts and Crafts–inspired Keswick School of
Industrial Art, then taught at the universities of Reading and Durham
until 1939. During this time he designed the University of Reading War
Memorial, excavated one of the oldest gold artefacts in Britain, and
authored the standard Metalwork and Enamelling. Maryon left retirement
to join the British Museum, and is best known for his conservation work
on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, including restorations of the shield, the
drinking horns, and the iconic Sutton Hoo helmet. In other work he
restored a Roman helmet, coined the term pattern welding, and wrote a
paper influencing a painting by Salvador Dalí. Maryon was appointed to
the Order of the British Empire in 1956; asked by Queen Elizabeth II
what he did, Maryon responded: "Well, Ma'am, I am a sort of back room
boy at the British Museum.".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1551:
Sue Takafusa, a retainer of the Ōuchi clan in western Japan,
led a coup against the daimyō, Ōuchi Yoshitaka, leading to the
latter's forced suicide.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tainei-ji_incident>
1939:
Second World War: General Władysław Sikorski became the first
prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Sikorski>
1955:
American film actor James Dean suffered fatal injuries in a
head-on car accident near Cholame, California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_James_Dean>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Plutonian:
1. (Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Of or relating to Pluto, the Greek
and Roman god of the underworld; demonic, infernal.
2. (by extension) Of, relating to, or having characteristics associated
with the underworld; dark, gloomy; mournful.
3. (by extension, geology) Synonym of plutonic (“of or pertaining to
rocks formed deep in the Earth's crust, rather than by volcanoes at the
surface of the Earth”)
4. (by extension, geology, historical) Synonym of plutonic (“of,
pertaining to, or supporting plutonism, the theory that the rocks of the
Earth were formed in fire by volcanic activity, with a continuing
gradual process of weathering and erosion, then deposited on the sea
bed, re-formed into layers of sedimentary rock by heat and pressure, and
raised again”) [...]
5. (astrology) Pertaining to the astrological influence of Pluto,
formerly regarded as a planet.
6. (astronomy) Of or relating to the dwarf planet Pluto.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Plutonian>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If it were proved to me that in making war, my ideal had a chance
of being realized, I would still say "No" to war. For one does not
create human society on mounds of corpses.
--Louis Lecoin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Lecoin>
Valston Hancock (31 May 1907 – 29 September 1998) was a senior
commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). A graduate of the
Royal Military College, Duntroon, Hancock transferred to the RAAF in
1929 and qualified as a pilot. After fifteen years of occupying staff
and training posts, he saw combat in the Aitape–Wewak campaign of the
Pacific War during 1945. Flying Bristol Beaufort light bombers, he led
No. 100 Squadron, and later No. 71 Wing, earning the Distinguished
Flying Cross. After the war, Hancock became the inaugural commandant of
RAAF College, followed by a succession of senior positions, before being
promoted to air marshal and serving as Chief of the Air Staff from 1961
to 1965. He was knighted in 1962. In his role as the Air Force's senior
officer, Hancock continued the policy of developing a chain of forward
airfields in Northern Australia. He also evaluated potential
replacements for the RAAF's English Electric Canberra bomber.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valston_Hancock>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1940:
Two Avro Ansons of the Royal Australian Air Force collided in
mid-air over Brocklesby, but locked together and were landed safely.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_Brocklesby_mid-air_collision>
1962:
Alouette I, Canada's first satellite, and the first
constructed by a country other than the Soviet Union or the United
States, was launched.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alouette_1>
1963:
The University of East Anglia was founded in Norwich, England,
after talk of establishing a university in the city began as early as
the 19th century.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_East_Anglia>
1990:
The Lockheed YF-22, the prototype for the F-22 Raptor, made its
first flight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YF-22>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Neptunian:
1. (Roman mythology) Of or pertaining to Neptune, the Roman god of fresh
water and the sea, the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon.
2. (by extension, rare) Of or pertaining to water or the sea.
3. (by extension, geology) Formed by the action of water.
4. (by extension, geology, historical) Of, pertaining to, or supporting
Neptunism (“a discredited theory that rocks were formed from the
crystallisation of minerals in the early Earth's oceans”). [...]
5. (astrology) Pertaining to the astrological influence of the planet
Neptune.
