"Made You Look" is a song by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor
(pictured) from her fifth major-label studio album, Takin' It Back
(2022). Trainor wrote the song with Sean Douglas and its producer,
Federico Vindver. Epic Records released it as the album's second single
on October 31, 2022. A doo-wop song, "Made You Look" was inspired by
Trainor's body image insecurities and encourages listeners to embrace
their natural beauty. Critics called it flirtatious and compared it to
Trainor's past songs. Its dance challenge trended on TikTok. In the US,
it peaked at number 11, becoming Trainor's first top-20 single since
"Me Too" (2016). It reached the top 10 in Australia, Belgium, Canada,
Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, the UK, and Vietnam. Its
colorful music video features cameos by social media influencers.
Trainor performed the song on television shows such as Today and The
Tonight Show. (This article is part of two featured topics: Takin' It
Back and Meghan Trainor's Billboard Hot 100 entries.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Meghan_Trainor%27s_…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1867:
The first and second of three treaties were signed near
Medicine Lodge, Kansas, between the United States federal government and
several Native American tribes in the Great Plains, requiring them to
relocate to areas in present-day western Oklahoma.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_Lodge_Treaty>
1941:
World War II: German soldiers massacred nearly 2,800 Serbs in
Kragujevac in reprisal for insurgent attacks in the district of Gornji
Milanovac.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kragujevac_massacre>
1968:
At the height of the Japanese university protests, protestors
occupied Shinjuku Station and clashed violently with police.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjuku_riot>
1994:
In Seoul, South Korea, 32 people were killed and 17 others
injured when a span of the Seongsu Bridge collapsed (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seongsu_Bridge_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
off-worlder:
(fantasy, science fiction) One who is not from the local world (whether
a dimension, plane, planet, or universe); an alien.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/off-worlder>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to
an excess, that itself will need reforming.
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge>
Hurricane Willa was a powerful tropical cyclone that brought torrential
rains and destructive winds to the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Nayarit
in October 2018. It was the twenty-second named storm, thirteenth
hurricane, and tenth major hurricane of the 2018 Pacific hurricane
season, and tied a record as that season's third Category 5 hurricane.
Willa originated from a tropical wave in the southwestern Caribbean Sea
that crossed over Central America into the East Pacific without
significant organization. On October 20 the system developed into a
tropical depression, and strengthened later in the day into Tropical
Storm Willa. It peaked as a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds
of 160 mph (260 km/h) two days later. On October 24, Willa made
landfall in Sinaloa as a marginal Category 3 hurricane. It killed nine
people, and caused more than MXN$16 billion (US$820 million) in
damage. (This article is part of a featured topic: Category 5 Pacific
hurricanes.) .
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Category_5_Pacific_…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1951:
African-American college football player Johnny Bright was the
victim of an on-field assault, eventually leading to changes in NCAA
football rules that mandated the use of more protective helmets with
face guards.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Bright_incident>
1967:
Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin filmed an unidentified
subject, which they claimed was Bigfoot, at Six Rivers National Forest
in California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson%E2%80%93Gimlin_film>
1984:
The Spanish trawler Sonia sank in British waters after a five-
hour chase by the Irish Naval Service patrol vessel Aisling, during
which almost 600 shots were fired.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Spanish_trawler_Sonia>
1991:
An earthquake struck the Indian state of Uttarakhand, killing
at least 768 people and destroying thousands of homes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Uttarkashi_earthquake>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
millennial:
1. Thousand-year-old; also (by extension, loosely) thousands of years
old.
2. Occurring every thousand years.
3. Occurring at, or relating to, the beginning or end of a millennium.
4. Referring to the thousandth anniversary of an event or happening.
5. (by extension, originally US, demography) Often capitalized: of or
relating to, or characteristic of, people born in the last two decades
of the 20th century from around the early 1980s to the mid 1990s, and
who reached adulthood early in the third millennium C.E.
6. (Christianity) Synonym of millenarian (“pertaining to the belief in
an impending period of one thousand years of peace and righteousness
associated with the Second Coming of Christ and his reign on earth”)
7. (originally US, demography) Often capitalized: a person from the
generation born in the last two decades of the 20th century, from around
the early 1980s to the mid-1990s and who reached adulthood early in the
third millennium C.E., characterized by their familiarity with computer
technology and poorer financial prospects than their parents.
