Lou Spence (1917–1950) was a fighter pilot and squadron commander in
the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II and the Korean War.
In 1941 he was posted to North Africa with No. 3 Squadron, which
operated P-40 Tomahawks and Kittyhawks; he was credited with shooting
down two German aircraft and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross
(DFC). He commanded No. 452 Squadron in 1944, flying Supermarine
Spitfires in defence of Australia's North-Western Area against the
Japanese, and was mentioned in despatches. In February 1950 he took
command of No. 77 Squadron, operating P-51 Mustangs as part of the
British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. He led his squadron in
the opening months of the Korean War, and was awarded a bar to his DFC,
as well as the US Legion of Merit and the US Air Medal, for his
leadership. Spence was killed during a low-level mission over South
Korea in September 1950.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Spence>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1761:
Lisbon experienced its second major earthquake in six years,
with effects felt as far north as Scotland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1761_Lisbon_earthquake>
1889:
The Eiffel Tower in Paris was inaugurated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower>
1921:
The Australian Air Force was formed, replacing the short-lived
Australian Air Corps and separating it from the army.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Australian_Air_Force>
1995:
American singer-songwriter Selena, known as the "queen of
Tejano music", was murdered by the president of her fan club, Yolanda
Saldívar, in Corpus Christi, Texas, deeply affecting the Latino
community.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Selena>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
verklempt:
1. (US, colloquial) Overcome with emotion, choked up.
2. (US, colloquial) Flustered, nervous, overwhelmed.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/verklempt>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
One does not fall "in" or "out" of love. One grows in love.
--Leo Buscaglia
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leo_Buscaglia>
The Dresden Triptych is a very small hinged-triptych altarpiece signed
and dated 1437 by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It
consists of five paintings: one central and four on two double-sided
wings. It may have been intended as a portable altarpiece, and is his
only extant non-portrait painting signed with his personal motto ALC IXH
XAN ("I Do as I Can"). The outer wings show the Virgin Mary and the
Archangel Gabriel in an Annunciation scene in grisaille. The inner
panels are set in an ecclesiastical interior. In the central inner panel
Mary holds the Christ Child; in the left-hand outer wing the Archangel
Michael presents a kneeling donor; on the right Saint Catherine of
Alexandria reads a prayer book (depicted). The triptych's frames are the
originals; richly decorated with Latin inscriptions, they indicate that
the donor, whose identity is now lost, was highly educated. The coats of
arms on the interior borders are associated with the Giustiniani of
Genoa – an influential albergo active from 1362.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Triptych>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1861:
British chemist William Crookes published his discovery of
thallium using flame spectroscopy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thallium>
1918:
Four days of inter-ethnic clashes broke out in Baku,
Azerbaijan, resulting in about 12,000 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Days>
1981:
John Hinckley Jr. shot and wounded U.S. president Ronald
Reagan and three others outside the Washington Hilton (immediate
aftermath pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Ronald_Reagan>
2009:
The Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan, was attacked
and held for several hours by 12 gunmen, resulting in 16 deaths and 95
injuries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Lahore_police_academy_attack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
what the doctor ordered:
(idiomatic) Exactly what is necessary or useful in a given situation;
something very beneficial or desirable.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/what_the_doctor_ordered>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The thing has already taken form in my mind before I start it.
The first attempts are absolutely unbearable. I say this because I want
you to know that if you see something worthwhile in what I am doing, it
is not by accident but because of real direction and purpose.