6. (astronomy) Of or pertaining to the planet Neptune.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Neptunian>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man sees, hears, touches, tastes and smells that which it is
necessary for him to see, hear, touch, taste and smell in order to
preserve his life. The decay or loss of any of these senses increases
the risks with which his life is environed, and if it increases them
less in the state of society in which we are actually living, the reason
is that some see, hear, touch, taste and smell for others. A blind man,
by himself and without a guide, could not live long. Society is an
additional sense; it is the true common sense.
--Miguel de Unamuno
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno>
Rigel is a blue supergiant star in the constellation of Orion,
approximately 860 light-years (260 pc) from Earth. It is the brightest
and most massive component of a star system of at least four stars that
appear as a single blue-white point of light to the naked eye. A star of
spectral type B8Ia, Rigel is calculated to be anywhere from 61,500 to
363,000 times as luminous as the Sun, and 18 to 24 times as massive. Its
radius is over 70 times that of the Sun, and its surface temperature is
12,100 K. Rigel varies slightly in brightness, its apparent magnitude
ranging from 0.05 to 0.18. It is classified as an Alpha Cygni variable.
It is generally the seventh-brightest star in the night sky and is
usually the brightest star in Orion, though it is occasionally outshone
by Betelgeuse. With an estimated age of 7 to 9 million years, Rigel has
exhausted its core hydrogen fuel, expanded and cooled to become a
supergiant. It will end its life as a type II supernova.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigel>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1912:
Over 470,000 people from Ulster, Ireland, signed the Ulster
Covenant in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Covenant>
1963:
Whaam!, now considered one of Roy Lichtenstein's most important
works, debuted at an exhibition held at the Leo Castelli Gallery, New
York City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaam!>
2014:
Hong Kong protests: Unhappy with the direction of electoral
reform, Occupy Central with Love and Peace began a civil disobedience
campaign to fight for equal suffrage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Central_with_Love_and_Peace>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Uranian:
1. (comparable, literary, poetic) Celestial, heavenly; uranic.
2. (comparable, literary, archaic) Homosexual; (specifically) relating
to a man's erotic love for adolescent boys; pederastic; also, of poetry:
conveying appreciation for young men.
3. (not comparable, Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Of Aphrodite
Urania, the heavenly aspect of Greek goddess of beauty and love
Aphrodite and her Roman counterpart Venus: heavenly, spiritual, as
contrasted with the earthly aspect of Aphrodite Pandemos.
4. (not comparable, Greek mythology, dated) Relating to Urania, the Muse
of astronomy.
5. (not comparable, by extension, historical, rare) Of or pertaining to
astronomy; astronomical. [...]
6. (not comparable, astronomy) Of or pertaining to the planet Uranus.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Uranian>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If every man did the little he could — what a different world!
--Evelyn Beatrice Hall
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Evelyn_Beatrice_Hall>
Margaret Macpherson Grant (1834–1877) was a Scottish heiress and
philanthropist. Born in Aberlour parish to a local surgeon, she was
educated in Hampshire and inherited a large fortune from her uncle,
Alexander Grant, a planter and merchant who had become rich in Jamaica.
Macpherson Grant took up residence in Aberlour House, which had been
built for her uncle by William Robertson. She lived unconventionally for
a woman of her time, entering into what was described as a form of
marriage with a female companion, Charlotte Temple, whom she met in
London in 1864. Macpherson Grant donated generously to charitable
enterprises, establishing an orphanage (now the Aberlour Child Care
Trust) and founding St Margaret's Episcopal Church in Aberlour. She
made several wills over the course of her life that would have left her
estate to Temple, but after Temple left her to marry a man, Macpherson
Grant revoked her will, and the bulk of her fortune went to cousins, who
were probably unknown to her.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Macpherson_Grant>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1875:
The Ellen Southard was wrecked in a storm at Liverpool,
England; the U.S. Congress subsequently awarded 27 gold Lifesaving
Medals to the men who rescued her crew.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Southard>
1908:
The first production Ford Model T, the car credited with
initiating the mass use of automobiles in the United States, was
completed at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Piquette_Avenue_Plant>
1940:
World War II: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Empire of
Japan signed the Tripartite Pact in Berlin, officially forming a
military alliance known as the Axis powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripartite_Pact>
1983:
Software developer Richard Stallman announced plans for the
Unix-like GNU operating system, the first free software developed by the
GNU Project.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
saturnine:
1. (comparable) Of a person: having a tendency to be cold, bitter,
gloomy, sarcastic, and slow to change and react.