8. (obsolete) A thousandth anniversary; also, a celebration of such an
anniversary.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/millennial>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Well I fought for you; I fought too hard. To do it all again
babe, It's gone too far.
--Tom Petty
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Petty>
Spacewar! is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve
Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob
Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. The first video game known to be
played at multiple computer installations, it was popular in the small
American programming community in the 1960s. Players wage a dogfight
between two spaceships with limited weaponry and fuel in the gravity
well of a star. Spacewar! was written for the newly installed Digital
Equipment PDP-1, a minicomputer, at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and the public domain code was widely ported. Saunders built
an early gamepad controller for the game. It directly inspired many
electronic games, such as the first commercial arcade video games,
Galaxy Game and Computer Space (both 1971), and later games such as
Asteroids (1979). In 2007, Spacewar! was named to a list of the ten most
important video games of all time, which formed the start of the game
canon at the Library of Congress.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar!>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1752:
The Pennsylvania Gazette published a statement by Benjamin
Franklin describing a kite experiment (depicted) to determine the
electrical nature of lightning.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_experiment>
1914:
First World War: Allied forces began engaging German troops at
the First Battle of Ypres.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Ypres>
1987:
Iran–Iraq War: U.S. Navy forces destroyed two Iranian oil
platforms in the Persian Gulf in response to an Iranian missile attack
on a Kuwaiti oil tanker three days earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Nimble_Archer>
2013:
British YouTube collective the Sidemen were formed as a
Rockstar Games Social Club group in Grand Theft Auto Online.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidemen>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
honeycomb:
1. (uncountable) A substance made by bees (clade Anthophila) primarily
from beeswax which has hexagonal cells to hold their larvae, and for
storing pollen and honey to feed the larvae and themselves when other
food is scarce; it is also eaten by humans as part of comb-honey;
(countable) a single sheet made up of two layers of this substance.
2. (countable, by extension) Something resembling honeycomb (sense 1) in
having numerous cells or small holes.
3. (countable, geometry) A space-filling packing of polytopes in three-
or higher-dimensional space.
4. (countable, technology)
5. The texture of the surface of a solar cell, intended to increase its
surface area and capture more sunlight.
6. (archaic) A defect in a material (especially metal) where small holes
are present; specifically (construction), a defect in concrete
consisting of numerous voids resulting from the failure of mortar to
effectively fill the spaces among coarse aggregate particles.
7. (chiefly aviation) Material manufactured with small hollow cells,
sometimes sandwiched between two flat sheets, which is used to make
light, stiff structural components.
8. (countable, zoology) Short for honeycomb stomach (“the reticulum or
second compartment of the stomach of a cow or other ruminant”).
9. (uncountable, architecture) Short for honeycomb work (“especially in
Moorish architecture: a form of ceiling ornamentation (especially of an
arch or dome) made up of small vaulted arches”).
10. (countable, figurative) Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness;
hence, something desirable or pleasant.
11. (countable, archaic) Used as a term of endearment: honey,
sweetheart.
12. (uncountable, chiefly Australia, Britain, often attributive) A
crumbly confection usually made by boiling together golden syrup, sugar,
bicarbonate of soda, and water.
13. (transitive, often passive voice)
14. To riddle (something) with small holes, especially in a pattern
resembling a honeycomb (noun sense 1); also, to cause (something) to
become hollow or weakened in this way.
15. To bore cavities or tunnels inside (something).
16. To decorate (something) with a honeycomb pattern.
17. (figurative, chiefly passive voice) To make way deeply into
(something) so as to weaken it; to undermine.
18. (architecture) To ornament (a ceiling) with honeycomb work (see noun
sense 2.4).
19. (intransitive, also figurative, archaic) To become riddled with
small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb; also, to
become hollow or weakened in this way.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/honeycomb>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I would die happy if I knew that on my tombstone could be written
these words, "This man was an absolute fool. None of the disastrous
things that he reluctantly predicted ever came to pass!".
