The Midland Railway War Memorial is a First World War memorial in Derby,
England, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. It commemorates employees of the
Midland Railway who died while serving in the First World War. The
Midland was the largest employer in Derby; around a third of the
company's workforce left to fight and 2,833 were killed. The memorial
consists of a cenotaph surrounded on three sides by a screen wall.
Affixed to the wall are bronze plaques which list the names of the dead.
The cenotaph is surmounted by a recumbent effigy of a soldier, covered
by a coat and resting on a catafalque. Lutyens anonymises the soldier by
lifting him high above eye level. The Midland published a book of
remembrance, and sent a copy to the family of each man listed on the
memorial. Unveiled on 15 December 1921, the memorial stands in a
conservation area and is a Grade II* listed building. Repairs were
undertaken in 2010 after several stolen bronze plaques were recovered.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland_Railway_War_Memorial>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1833:
Yagan, a Noongar warrior wanted for leading attacks on British
colonists in Western Australia, was killed, becoming a symbol of the
unjust and sometimes brutal treatment of indigenous Australians by
colonial settlers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagan>
1936:
New York City's Triborough Bridge, the "biggest traffic machine
ever built", opened to traffic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy_Bridge>
1960:
To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee featuring themes
of racial injustice and the loss of innocence in the Deep South of
America, was published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird>
2010:
The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carried out multiple
suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85
others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Kampala_bombings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
overpopulation:
(biology, demography) An excessive number of occupants (people, animals,
plants, etc.) in a particular area; specifically, when the number of
occupants exceeds the ability of that area to provide for them.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/overpopulation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the
people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of
privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries,
the feeling of vitality everywhere.
--E. B. White
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._B._White>
A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbits a
galaxy core as a satellite. They are tightly bound by gravity, which
gives them their spherical shape and relatively high stellar density
towards their core. There are more than 150 known globular clusters in
the Milky Way, with perhaps many more undiscovered. Large galaxies can
have more: Andromeda, for instance, may have as many as 500. Some giant
elliptical galaxies, such as M87, may have as many as 10,000 globular
clusters. These globular clusters orbit the galaxy out to large radii,
40,000 parsecs or more. Every galaxy of sufficient mass in the Local
Group and almost every large galaxy surveyed has an associated system of
globular clusters. The Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy and Canis
Major Dwarf Galaxy both appear to be in the process of donating their
associated globular clusters to the Milky Way, such as Palomar 12.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globular_cluster>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1645:
English Civil War: The Parliamentarians destroyed the last
Royalist field army at the Battle of Langport, ultimately giving
Parliament control of the west of England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Langport>
1942:
An American naval aviator discovered a downed Mitsubishi
A6M Zero on Akutan Island, Alaska, which was later rebuilt and flown to
devise tactics against that type of aircraft.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akutan_Zero>
2011:
The last edition of the British tabloid News of the World was
published, closing due to allegations that it hacked the voicemails of
murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, victims of the 7/7 attacks and
relatives of deceased British soldiers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacking_scandal>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sortie:
1. (military, also attributively and figuratively)
2. An attack made by troops from a besieged position; a sally.
3. (aviation) An operational flight carried out by a single military
aircraft.
4. (by extension)
5. An act of venturing out to do a task, etc.
6. (figuratively)
7. An act of trying to enter a new field of activity.
8. (sports) An attacking move.
9. (astronautics) An operational flight carried out by a spacecraft
involving a return to Earth.
10. (military) Synonym of sally port (“an entry to or opening into a
fortification to enable a sally”)
11. (photography) A series of aerial photographs taken during the flight
of an aircraft; (by extension) a photography session.
12. (intransitive) To carry out a sortie; to sally.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sortie>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The time which we have at our disposal every day is elastic; the
passions that we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it; and
habit fills up what remains.