2. (comparable) Of a setting: depressing, dull, gloomy.
3. (comparable, chemistry, archaic) Of, pertaining to, or containing
lead (which was symbolically associated with the planet Saturn by
alchemists).
4. (not comparable, pathology) Of a disease: caused by lead poisoning
(saturnism); of a person: affected by lead poisoning.
5. (not comparable, astrology, obsolete) Pertaining to the astrological
influence of the planet Saturn; having the characteristics of a person
under such influence (see sense 1).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/saturnine>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty
is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified
by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.
--Samuel Adams
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Adams>
Banksia blechnifolia is a species of flowering plant that was first
described by Victorian state botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1864. Its
leaves are reminiscent of the fern genus Blechnum. B. blechnifolia is
one of several closely related species that grow as prostrate shrubs,
with horizontal stems and thick, leathery upright leaves. The red-brown
flower spikes are up to 20 centimetres (8 in) high and appear from
September to November. As the spikes age, they turn grey and develop as
many as 25 woody seed pods. Insects such as bees, wasps, ants and flies
pollinate the flowers. Found in sandy soils in the south coastal region
of Western Australia in the vicinity of Lake King, B. blechnifolia is
non-lignotuberous, regenerating by seed after bushfire. The plant adapts
readily to cultivation, growing in well-drained sandy soils in sunny
locations. It is suitable for rockeries and as a groundcover.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia_blechnifolia>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1875:
Billy the Kid was arrested for the first time after stealing
clothes from a laundryman, beginning his life as an infamous American
outlaw and gunman.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_the_Kid>
1944:
World War II: The Soviet Army completed the Tallinn Offensive,
driving German forces out of Estonia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallinn_Offensive>
2010:
Scottish aid worker Linda Norgrove and three Afghan colleagues
were kidnapped by members of the Taliban in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Linda_Norgrove>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
learn the ropes:
1. (originally nautical, informal) To learn the basics or master
introductory knowledge.
2. (informal) To learn some skill requiring specialist knowledge.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/learn_the_ropes>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Every thinking of being, all philosophy, can never be confirmed
by "facts," ie, by beings. Making itself intelligible is suicide for
philosophy. Those who idolize "facts" never notice that their idols only
shine in a borrowed light. They are also meant not to notice this; for
thereupon they would have to be at a loss and therefore useless. But
idolizers and idols are used wherever gods are in flight and so announce
their nearness.
--Martin Heidegger
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Heidegger>
The Tower Hill Memorial is a pair of Commonwealth War Graves Commission
memorials in Trinity Square, on Tower Hill in London, England. The
memorials, one for the First World War and one for the Second,
commemorate more than 36,000 men and women of the Merchant Navy and
fishing fleets who were killed as a result of enemy action and have no
known grave. The dead are named on bronze panels ordered by the ships
they served on. The first memorial, the Mercantile Marine War Memorial
(pictured), was commissioned following the heavy losses sustained by
merchant shipping in the First World War. It was designed by Sir Edwin
Lutyens and unveiled by Queen Mary in 1928. The second, the Merchant
Seamen's Memorial, is a semi-circular sunken garden designed by Sir
Edward Maufe and unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in November 1955. A
third memorial, commemorating merchant sailors who were killed in the
1982 Falklands War, was added to the site in 2005. The memorials to the
world wars are listed buildings.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Hill_Memorial>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1396:
Ottoman wars in Europe: Ottoman forces under Bayezid I
defeated a Christian alliance led by Sigismund of Hungary near present-
day Nikopol, Bulgaria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nicopolis>
1977:
About 4,200 people took part in the first modern Chicago
Marathon.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Marathon>
1990:
The Ram Rath Yatra, a political–religious rally organised to
erect a temple to the Hindu deity Rama on the site of the Babri Masjid,
began in the Indian state of Gujarat.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Rath_Yatra>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
jovial:
1. (comparable) Cheerful and good-humoured; jolly, merry.
