Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele is a large oil-on-oak panel
painting completed around 1434–1436 by the Early Netherlandish painter
Jan van Eyck. It shows the painting's donor, Joris van der Paele, within
an apparition of saints. Van der Paele was then elderly and gravely ill,
and intended the work as his memorial. The Virgin Mary is enthroned at
the centre of the semicircular space, which likely represents a church
interior, with the Christ Child on her lap. Saint Donatian stands to her
right, Saint George to her left. The saints are identifiable from Latin
inscriptions lining the borders of the imitation bronze frame. The
Virgin's throne is decorated with carved representations of Adam and
Eve, prefigurations of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, and
scenes from the Old Testament. The panel is considered one of van Eyck's
most fully realised and ambitious works, and has been described as a
"masterpiece of masterpieces".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_and_Child_with_Canon_van_der_Paele>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1643:
First English Civil War: The First Battle of Newbury was fought
in Berkshire; Parliamentarian forces were allowed to pass Royalist
troops to retreat the next morning.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Newbury>
1920:
Irish War of Independence: British police officers known as
Black and Tans went on a rampage in Balbriggan as revenge for the
shooting of two officers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Balbriggan>
1977:
A series of celestial phenomena of disputed nature was observed
in the western Soviet Union, Finland and Denmark.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrozavodsk_phenomenon>
2000:
The Real Irish Republican Army carried out a rocket-launcher
attack on the MI6 headquarters in London, with no casualties and minimal
damage recorded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_MI6_attack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
missing in action:
1. (chiefly military) The designation for a member of an organization
(usually military) with whom contact is lost and whose whereabouts are
not known, but whose death is not confirmed.
2. (by extension) Not present when one is expected to be.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/missing_in_action>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new
president is installed.
--Ruth Bader Ginsburg
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ruth_Bader_Ginsburg>
Alfred Worden (1932–2020) was an American test pilot and astronaut
who in 1971 was the command module pilot of the Apollo 15 lunar
mission. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1955,
and was commissioned in the Air Force. He proved adept at flying fighter
planes, becoming a test pilot prior to his selection as an astronaut in
1966. Worden served on the support and backup crews for Apollo 9 and 12
before selection for Apollo 15. He spent three days alone in lunar
orbit, becoming the person who was the furthest from any other human
being, a record he still holds, and also performed the first deep-space
extravehicular activity, or spacewalk. His astronaut career was
effectively ended by a scandal over carrying postal covers to the Moon,
and he retired from NASA in 1975. The author of three books, he
subsequently entered the private sector, unsuccessfully ran for
Congress, undertook charitable works and promoted a renewed space
program.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Worden>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1846:
French shepherd children Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud
reported a Marian apparition, now known as Our Lady of La Salette, near
La Salette-Fallavaux.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_La_Salette>
1940:
World War II: Polish resistance leader Witold Pilecki allowed
himself to be captured by German forces and sent to Auschwitz to gather
intelligence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki>
1970:
Greek student Kostas Georgakis set himself on fire in Genoa,
Italy, as a protest against the military junta of Georgios Papadopoulos.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostas_Georgakis>
1995:
The manifesto of Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber,
was published in The Washington Post almost three months after it was
submitted.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
yo-ho-ho:
A cry associated with pirates and seafaring, originally a repetitive
chant intended to synchronize workers performing some collective
physical labour, such as hauling on a rope.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yo-ho-ho>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Who may tell What strange conceits upon the earth were sown And
gender'd by the fond garrulity Of your aereal music? Scatter'd notes,
Half heard, half fancied by the erring sense Of man, on which they fell
like downy seeds Sown by autumnal winds, grew up, and teem'd With
plenteous madness.