--Lewis Mumford
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_Mumford>
Growing Up Absurd is a 1960 book by Paul Goodman (pictured) on the
relationship between American juvenile delinquency and the lack of
societal opportunities to fulfill natural needs. It drew from his prior
works, psychotherapy practice, and personal experiences and
relationships. The book was rejected by nineteen publishers before
Norman Podhoretz used selections from it to relaunch the magazine
Commentary. Published in hardback by Random House in 1960, and in
paperback by Vintage Books in 1962, the book became a bestseller with
100,000 copies sold in its first three years, and was widely read across
1960s college campuses and by student activists and the New Left. The
book argues that young American men were justified in their disaffection
because their society lacked the preconditions for growing up, such as
meaningful work, honorable community, and sexual freedom. In later
years, it was criticized for excluding women from its analysis. It was
reissued in 2012 by New York Review Books.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growing_Up_Absurd>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1748:
The War of the Austrian Succession ended with the signing of
the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Aix-la-Chapelle_%281748%29>
1873:
Renton defeated Kilmarnock 2–0 in the opening match of the
inaugural Scottish Cup.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1873%E2%80%9374_Scottish_Cup>
1968:
At the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, American athlete Bob
Beamon achieved a distance of 8.90 m (29.2 ft) in the long jump event,
setting a world record that stood for 23 years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Beamon>
2019:
Protests in Santiago that started 11 days prior escalated into
open battle against the Chilean national police, forcing President
Sebastián Piñera to declare a state of emergency.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932022_Chilean_protests>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
stanch:
1. (transitive, archaic except poetic) To stop the flow of (water or
some other liquid).
2. To stop the flow of (blood); also, to stop (a wound) from bleeding.
3. To make (a building or other structure) watertight or weatherproof.
4. (transitive) To check or stop, or deter (an action).
5. To stop the progression of (an illness); also, to alleviate (pain);
often followed by of: to relieve (someone's) pain.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To extinguish or put out (a fire, anger,
etc.); also, to quench or satisfy (desire, hunger, thirst, etc.).
7. (intransitive, also reflexive) Of bleeding: to stop.
8. (intransitive, also reflexive, obsolete) Of an occurrence or other
thing: to come to an end; to cease; also, of persons: to stop acting
violently. [...]
9. A floodgate by which water is accumulated, for floating a boat over a
shallow part of a stream by its release; also, a dam or lock in a river.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stanch>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than
other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.
--Moby-Dick
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick>
The planet Venus has been used as a setting in fiction since before the
19th century. Its impenetrable cloud cover gave writers free rein to
speculate on conditions at Venus's surface, which was often depicted as
warmer than Earth's but habitable. Images of a lush, verdant paradise,
an oceanic planet, or fetid swampland, often inhabited by dinosaur-like
beasts or other monsters, became common in early pulp science fiction,
particularly from the 1930s to the 1950s. Some stories portrayed the
surface as a desert, or invented more exotic settings. Venusians were
often portrayed as gentle, ethereal, beautiful, and female, after the
Roman goddess Venus. Since the discovery of Venus's harsh surface
conditions, the planet has mostly been portrayed as a hostile, toxic
inferno. Some stories have imagined the planet's colonization and
terraforming, although the vision of a tropical Venus has occasionally
been revisited in intentionally retro stories.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_in_fiction>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1931:
American gangster Al Capone was convicted on five counts of
income-tax evasion.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone>
1952:
Indonesian Army elements surrounded the Merdeka Palace,
demanding that President Sukarno disband the Provisional People's
Representative Council.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_October_affair>
1973:
Yom Kippur War: Egyptian forces retreated from the Battle of
the Chinese Farm, allowing Israeli forces to build their first bridge
across the Suez Canal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Chinese_Farm>
2000:
A fatal rail accident at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, led to the
introduction of widespread speed limit reductions throughout the British
rail network and eventually caused the collapse of the railway
management group Railtrack.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railtrack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
emboss:
1. To cause (something) to stick out or swell; to extrude; also, to
cause (someone or something) to be covered in swellings.
2. To make (a design on a coin, an ornament on an object, etc.) stand
out from a surface.