--Vincent Van Gogh
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vincent_Van_Gogh>
Hannah Glasse (1708–1770) was an English cookery writer. Her first
book, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (page pictured), published
in 1747, became a best-selling recipe book that century. It appeared in
20 editions in the 18th century, and continued to be published until
well into the 19th century. She later wrote the less successful The
Servants' Directory (1760) and The Compleat Confectioner, which was
probably published in 1760. Around a third of the recipes in The Art of
Cookery were copied from other publications. Among her original recipes
are the first known curry recipe written in English, as well as three
recipes for pilau, an early reference to vanilla in English cuisine, the
first recorded use of jelly in trifle, and an early recipe for ice
cream. She was also the first to use the term "Yorkshire pudding" in
print. The Art of Cookery has been admired by many English cooks,
including Elizabeth David, Fanny Cradock and Clarissa Dickson Wright.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Glasse>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1807:
German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered
Vesta, the brightest asteroid and second-most massive body in the
asteroid belt.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Vesta>
1941:
Second World War: British and Australian ships defeated Italian
Regia Marina vessels at the Battle of Cape Matapan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cape_Matapan>
1981:
Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen jointly won the Men's Elite
Race and Joyce Smith won the Women's Elite Race in the inaugural London
Marathon.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Marathon>
1999:
The strongest earthquake to hit the foothills of the Himalayas
in more than 90 years killed at least 100 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Chamoli_earthquake>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
chaotic:
1. Filled with chaos.
2. Extremely disorganized or in disarray.
3. (mathematics) Highly sensitive to starting conditions, so that a
small change to them may yield a very different outcome.
4. (role-playing games) Aligned against following or upholding laws and
principles.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chaotic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The darkness is the deepening shadow of your presence; the
silence a process in the metabolism of the being of love.
--R. S. Thomas
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/R._S._Thomas>
The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was part of the human spaceflight
program of the United States Air Force. The MOL evolved into a space
station, for which crews would be launched on 30-day missions, and then
return to Earth using a Gemini B spacecraft derived from NASA's Gemini
spacecraft. The MOL program was officially announced in December 1963
as a platform to prove the utility of putting people in space for
military missions; its use for satellite reconnaissance was a secret
black project. Seventeen astronauts were selected for the program,
including Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr., the first African American to
be chosen as an astronaut. Budget cuts repeatedly caused postponement of
the first operational flight, and improvements in technology reduced the
benefits of a crewed space platform over an automated one. A single
uncrewed test flight of the Gemini B spacecraft was conducted on
3 November 1966, but the MOL was canceled in June 1969 without any
crewed missions being flown.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Orbiting_Laboratory>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1918:
World War I: British and Australian troops soundly defeated a
German force at the First Battle of Dernancourt.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Dernancourt>
1942:
Second World War: The port of Saint-Nazaire in occupied France
was disabled by British naval forces (ship pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Nazaire_Raid>
1946:
The US Department of State released the Acheson–Lilienthal
Report, a proposal for international control of nuclear weapons.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheson%E2%80%93Lilienthal_Report>
1999:
Serbian police and special forces killed about 93 Kosovo
Albanians in the village of Izbica in the Drenica region of central
Kosovo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izbica_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
atompunk:
(science fiction) A subgenre of speculative fiction, based on the
society and technology of the Atomic Age (c. 1945–1965).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/atompunk>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the
law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been
a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should
have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin,
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that
believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto
the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by
faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a
schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
--Epistle to the Galatians
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Epistle_to_the_Galatians>
Sennacherib was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705 BC to his
death in 681 BC. He is one of the most famous Assyrian kings for his
role in the Old Testament of the Bible, which describes his campaign in
the Levant. The Levantine War of 701 BC broke out after several
Assyrian vassals in the region rebelled, including the Kingdom of Judah
under King Hezekiah. The Assyrians invaded Judea, and Hezekiah
submitted. Sennacherib faced considerable difficulty in controlling
Babylonia and destroyed the city of Babylon in 689 BC. He transferred
the capital of Assyria to Nineveh, launching one of the most ambitious
building projects in ancient history. He expanded the city and
constructed great city walls, numerous temples and a royal garden.