--Marcel Proust
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marcel_Proust>
Suzanne Lenglen (1899–1938) was a French tennis player. One of the
sport's biggest stars and the dominant women's tennis player right after
World War I, Lenglen was the inaugural world No. 1 and a six-time
Wimbledon singles champion. After the war, she only had one singles loss
and was undefeated in doubles with Elizabeth Ryan. Her popularity
stemmed from her becoming a world champion at age 15, her unusual
balletic playing style, her brash personality, and prominent press
coverage that portrayed her as infallible at tennis. Lenglen had a wide
impact on the sport. She was the first leading amateur to turn
professional and her 1926 pro tour in the United States laid the
foundation for the next four decades of men's pro tennis. She
incorporated fashion into the game and popularised sportswear to
supplant the norm of women competing in corsets. Wimbledon moved to its
current venue to accommodate her popularity. Court Suzanne Lenglen at
the French Open is named in her honour.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Lenglen>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1877:
The inaugural Wimbledon Championship, the world's oldest tennis
tournament, began in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1877_Wimbledon_Championship>
1896:
Politician William Jennings Bryan made his Cross of Gold speech
advocating bimetallism, considered one of the greatest political
speeches in American history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Gold_speech>
1937:
Nitrate film being stored in a 20th Century Fox facility
spontaneously combusted, destroying more than 40,000 reels of negatives
and film prints.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_Fox_vault_fire>
1962:
In a seminal moment for pop art, Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup
Cans exhibition opened at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%27s_Soup_Cans>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
illumine:
1. Synonym of illuminate
2. (transitive)
3. (also figuratively) To shine light on (something).
4. (also figuratively) To cause (something) to glow or shine with light.
5. (figuratively)
6. To enlighten (someone) spiritually; to induce (someone) to adopt, or
believe in the truth of, a religion, religious tenet, etc.
7. To cause (the eyes) to see.
8. To cause (a person or their face) to show enlightenment, happiness,
etc.
9. (rare) To enlighten (someone) intellectually.
10. (art) To decorate (a page of a manuscript book) with ornamental
designs.
11. (intransitive)
12. To become bright; to light up.
13. (figuratively)
14. To enlighten intellectually.
15. Of a person or their face: to show enlightenment, happiness, etc.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/illumine>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The kind of society that Japan should aim at is a society in
which the efforts of people are rewarded, a society in which there is no
stratification into winners and losers, and a society in which ways of
working, learning, and living are diverse and multi-tracked — in other
words, a society of opportunity where everyone has a chance to challenge
again. If there are people who sense they are facing inequality, it is
the role of politics to shed light on them.
--Shinzō Abe
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shinz%C5%8D_Abe>
Christian Bale (born 1974) is an English actor. Known for his
versatility and recurring physical transformations to play his roles,
Bale has been a leading man in films of several genres. Born in Wales,
he had his breakthrough role at age 13 in the war film Empire of the Sun
(1987) and gained wider recognition for his work in the black comedy
American Psycho (2000) and the psychological thriller The Machinist
(2004). Bale played the superhero Batman in Batman Begins (2005) and
reprised the role in the sequels The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark
Knight Rises (2012). He received acclaim for his performance in the
trilogy, which is one of the highest-grossing film franchises. The
recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden
Globe Award for his portrayal of the boxer Dicky Eklund in the
biographical film The Fighter (2010), Bale was listed on Forbes
magazine's list of the highest-paid actors in 2014.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Bale>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1709:
Great Northern War: Swedish forces under Charles XII were
defeated by Russian troops led by Peter the Great at the Battle of
Poltava, effectively ending Sweden's role as a major European power.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poltava>
1758:
French and Indian War: French forces defeated the British at
Fort Carillon on the shore of Lake Champlain in the British colony of
New York.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carillon>
1947:
Following reports of the capture of a "flying disc" by U.S.
Army Air Force personnel near Roswell, New Mexico, the military stated
that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_incident>
1962:
Following student protests at Rangoon University, Burmese
general Ne Win ordered the demolition of the historic students' union
building.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962_Rangoon_University_protests>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
domestique:
(cycle racing) A cyclist on a cycle racing team whose role is to assist
the team's designated leaders (for example, by riding in front of them
to create a slipstream, or to set the pace), even if at the expense of
their own individual performance.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/domestique>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative
Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a
new prime minister. … I know that there will be many people who are
relieved and perhaps quite a few who will also be disappointed. And I
want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world.
But them's the breaks. … I want to thank you, the British public, for
the immense privilege that you have given me. And I want you to know
that from now on until the new prime minister is in place, your
interests will be served and the government of the country will be
carried on.
--Boris Johnson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson>
For timekeeping, Finland follows Eastern European Time (EET) during its
winter as standard time and Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) in the
summer as daylight saving time. EET is two hours ahead of Coordinated
Universal Time and EEST is three hours ahead. Finland adopted EET in
1921, and daylight saving time in its current form from 1981. Up to the
19th century, each locality used its own solar time, which could vary in
Finland by up to 31 minutes. In 1862, a mean time was adopted as a
single time zone for railway scheduling. Daylight saving time was first
attempted in 1942, abandoned as not useful, and introduced again in 1981
to align with neighbouring countries. In 2017, the Finnish parliament
voted to call on the European Union to abolish daylight saving time.