2. (not comparable, astrology, obsolete) Pertaining to the astrological
influence of the planet Jupiter; having the characteristics of a person
under such influence (see sense 1).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jovial>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Poets are almost always wrong about facts. That's because they
are not really interested in facts: only in truth: which is why the
truth they speak is so true that even those who hate poets by simple and
natural instinct are exalted and terrified by it.
--William Faulkner
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner>
Erin Phillips (born 1985) is an Australian rules footballer for the
Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition and a
former professional basketball player. With the launch of the AFLW in
2017, Phillips began her football career at age 31. Despite not having
played competitive football since she was 13 years old, Phillips won
the AFLW best and fairest award by a wide margin twice in her first
three seasons in 2017 and 2019. In both years, she also led Adelaide to
the premiership and won best on ground in the AFLW Grand Final. Before
her football career, Phillips played nine seasons in the Women's
National Basketball Association (WNBA), winning her first WNBA title
with the Indiana Fever in 2012 and another with the Phoenix Mercury in
2014. She also represented Australia on the women's national basketball
team, winning a gold medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship for Women
and serving as a co-vice captain at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Phillips>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1890:
Wilford Woodruff, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, wrote the first draft of a manifesto that
officially disavowed the future practice of plural marriage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890_Manifesto>
1950:
"The Great Smoke Pall", generated by the Chinchaga fire, the
largest recorded fire in North American history, was first recorded in
present-day Nunavut and may eventually have circled the entire globe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinchaga_fire>
1975:
Dougal Haston and Doug Scott of the Southwest Face expedition
became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest by
ascending one of its faces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_British_Mount_Everest_Southwest_Face_exp…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
mercurial:
1. (comparable) Having a lively or volatile character; animated,
changeable, quick-witted.
2. (not comparable, astrology) Pertaining to the astrological influence
of the planet Mercury; having the characteristics of a person under such
influence (see adjective sense 1).
3. (not comparable, astronomy) Pertaining to the planet Mercury.
4. (not comparable, chemistry) Of or pertaining to the element mercury
or quicksilver; containing mercury.
5. (not comparable, medicine) Caused by the action of mercury or a
mercury compound.
6. (not comparable, Roman mythology) Pertaining to Mercury, the Roman
god of, among other things, commerce, financial gain, communication, and
thieves and trickery; hence (comparable), money-making; crafty.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mercurial>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You have many years to live — do things you will be proud to
remember when you're old.
--John Brunner
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner>
Ealdred (died 1069) was Abbot of Tavistock, Bishop of Worcester, and
Archbishop of York in Anglo-Saxon England. After becoming a monk at the
monastery at Winchester, he became abbot around 1027 and a bishop in
1047. Besides his clerical duties, Ealdred served Edward the Confessor
as a diplomat in Hungary and as a military leader in Wales. In 1058, he
undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the first bishop from England to do
so. In 1060, Ealdred was elected to the archbishopric of York. During
his archiepiscopate, he built and embellished churches in his diocese,
and worked to improve his clergy by promulgating regulations for the
priesthood. Following King Edward's death in 1066, Ealdred supported
Harold as king, but when Harold was defeated at the Battle of Hastings,
Ealdred eventually endorsed William the Conqueror and crowned him on
Christmas Day in 1066. William never quite trusted Ealdred, and Ealdred
had to accompany William back to Normandy in 1067, but he had returned
to York by the time of his death in 1069.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ealdred_%28archbishop_of_York%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1952:
U.S. vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon delivered the
Checkers speech, one of the first political uses of television to appeal
directly to the populace.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkers_speech>
2002:
The first version of the web browser Firefox was released by
the Mozilla Organization.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox>
2010:
Teresa Lewis became the first woman to be executed by the U.S.
state of Virginia since 1912, and the first woman in the state to be
executed via lethal injection.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Lewis>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tellurian:
1. (formal or literary) Of or relating to the earth; (specifically,
chiefly science fiction) inhabiting planet Earth as opposed to other
planets.