Sennacherib was murdered by his eldest son, who had been disinherited
and hoped to seize power for himself. A younger son, Esarhaddon, raised
an army, seized Nineveh, and installed himself as king as intended by
Sennacherib.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sennacherib>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1899:
Philippine–American War: American forces defeated troops
commanded by Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo at the Battle of
Marilao River.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marilao_River>
1941:
World War II: Encouraged by the British Special Operations
Executive, a group of pro-Western Serbian-nationalist officers of the
Royal Yugoslav Army Air Force carried out a coup d'état after
Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
1981:
The Solidarity movement in Poland staged a warning strike, the
largest in the history of the Eastern Bloc, in which at least
12 million Poles walked off their jobs for four hours.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_warning_strike_in_Poland>
2002:
A suicide bomber killed about 30 Israeli civilians and injured
about 140 others at the Park Hotel in Netanya, triggering Operation
Defensive Shield, a large-scale counter-terrorist military incursion
into the West Bank, two days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
wagon:
1. A four-wheeled cart for hauling loads.
2. A four-wheeled child's riding toy, pulled or steered by a long handle
attached to the front.
3. An enclosed vehicle for carrying goods or people; (by extension) a
lorry, a truck.
4. An enclosed vehicle used as a movable dwelling; a caravan.
5. Short for dinner wagon (“set of light shelves mounted on castors so
that it can be pushed around a dining room and used for serving”).
6. (slang) Short for paddy wagon (“police van for transporting
prisoners”).
7. (rail transport) A freight car on a railway.
8. (chiefly Australia, US, slang) Short for station wagon (“type of car
in which the roof extends rearward to produce an enclosed area in the
position of and serving the function of the boot (trunk)”); (by
extension) a sport utility vehicle (SUV); any car.
9. (Ireland, slang, derogatory, dated) A woman of loose morals, a
promiscuous woman, a slapper; (by extension) a woman regarded as
obnoxious; a bitch, a cow.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wagon>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A modern theory of knowledge which takes account of the
relational as distinct from the merely relative character of all
historical knowledge must start with the assumption that there are
spheres of thought in which it is impossible to conceive of absolute
truth existing independently of the values and position of the subject
and unrelated to the social context. Even a god could not formulate a
proposition on historical subjects like 2 x 2 = 4, for what is
intelligible in history can be formulated only with reference to
problems and conceptual constructions which themselves arise in the flux
of historical experience.
--Karl Mannheim
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Mannheim>
Hi-5 were an Australian children's musical group formed in 1998 in
association with the children's television series of the same name,
which premiered on the Nine Network in 1999. The five performers
entertained and educated preschool children through music, movement and
play. Kellie Crawford, Kathleen de Leon Jones, Nathan Foley, Tim Harding
and Charli Robinson were the founding members. As one of Australia's
highest-paid entertainment groups, they were placed in Business Review
Weekly's annual list several times. The Australian Recording Industry
Association certified their album It's a Party as double platinum. Their
albums Jump and Jive with Hi-5, Boom Boom Beat, and It's a Hi-5
Christmas were certified platinum. By 2004, the original line-up had
received three Logie Television Awards for Most Outstanding Children's
Program and five consecutive ARIA Music Awards for Best Children's
Album.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-5_%28Australian_group%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1896:
An explosion at the Brunner Mine in New Zealand killed 65 coal
miners in the country's deadliest mining accident.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunner_Mine_disaster>
1917:
First World War: Attempting to advance into Palestine, the
British were defeated by Ottoman troops at the First Battle of Gaza.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Gaza>
1971:
East Pakistan declared its independence from Pakistan as
Bangladesh, beginning the Bangladesh Liberation War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War>
1999:
A jury began deliberations in the trial of Jack Kevorkian, an
American practitioner of physician-assisted suicide who was charged with
murder in the death of a terminally ill patient.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kevorkian>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
felicitous:
1. Characterized by felicity.
2. Appropriate, apt, fitting.
3. Auspicious, fortunate, lucky.
4. Causing happiness or pleasure.
5. (linguistics) Of a sentence or utterance: semantically and
pragmatically coherent; fitting in the context.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/felicitous>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The word "mundane" has come to mean boring and dull, and it
really shouldn't. It should mean the opposite because it comes from the
latin mundus, meaning the world, and the world is anything but dull; the
world is wonderful. There's real poetry in the real world. Science is
the poetry of reality.