Finland's time zone is maintained by the VTT Technical Research Centre
of Finland and the Centre for Metrology and Accreditation, using an
atomic clock and hydrogen monitors. The 24-hour clock notation is used
in Finland.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Finland>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1798:
Outraged by the XYZ Affair, the United States rescinded its
treaties with France, resulting in the undeclared Quasi-War, fought
entirely at sea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasi-War>
1954:
After the culmination of the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état,
Carlos Castillo Armas was sworn in as president of Guatemala.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castillo_Armas>
1963:
The secret police of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief
political adviser of South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm,
attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest
during the Buddhist crisis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Seven_Day_scuffle>
1983:
After writing a letter to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov,
American schoolgirl Samantha Smith visited the Soviet Union as
Andropov's personal guest, becoming known as "America's Youngest
Ambassador".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
extenuate:
1. Of a person: emaciated, wasted, weakened; of the body or part of it:
atrophied, shrunken, withered.
2. Of a quality or thing: lessened, weakened.
3. Reduced to poverty; impoverished.
4. To make (something) less dense, or thinner; also, to lower the
viscosity of (something).
5. (archaic)
6. To make (someone or something) slender or thin; to emaciate, to
waste.
7. To underestimate or understate the importance of (something); to
underrate.
8. (specifically) To diminish or seek to diminish the extent or severity
of (a crime, guilt, a mistake, or something else negative) by making
apologies or excuses; to palliate.
9. (obsolete)
10. To beat or draw (a metal object, etc.) out so as to lessen the
thickness.
11. To reduce the quality or quantity of (something); to lessen or
weaken the force of (something).
12. To degrade (someone); to detract from (someone's qualities,
reputation, etc.); to depreciate, to disparage.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/extenuate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
--Robert A. Heinlein
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein>
The Jubilee coinage are British coins with an obverse depicting Queen
Victoria (pictured) by Joseph Edgar Boehm, and were struck between 1887
and 1893. In 1879, Boehm was selected to create a new depiction of
Victoria—some British coins still showed her as she had appeared forty
years previously. Boehm was slow to complete the project, and it took
years before it came to fruition. The new coins were released in June
1887, at the time of the queen's Golden Jubilee. The crown on Victoria's
head was seen as too small, was widely mocked, and helped bring about
the design's replacement. The series saw the entire issuance of the
double florin, from 1887 to 1890, and the last circulating British
fourpence piece, intended for use in British Guiana, in 1888. Bronze
coins (the penny and its fractions) were not part of the Jubilee
coinage, due to a surplus of them in commerce. The Jubilee coinage's
replacement, the Old Head coinage, with an obverse created by Thomas
Brock, began to be struck in 1893.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_coinage>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1483:
The last monarch of the House of York and the Plantagenet
dynasty, Richard III, was crowned King of England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_of_England>
1801:
French Revolutionary Wars: A Royal Navy squadron failed to
eliminate a smaller French Navy squadron at Algeciras before they could
join their Spanish allies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Algeciras>
1962:
The United States conducted the Sedan nuclear test as part of
Project Plowshare, a program to investigate the use of nuclear
explosions for civilian purposes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedan_%28nuclear_test%29>
1997:
The Troubles: In response to the Drumcree conflict, five days
of unrest began in nationalist districts of Northern Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Northern_Ireland_riots>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bidon:
1. A bottle or flask for holding a beverage such as water or wine;
(specifically, sports) a water bottle which can be squeezed to squirt
the beverage out of the nozzle, especially (cycling) one designed for
mounting on a bicycle.
2. (archaic) A container for holding a liquid.
3. A cup made of wood.
4. An oil drum; a petrol can.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bidon>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
As to war, I am and always was a great enemy, at the same time a
warrior the greater part of my life, and were I young again, should
still be a warrior while ever this country should be invaded and I lived
— a Defensive war I think a righteous war to Defend my life & property
& that of my family, in my own opinion, is right & justifiable in the
sight of God. An offensive war, I believe to be wrong and would
therefore have nothing to do with it, having no right to meddle with
another man's property, his ox or his ass, his man servant or his maid
servant or anything that is his. Neither does he have a right to meddle
with anything that is mine, if he does I have a right to defend it by
force.