2. (mineralogy) Of a mineral: containing tellurium.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tellurian>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I don’t think anybody truly knows where we’re going from here
yet. It depends on too many unknowns. We don’t know where the COVID
virus is going to take us. We don’t know where Black Lives Matter is
going to take us right now. Do we get a real practical conversation
going about race and policing and ultimately about the economic
inequality that’s been a stain on our social contract? And of course,
nobody knows where our next election is going to take us. I believe that
our current president is a threat to our democracy. He simply makes any
kind of reform that much harder. I don’t know if our democracy could
stand another four years of his custodianship. These are all existential
threats to our democracy and our American way of life.
--Bruce Springsteen
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen>
Jomo Kenyatta (c. 1897 – 1978) was an anti-colonial activist and
politician who governed Kenya as its prime minister from 1963 to 1964
and then as its first president from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was
the country's first indigenous head of government and played a
significant role in the transformation of Kenya from a colony of the
British Empire into an independent republic. In 1947, he began lobbying
for independence from British colonial rule through the Kenya African
Union, attracting widespread indigenous support. In 1952, he was among
the Kapenguria Six arrested and charged with masterminding the anti-
colonial Mau Mau Uprising. Although protesting his innocence—a view
shared by later historians—he was convicted. Upon his release in 1961,
he led the Kenya African National Union party until his death. During
his presidency, he secured support from both the black majority and
white minority with his message of reconciliation.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jomo_Kenyatta>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
U.S. president Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation, declaring the freedom of all slaves in Confederate
territory by January 1, 1863.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation>
1922:
After nine days, the great fire of Smyrna was extinguished
(aftermath pictured), having caused at least ten thousand deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_fire_of_Smyrna>
1980:
The Iraqi Air Force launched surprise airstrikes on ten Iranian
airfields, starting the Iran–Iraq War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
martial:
1. (comparable) Of, relating to, or suggestive of war; warlike.
2. (comparable) Connected with or relating to armed forces or the
profession of arms or military life.
3. (comparable) Characteristic of or befitting a warrior; having a
military bearing; soldierly.
4. (not comparable, astrology, obsolete) Pertaining to the astrological
influence of the planet Mars.
5. (not comparable, astronomy, obsolete) Of or relating to the planet
Mars; Martian.
6. (not comparable, chemistry, medicine, obsolete) Containing, or
relating to, iron (which was symbolically associated with the planet
Mars by alchemists); chalybeate, ferric, ferrous.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/martial>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Cheerful with wisdom, with innocence gay, And calm with your
joys gently glide thro' the day. The dews of the evening most carefully
shun — Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun.
--Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Stanhope,_4th_Earl_of_Chesterfield>
Bats, of the order Chiroptera, are the only mammals capable of sustained
flight. Their wings, spread-out fingers covered by a thin membrane, make
them more manoeuvrable than birds. Bats range in size from Kitti's hog-
nosed bat, weighing 2–2.6 g (0.07–0.09 oz), to the giant golden-
crowned flying fox, up to 1.6 kg (4 lb) with a wingspan of up to
1.7 m (5 ft 7 in). The second largest order of mammals after rodents,
bats comprise about 20% of all mammal species, with over 1,200 species
distributed across the world. Most bats are nocturnal. They are mostly
insect- and fruit-eaters, but some are carnivorous, such as vampire
bats. Some are important for pollinating flowers and dispersing seeds;
others consume insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides. Bats
harbour the agents of many communicable diseases, such as rabies and
coronaviruses. They are often associated with darkness, malevolence,
vampires, and death.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1745:
Jacobite risings: Jacobite troops led by Charles Edward Stuart
defeated Hanoverian forces in Prestonpans, Scotland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Prestonpans>
1965:
Portugal accepted a diplomatic mission from Southern Rhodesia
despite objections by Britain, which had required the colony to
implement black majority rule as a condition of independence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesian_mission_in_Lisbon>
1996:
The Defense of Marriage Act was passed by the United States
Congress, prohibiting federal recognition of same-sex marriage, while
allowing states to adopt any marital definition of their choosing.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Marriage_Act>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
olive branch:
1. A branch of an olive tree offered as an emblem of peace.
2. (figurative) Any symbol of peace, or a peace offering to an adversary
to show goodwill and in the hope of securing peace. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/olive_branch>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
What fascinates me — mesmerizes me — isn't so much Trump
himself as the American government he's crafted: a major world power
with no policy, no consistency, and no idea what it's doing.
--Stephen King
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_King>