--Richard Dawkins
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins>
The Marciana Library in Venice is one of the earliest surviving public
libraries and repositories for manuscripts in Italy and holds one of the
world's most significant collections of classical texts. Named after
Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice, it was founded in 1468 when the
humanist scholar Cardinal Bessarion donated his collection of Greek and
Latin codices to Venice as a means of preserving the writings of the
classical Greek authors and the literature of Byzantium after the fall
of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. It is the only institution
established by the Venetian government that continues to function. The
original building, now largely a museum, was constructed from 1537 to
1588. It is considered to be the masterpiece of Jacopo Sansovino and is
a key work in Venetian Renaissance architecture. Since 1904, the library
offices and most of the collection have been housed in the adjoining
Zecca, the former Venetian mint.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblioteca_Marciana>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1708:
Jacobite risings: A French fleet anchored near Fife Ness as
part of a planned French invasion of Britain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_French_invasion_of_Britain_%281708%29>
1911:
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City killed
146 sweatshop workers, many of whom could not escape because the doors
to the stairwells and exits had been locked.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire>
1949:
The Soviet Union began mass deportations of more than 90,000
people from the Baltic states to Siberia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Priboi>
1971:
Vietnam War: South Vietnamese forces abandoned a campaign to
cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail, which supplied North Vietnamese troops,
in Laos.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lam_Son_719>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
adytum:
1. (Ancient Greece, religion) The innermost sanctuary or shrine in an
ancient temple, from where oracles were given.
2. (by extension) A private chamber; a sanctum.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/adytum>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In my opinion we learn nothing from history except the infinite
variety of men’s behaviour. We study it, as we listen to music or read
poetry, for pleasure, not for instruction.
--A. J. P. Taylor
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A._J._P._Taylor>
Buruli ulcer is an infectious disease characterized by the development
of painless open wounds. The disease largely occurs in sub-Saharan
Africa and Australia, generally in rural areas near slow-moving or
stagnant water. The first sign of infection is a small painless nodule
or area of swelling, typically on the arms or legs. This grows larger
over days to weeks, forming an open ulcer (examples pictured). Deep
ulcers can cause scarring of muscles and tendons, resulting in permanent
disability. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends treating
Buruli ulcer with a combination of the antibiotics rifampicin and
clarithromycin. Regular cleaning and dressing of wounds aids healing and
prevents secondary infections. In 2018, WHO received 2,713 reports of
Buruli ulcer globally. In 1998, WHO established the Global Buruli Ulcer
Initiative to coordinate global efforts to eliminate Buruli ulcer. WHO
considers Buruli ulcer a neglected tropical disease.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buruli_ulcer>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1860:
Japanese chief minister Ii Naosuke (depicted) was assassinated
by rōnin samurai upset with his role in the opening of Japan to foreign
powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakuradamon_Incident_%281860%29>
1921:
The 1921 Women's Olympiad, the first international
women's-sports event, opened at the International Sporting Club of
Monaco in Monte Carlo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_Women%27s_Olympiad>
1976:
Led by Jorge Rafael Videla, the Argentine military deposed
President Isabel Perón in a coup d'état, established a military junta
known as the National Reorganization Process, and began state-sponsored
violence against dissidents known as the Dirty War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War>
1989:
The tanker Exxon Valdez began to spill 10.8 million US gal
(260,000 bbl; 41,000 m3) of crude oil into Prince William Sound,
Alaska, causing one of the most devastating man-made maritime
environmental disasters.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
get cold feet:
(intransitive, originally US, informal) To become nervous or anxious and
reconsider a decision about an upcoming event.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get_cold_feet>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Of Heaven or Hell I have no power to sing, I cannot ease the
burden of your fears, Or make quick-coming death a little thing, Or
bring again the pleasure of past years, Nor for my words shall ye
forget your tears, Or hope again for aught that I can say, The idle
singer of an empty day.