--Daniel Morgan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Morgan>
Hannah Montana is an American teen sitcom created by Michael Poryes,
Rich Correll, and Barry O'Brien that aired on Disney Channel for four
seasons between March 2006 and January 2011. The series centers on
Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus), a teenage girl living a double life as the
famous pop singer Hannah Montana (pictured), an alter ego she adopted so
she could maintain her anonymity and live a normal life as a typical
teenager. The Walt Disney Company commissioned the series to continue
its successful line of music-based franchises. Hannah Montana is one of
Disney Channel's most commercially successful franchises; the program
influenced the development of merchandise, soundtrack albums, and
concert tours. It also helped launch Cyrus's musical career and
established her as a teen idol. Hannah Montana was nominated for four
Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children's Program from 2007 to
2010. However, television critics disliked the writing and depiction of
gender roles and stereotypes.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Montana>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1852:
Frederick Douglass gave his speech known as "What to the Slave
Is the Fourth of July?", arguing that positive statements about liberty,
citizenship, and freedom, were an offense to the enslaved population of
the United States because of their lack of those things.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F>
1937:
The Hormel Foods Corporation introduced Spam, the canned
precooked meat product that would eventually enter into pop culture,
folklore, and urban legend.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_%28food%29>
1950:
Korean War: In the first encounter between North Korean and
American forces, an unprepared and undisciplined U.S. Army task force
was routed at the Battle of Osan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Osan>
2012:
The Shard in London was inaugurated as the tallest building in
Europe, with a height of 310 m (1,020 ft), but was surpassed by
Moscow's Mercury City Tower four months later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shard>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
insufferable:
Not sufferable; very difficult or impossible to endure; intolerable,
unbearable.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/insufferable>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I am a showman by profession … and all the gilding shall make
nothing else of me.
--P. T. Barnum
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/P._T._Barnum>
In 1948, Harry S. Truman contested the presidency of the United States.
Truman (pictured), a Democrat, ascended to the presidency upon the death
of Franklin D. Roosevelt. His pro–civil rights views were opposed by
most of the Southern Democrats; when the Democratic National Convention
adopted his civil rights plank, a large group of Southerners walked out.
Truman selected Alben W. Barkley as his running mate. Campaigning
against Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate, Truman called the
Republican-controlled 80th Congress a "do-nothing Congress". He
conducted a whistle-stop tour giving speeches in different states. With
the split of the Democratic Party, most of the polls predicted Truman to
lose the election. On the election day, before the declaration of final
results, an early edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune printed the
headline "Dewey Defeats Truman", boldly anticipating Dewey's victory.
Truman won the election in one of the greatest upset victories,
receiving 303 electoral votes.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman_1948_presidential_campaign>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
In a boat on the River Thames from Oxford to Godstow, author
Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that later
formed the basis for his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland>
1892:
Western Samoa changed the International Date Line, causing
Monday (July 4) to occur twice, resulting in a year with 367 days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line>
1918:
World War I: Allied forces led by the Australian general John
Monash won the Battle of Hamel, demonstrating the effectiveness of
combined-arms techniques in trench warfare.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hamel>
1982:
Four Iranian diplomats were kidnapped after they were stopped
at a checkpoint in northern Lebanon by Lebanese Phalange forces; their
fates remain unknown.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_kidnapping_of_Iranian_diplomats>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Fourth of July:
1. (chiefly US) The national holiday of Independence Day in the United
States, celebrated on the fourth day in July to mark the anniversary of
the signing of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain in
1776.
2. (chiefly US) A cocktail containing one part grenadine syrup, one part
vodka, and one part blue curaçao, reminiscent of the red, white, and
blue colours of the United States flag, often poured in layers so that
the colours do not mix when the drink is served.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Fourth_of_July>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Democracy is not a tearing down; it is a building up. It is not
denial of the divine right of kings; it supplements that same with the
assertion of the divine right of all men. It does not destroy; it
fulfills. It is the consummation of all theories of government, the
spirit of which all the nations of the earth must yield. It is the great
constructive course of the ages. It is the alpha and omega of man's
relation to man, the beginning and the end. There is, and can be, no
more doubt of the triumphs of democracy in human affairs than there is
of the triumph of gravitation in the physical world. The only question
is how and when. Its foundation lays hold upon eternity.
--Calvin Coolidge
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge>
The common tern (Sterna hirundo) is a seabird with four subspecies
breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North
America. This tern is migratory, wintering in warmer coastal regions.