--Hartley Coleridge
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hartley_Coleridge>
Opisthocoelicaudia is a genus of sauropod dinosaur of the Late
Cretaceous discovered in the Nemegt Formation in the Gobi Desert of
Mongolia. Named and described by Polish paleontologist Maria Magdalena
Borsuk-Białynicka in 1977, the type species is Opisthocoelicaudia
skarzynskii. A well-preserved skeleton lacking only the head and neck
was unearthed in 1965 by Polish and Mongolian scientists, making
Opisthocoelicaudia one of the best known sauropods from the Late
Cretaceous. Tooth marks on this skeleton indicate that large carnivorous
dinosaurs had fed on the carcass. Two more specimens have been found,
including part of a shoulder and a fragmentary tail. A relatively small
sauropod, Opisthocoelicaudia measured about 11.4–13 metres
(37–43 ft) in length. Like other sauropods, it would have been
characterised by a small head sitting on a very long neck and a barrel-
shaped trunk carried by four column-like legs. It may have been able to
rear on its hind legs.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opisthocoelicaudia>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1870:
Nathaniel P. Langford of the Washburn–Langford–Doane
Expedition first observed a geyser in the Wyoming Territory erupting at
regular intervals, naming it Old Faithful (video featured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Faithful>
1895:
Daniel David Palmer performed the first chiropractic
adjustment, on deaf janitor Harvey Lillard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chiropractic>
1918:
World War I: The Central Powers' defeat at the Battle of Dobro
Pole played a role in the Bulgarian withdrawal from the war and led to
the subsequent liberation of Vardar Macedonia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dobro_Pole>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Ember day:
(Christianity) Any of the three days within the same week, four separate
sets of which occur roughly equidistant in the circuit of the year, that
are set aside for fasting and prayer. In Western Christianity they are
usually the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following the first Sunday
in Lent, Whitsunday, Holy Cross Day (14 September), and Saint Lucy's Day
(13 December).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ember_day>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
--Samuel Johnson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson>
Infinity Science Fiction was an American science fiction magazine,
edited by Larry T. Shaw and published by Royal Publications. The first
issue (cover pictured) was on newsstands in September 1955, with a
November cover date. Among the short stories in the first issue was
Arthur C. Clarke's "The Star", about a planet destroyed by a supernova
seen from Earth as the Star of Bethlehem; it won the 1956 Hugo Award for
Best Short Story. Harlan Ellison's "Glowworm" appeared in the second
issue. Shaw obtained stories from some of the leading writers of the
day, including Brian Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Sheckley, but the
material was of variable quality. In 1958 the owner of Royal
Publications, Irwin Stein, decided to shut down Infinity; the last issue
was dated November 1958. The title was revived a decade later by
Stein's publishing house, Lancer Books, as a paperback anthology series.
Five volumes were published between 1970 and 1973, edited by Robert
Hoskins.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_Science_Fiction>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1630:
Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony founded the city of
Boston.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston>
1970:
The Jordanian army entered Amman as part of operations to oust
Palestinian fedayeen from the country in what became known as Black
September (smoke over Amman pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September>
1980:
Solidarity, a Polish trade union, was founded as the first
independent labor union in an Eastern Bloc country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Solidarity>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hokum:
1. (countable, uncountable, informal) (An instance of) meaningless
nonsense with an outward appearance of being impressive and legitimate.
2. (countable, uncountable, informal) (An instance of) excessively
contrived, hackneyed, or sentimental material in a film, television
programme, theater production, etc.
3. (countable, informal) A film, television programme, theater
production, etc., containing excessively contrived, hackneyed, or
sentimental material.
4. (uncountable, music) A genre of blues song or music, often
characterized by sexual innuendos or satire.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hokum>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I'm so crazy I plan to vote for Eisenhower again this November.
--Ken Kesey
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey>
"Style" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift
(pictured) for her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). It was written and
produced by Max Martin, Shellback, and Ali Payami, with additional
writing by Swift, and released to US radio stations as the album's third
single. Musically, "Style" incorporates disco, funk, and pop rock. The
song garnered generally positive reviews from critics, many of whom
deemed it the album's highlight. It earned an APRA Music Award
nomination for International Work of the Year and appeared on year-end
lists of Pitchfork and The Village Voice. "Style" peaked at number six
on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, becoming 1989's third consecutive
Hot 100 top-ten single, and received multi-platinum certifications in
Australia and Canada. Swift included "Style" on regular set lists for
two of her world tours: The 1989 World Tour (2015) and the Reputation
Stadium Tour (2018).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style_%28Taylor_Swift_song%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1920:
A bomb in a horse-drawn wagon exploded in front of 23 Wall
Street in New York City, killing 38 people and injuring several hundred
others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_bombing>
1940:
Second World War: Italian forces captured the town of Sidi
Barrani, but their invasion of Egypt (tanks pictured) progressed no
further.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_invasion_of_Egypt>
1990:
Construction of the Northern Xinjiang railway was completed
between Ürümqi South and Alashankou, linking the railway lines of
China and Kazakhstan, and adding a sizeable portion to the Eurasian Land
Bridge.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Land_Bridge>
2007:
Seventeen Iraqi civilians were shot and killed by Blackwater
guards in Baghdad.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisour_Square_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
thou:
1. (transitive) To address (a person) using the pronoun thou, especially
as an expression of contempt or familiarity.
2. (intransitive) To use the word thou.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thou>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Grant us the single heart once more That mocks no sacred thing,
The Sword of Truth our fathers wore When Thou wast Lord and King.Let
darkness unto darkness tell Our deep unspoken prayer; For, while our
souls in darkness dwell, We know that Thou art there.