--William Morris
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Morris>
Lewis (first name unknown) was briefly a professional baseball player;
he played one game for the Buffalo Bisons of the Major League Baseball
(MLB) Players' League (PL) on July 12, 1890. Having approached the team
for a tryout, Lewis was the starting pitcher for the visiting Bisons
against the Brooklyn Ward's Wonders. During the three innings he
pitched, Lewis allowed 20 runs, all earned, before being moved to left
field, where he played the remainder of the game. The Bisons lost
28–16, with Lewis the losing pitcher; the total of 44 runs set an MLB
record that stood until 1922. In the third inning Lewis gave up two home
runs to Lou Bierbauer, only the second time a major league batter had
hit two home runs in a single inning. The press described Lewis as a
"failure", "unfortunate", and a "much disgusted ball tosser" (news
clipping pictured). Lewis's earned run average (ERA) of 60.00 and walks
plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) rate of 6.667 were the worst of any
pitcher in the one-season history of the PL.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_%28baseball%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1908:
American diplomat Durham Stevens, an employee of Japan's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was fatally shot in San Francisco by two
Korean immigrants unhappy with his support of increased Japanese
presence in Korea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_Stevens>
1931:
Bhagat Singh, one of the most influential revolutionaries of
the Indian independence movement, and two others were executed by the
British authorities.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagat_Singh>
1994:
Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed into a hillside in Kemerovo Oblast,
Russia, after the pilot's 16-year-old son, while seated at the controls,
had unknowingly disabled the autopilot, killing all 75 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_593>
2001:
The Russian space agency deorbited the space station Mir,
causing it to reenter the Earth's atmosphere and break up over the
Pacific Ocean.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deorbit_of_Mir>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bulldog clip:
1. A binder clip with rigid handles.
2. (surgery) A surgical instrument with serrated jaws and a spring-
loaded handle used to grip blood vessels or similar organs.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bulldog_clip>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
One test result is worth one thousand expert opinions.
--Wernher von Braun
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun>
HMS Princess Royal was built for the British Royal Navy before the
First World War in response to the Moltke-class battlecruisers of the
Imperial German Navy and significantly improved on the speed, armament,
and armour of earlier battlecruisers. Laid down in 1912 and commissioned
in 1913, Princess Royal served in the Battle of Heligoland Bight a month
after the war began. During the Battle of Dogger Bank, Princess Royal
scored few hits, although one crippled the German armoured cruiser
Blücher. Shortly afterward, she became the flagship of the 1st
Battlecruiser Squadron, under the command of Rear-Admiral Osmond Brock.
Princess Royal was moderately damaged during the Battle of Jutland and
required a month and a half of repairs. Apart from providing distant
support during the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917, the ship
spent the rest of the war on uneventful patrols of the North Sea. She
was sold for breaking up as scrap in 1922. (This article is part of a
featured topic: Battlecruisers of the world.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Battlecruisers_of_t…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1638:
Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony
for her participation in the Antinomian Controversy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hutchinson>
1765:
The Parliament of Great Britain passed the Stamp Act, requiring
that many printed materials in the Thirteen Colonies in British America
carry a tax stamp.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamp_Act_1765>
1871:
William Woods Holden, Governor of North Carolina, became the
first U.S. state governor to be removed from office through impeachment.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Woods_Holden>
2004:
Palestinian imam Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a founder and the
spiritual leader of Hamas, was killed by an Israeli missile as he left
early morning prayers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Yassin>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
potable:
1. (formal) Good for drinking without fear of disease or poisoning.
2. Any drinkable liquid; a beverage.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/potable>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Up to a point a man’s life is shaped by environment, heredity,
and movements and changes in the world about him; then there comes a
time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into
the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their
race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone
has it within his power to say, this I am today, that I shall be
tomorrow. The wish, however, must be implemented by deeds.
--Louis L'Amour
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_L%27Amour>