Adults have light grey upperparts, whiter underparts, a black cap,
orange-red legs, and a narrow pointed black-tipped red or all-black
bill. The bird nests on any flat bare surface close to water, including
rafts. The nest is a scrape lined with whatever is available. It lays up
to three blotchy camouflaged eggs, incubated by both sexes, that hatch
in around 21 to 22 days. The downy chicks fledge in 22 to 28 days. This
tern feeds by plunge-diving for fish in the sea or freshwater. Eggs and
young are vulnerable to predation by mammals and large birds. The
common tern's large population and huge breeding range mean that it is
classed as being of least concern. Despite international protection, in
some areas populations are threatened by habitat loss or the disturbance
of breeding colonies.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_tern>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1754:
French and Indian War: George Washington surrendered Fort
Necessity in Pennsylvania, the only military surrender in his career.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Necessity>
1952:
SS United States departed New York Harbor on her maiden
voyage, on which completion she became the fastest ocean liner to cross
the Atlantic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_United_States>
1970:
Dan-Air Flight 1903 crashed into the slopes of the Montseny
Massif in Catalonia, Spain, killing all 112 people aboard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan-Air_Flight_1903>
2005:
Same-sex marriage became legal in Spain with the coming into
effect of a law passed by the Cortes Generales.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Spain>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
mali:
1. (India, South Asia) A member of a caste in South Asia whose
traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener.
2. (South Africa) Money, cash.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mali>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We cross our bridges when we come to them, and burn them behind
us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell
of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.
--Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rosencrantz_%26_Guildenstern_Are_Dead_%28film…>
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a 1792 book of feminist
philosophy by Mary Wollstonecraft. Wollstonecraft argues that women
ought to have an education commensurate with their position in society,
claiming that women are essential to the nation because they educate its
children and could be "companions" to their husbands. Instead of viewing
women as ornaments or property, she maintains that they are human beings
deserving of the same fundamental rights as men. Wollstonecraft was
prompted to write the Rights of Woman by Charles-Maurice de
Talleyrand-Périgord's 1791 report to the French National Assembly which
stated that women should only receive a domestic education; she
commented to launch a broad attack against sexual double standards and
to indict men for encouraging women to be excessively emotional. She
wrote the Rights of Woman hurriedly in order to respond quickly; she
died before completing a more thoughtful second volume. (This article
is part of a featured topic: Mary Wollstonecraft.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Mary_Wollstonecraft>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1816:
The French frigate Méduse ran aground off the coast of
present-day Mauritania, with the survivors escaping on a makeshift raft,
depicted in Théodore Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa
(pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raft_of_the_Medusa>
1890:
The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first
United States government action to limit monopolies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Antitrust_Act_of_1890>
1917:
Amidst weeks of race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, white
residents burned sections of the city and shot black inhabitants as they
escaped the flames.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis_riots>
2013:
A Mw 6.1 strike-slip earthquake killed at least 35 people and
injured 276 others in the Indonesian province of Aceh on the northern
end of Sumatra.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Aceh_earthquake>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
fray:
1. (transitive)
2. To rub or wear away (something); to cause (something made of strands
twisted or woven together, such as cloth or rope) to unravel through
friction; also, to irritate (something) through chafing or rubbing; to
chafe.
3. (specifically) Of a deer: to rub (its antlers or head) against a
tree, etc., to remove the velvet from antlers or to mark territory;
also, to rub its antlers against (a tree, etc.) for that purpose.
4. To force or make (a path, way, etc.) through.
5. (obsolete) To bruise (someone or something); also, to take the
virginity of (someone, usually a female person); to deflower.
6. (intransitive)
7. To become unravelled or worn; to unravel.
8. To rub.
9. (specifically) Of a deer: to rub its antlers against a tree, etc., to
remove the velvet or to mark territory.
10. (figuratively) Of a person's mental strength, nerves, temper, etc.:
to become exhausted or worn out.
11. (archaic or obsolete) A consequence of rubbing, unravelling, or
wearing away; a fraying; also, a place where fraying has occurred.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fray>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
All the tasks are in themselves small, but each one has to be
carried out at its proper hour, and the day has far more tasks than
hours. That is well; one would not want it to be different. But if we
ever think, between classroom, archives, secretariat, consulting room,
meetings, and official journeys — if we ever think of the freedom we
possessed and have lost, the freedom for self-chosen tasks, for
unlimited, far-flung studies, we may well feel the greatest yearning for
those days, and imagine that if we ever had such freedom again we would
fully enjoy its pleasures and potentialities.
--Hermann Hesse
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hermann_Hesse>