--Alfred Noyes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Noyes>
The 2006 Subway 500 was the 32nd stock car race of the 2006 NASCAR
Nextel Cup Series and the sixth in the ten-race Chase for the Nextel
Cup. It was held on October 22, 2006, before a crowd of 65,000, at
Martinsville Speedway (pictured) in Martinsville, Virginia, one of five
short tracks to hold NASCAR races. The 500-lap race was won by Jimmie
Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports; Denny Hamlin finished second, and Bobby
Labonte came in third. Kurt Busch won the pole position with the fastest
time in qualifying; Johnson started from ninth position. There were 18
cautions and 16 lead changes by five different drivers during the race.
Johnson's win was his fifth of the 2006 season, and the 23rd of his
career. The result advanced him to third in the Drivers' Championship,
41 points behind Matt Kenseth, who took over the championship lead after
Jeff Burton retired from the race. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the
Manufacturers' Championship with four races left in the season.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Subway_500>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1816:
HMS Whiting ran aground on the Doom Bar on the coast of
Cornwall, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_Bar>
1935:
Nazi Germany enacted the Nuremberg Laws, which deprived Jews of
their citizenship.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws>
1944:
World War II: The Greek People's Liberation Army won the
Battle of Meligalas and began the execution of many prisoners of war and
civilians.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Meligalas>
1963:
The Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, an
African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls and
injuring at least 14 other people (memorial march pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
orphrey:
1. (obsolete) Any elaborate embroidery, especially when made of gold
thread; an object (such as clothing or fabric) adorned with such
embroidery.
2. (Christianity) An embroidered ornamental band or border on an
ecclesiastical vestment, altar frontal, etc.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/orphrey>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is not a great misfortune to be of service to ingrates, but it
is an intolerable one to be obliged to a dishonest man.
--François de La Rochefoucauld
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_de_La_Rochefoucauld>
US Highway 141 is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that
runs for about 169 miles (272 km) in the states of Wisconsin and
Michigan. The highway runs north-northwesterly from Bellevue, Wisconsin,
near Green Bay, to an intersection near Covington, Michigan. In between,
it follows city streets in Green Bay and a freeway section north of that
city. Most of the remainder of US 141 is a rural two-lane highway that
crosses into Michigan, back into Wisconsin and then finally back into
Michigan again. When the highway was created in 1926, its northernmost
section in Michigan was numbered US 102, and US 141 extended farther
south from Bellevue to Milwaukee. Two years later, US 141 was extended
north into Michigan to replace US 102. Since then, parts of the highway
have been converted to freeway; the highway has ended southeast of Green
Bay in Bellevue since the 1980s—the southern segment was redesignated
as I-43. (This article is part of a featured topic: U.S. Highways in
Michigan.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/U.S._Highways_in_Mi…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1752:
Under the terms of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, the
British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, skipping 11 days of the
month.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_%28New_Style%29_Act_1750>
1940:
Hungarian forces massacred at least 150 ethnic Romanians in Ip,
Transylvania, following rumors that Romanians were responsible for the
deaths of two soldiers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ip_massacre>
1960:
At a conference held in Baghdad, the governments of Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela founded OPEC to help unify and
coordinate their petroleum policies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPEC>
1992:
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared the
breakaway Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia unconstitutional.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_Republic_of_Herzeg-Bosnia>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
epicene:
1. (linguistics) Of or relating to a class of Greek and Latin nouns that
may refer to males or females but have a fixed grammatical gender
(feminine, masculine, neuter, etc.).
2. (linguistics) Of or relating to nouns or pronouns in any language
that have a single form for male and female referents.
3. (by extension) Suitable for use regardless of sex; unisex.
4. (biology and figurative) Of indeterminate sex, whether asexual,
androgynous, hermaphrodite, or intersex.
5. (by extension) Indeterminate; mixed.
6. (by extension, usually derogatory) Of a man: effeminate.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/epicene>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The most worthwhile form of education is the kind that puts the
educator inside you, as it were, so that the appetite for learning
persists long after the external pressure for grades and degrees has
vanished. Otherwise you are not educated; you are merely trained.
--Sydney J. Harris
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sydney_J._Harris>
Super Mario All-Stars is a 1993 compilation of platform games for the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It contains remakes of Nintendo's
four Super Mario titles released for the Nintendo Entertainment System
and its Family Computer Disk System add-on: Super Mario Bros. (1985),
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (1986), Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988),
and Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988). They are faithful recreations that
adapt the games' original premises and level designs with updated
graphics and music. Parallax scrolling was added, physics simulations
were modified, and some glitches were fixed. Mario creator Shigeru
Miyamoto (pictured) suggested that Nintendo develop the compilation. It
received critical acclaim and is one of the bestselling Super Mario
titles, with 10.55 million copies sold by 2015. Reviewers praised the
effort that went into remastering the compilation's games and
appreciated the updated graphics and music, but criticized its lack of
innovation.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_All-Stars>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1848:
An explosion drove an iron rod through the head of railroad
foreman Phineas Gage (pictured holding rod), making him an important
early case of personality change after brain injury.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage>
1964:
South Vietnamese generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn
Đức staged a coup attempt after being demoted by junta leader
Nguyễn Khánh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_1964_South_Vietnamese_coup_attempt>
1985:
Super Mario Bros., one of the most influential and best-selling
video games of all time, was first released for the Nintendo
Entertainment System in Japan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
cardsharp:
(card games) A professional cheater at card games.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cardsharp>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free. They
are free, Aegisthus. You know it, but they do not.
--Jean-Paul Sartre
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre>
The qibla is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque,
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which is used by Muslims in various religious
contexts, including ritual prayer. Muslims believe the Kaaba to be a
sacred site built by the prophets Abraham and Ishmael, and that its use
was ordained by God in several verses of the Quran revealed in the
second Hijri year. Prior to this revelation, Muhammad and his followers
in Medina faced Jerusalem for prayers. Most mosques contain a mihrab or
a wall niche that indicates the direction of the qibla. Before the
development of astronomy in the Islamic world, Muslims used traditional
methods to determine the qibla. These methods included facing the
direction that the companions of Muhammad had used when in the same
place or using the setting and rising points of celestial objects. In
the late 9th and 10th centuries, Muslim astronomers developed methods to
find the exact direction of the qibla, and today it can be calculated
using a trigonometric formula..
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonometry>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1910:
Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, one of the largest-scale
choral works in the classical concert repertoire, was first performed in
Munich.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._8_%28Mahler%29>
1948:
The People's Liberation Army launched the Liaoshen campaign,
the first of the three major military campaigns during the late stage of
the Chinese Civil War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liaoshen_campaign>
1977:
South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died after
being beaten in police custody in Port Elizabeth.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko>
1992:
Aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, American Mae Jemison became the
first black woman to travel to space.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_Jemison>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
connive:
1. (intransitive) Often followed by with: to secretly cooperate with
another person or persons in order to commit a crime or other
wrongdoing; to collude, to conspire.
2. (intransitive, botany, rare) Of parts of a plant: to be converging or
in close contact; to be connivent.
3. (intransitive, obsolete) Often followed by at: to pretend to be
ignorant of something in order to escape blame; to ignore or overlook a
fault deliberately.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To open and close the eyes rapidly; to wink.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/connive>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
He who must be what he is, may curse his fate, but cannot change
it; on the other hand, he who can transform himself has no one in the
world but himself to blame for his failings, no one but himself to hold
responsible for his dissatisfaction.
--Stanisław Lem
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem>
HMS Temeraire was a 98-gun ship of the line of the British Navy,
serving in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Built at
Chatham Dockyard, Temeraire was launched in 1798 and commissioned in
1799. After years of routine duties she joined Horatio Nelson's fleet in
1805. At the Battle of Trafalgar she was just astern of Nelson's
flagship, HMS Victory. During the battle Temeraire came to Victory's
rescue, and fought and captured two French ships, winning public renown
in Britain. She served routinely until 1813 when she was laid up. She
later acted as a prison ship, a receiving ship, a victualling depot, and
a guard ship. She was sold in 1838 and towed up the Thames to be broken
up. Her last voyage is depicted in a J. M. W. Turner oil painting
(pictured), which was greeted with critical acclaim. The painting was
voted Britain's favourite painting in a 2005 BBC Radio 4 poll, and a
reproduction appears on the 2020 Bank of England £20 note.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Temeraire_%281798%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1924:
French composer Gabriel Fauré finished his last composition, a
string quartet, before dying two months later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Faur%C3%A9>
1945:
The Japanese-run camp at Batu Lintang, Sarawak, in Borneo was
liberated by the Australian 9th Division, averting the planned massacre
of its 2,000-plus Allied POWs and civilian internees by four days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Lintang_camp>
2001:
Al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger airliners to carry out a
series of terrorist attacks (second attack pictured) against targets in
New York City and the Washington, D.C., area.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
rouille:
(cooking) A type of sauce from Provence, France, often served with fish
dishes, consisting of olive oil with breadcrumbs, chili peppers, garlic,
and saffron.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rouille>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Not very long ago some one invented the assertion that there were
only "Four Hundred" people in New York City who were really worth
noticing. But a wiser man has arisen — the census taker — and his
larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the
field of these little stories of the "Four Million".
--O. Henry
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/O._Henry>