3. To represent (a subject) on an object in relief; also, of a design or
subject: to stand out on (an object) in relief.
4. To decorate or mark (something) with a design or symbol in relief.
5. To decorate (something) with bosses (“ornamental convex
protuberances”); to boss; hence, to decorate (something) richly.
6. (figurative)
7. To cause (something) to be prominent or stand out.
8. (obsolete) To make (speech, etc.) unduly bombastic or grand.
9. (obsolete, rare) Synonym of boss (“a knob or projection”) [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/emboss>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Be grateful for the highs — and be grateful for the lows —
'cause it's in the lows where you learn.
--Suzanne Somers
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Suzanne_Somers>
Walt Disney (1901–1966) was an American animator, film producer and
entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he holds the
individual records for the most Academy Award wins (22) and nominations
(59). On October 16, 1923, he founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio
with his brother Roy. He created the character Mickey Mouse and, as the
studio grew, introduced synchronized sound, full-color three-strip
Technicolor and technical developments in cameras. He expanded into
feature-length cartoons, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(1937), Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi
(1942), and made live-action films like Mary Poppins (1964). He opened
Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in 1955, and was working on another
theme park, Disney World, in 1965. Disney was shy and self-deprecating
in private but adopted a warm and outgoing public persona. He is widely
acknowledged as a national cultural icon.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1841:
The Church of Scotland established Queen's College in Kingston,
Ontario, in Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_University_at_Kingston>
1923:
Roy and Walt Disney founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio
in Hollywood, which eventually grew to become one of the largest media
and entertainment corporations in the world.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company>
1964:
With the success of Project 596 (mushroom cloud pictured),
China became the world's fifth nuclear power.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_596>
1991:
A man drove his vehicle through the window of a Luby's
Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, and opened fire, killing 23 people before
fatally shooting himself.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
abligurition:
(chiefly archaic, rare) Prodigal expenditure on food.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/abligurition>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A function of free speech under our system of government is to
invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purposes when it
induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions
as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative
and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have
profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea.
--William O. Douglas
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_O._Douglas>
Kyriakos Pittakis (1798–1863) was a Greek archaeologist. The first
Greek to serve as the head of the country's archaeological service, he
carried out the conservation and restoration of monuments on the
Acropolis of Athens. Largely self-taught as an archaeologist, he was one
of the few native Greeks active in the field during the late Ottoman
period and the early years of the Kingdom of Greece, playing an
influential role in the early years of the archaeological service. A
founding member of the Archaeological Society of Athens, he was prolific
both as an excavator and as a writer, publishing by his own estimation
more than 4,000 inscriptions. He has been praised for his extensive
efforts to uncover and protect Greece's classical heritage, particularly
in Athens and the adjacent islands, but criticised for his unsystematic
and incautious approach. His reconstructions of ancient monuments often
prioritised aesthetics over fidelity to the original, and were largely
reverted after his death.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyriakos_Pittakis>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1888:
George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance
Committee in London, received the "From Hell" letter, allegedly from
Jack the Ripper.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Hell_letter>
1965:
Vietnam War protests: At an anti-war rally in New York City,
David J. Miller burned his draft card (example pictured), the first such
act to result in arrest under a new amendment to the Selective Service
Act.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft-card_burning>
1979:
President Carlos Humberto Romero of El Salvador was overthrown
and exiled in a military coup d'état.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Salvadoran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dictionaryese:
(informal) The style of language used in dictionary definitions,
characterized by dry, straightforward, and occasionally awkward
phrasing.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dictionaryese>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Few things in life can be so appalling as the difference between
a dry antiseptic statement of a principle by a well spoken man in a
quiet office, and what happens to people when that principle is put into
practice.
--John Kenneth Galbraith
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith>
The Tinder Fire was a wildfire that burned 16,309 acres (66.00 km2) of
the Coconino National Forest in the U.S. state of Arizona during April
and May 2018. The 2017 Arizona wildfires had been followed by drought,
including a historically dry winter season. The Tinder Fire was detected
from a lookout tower of the U.S. Forest Service on April 27, and
firefighters began working to contain its spread within the day. Stoked
by strong winds, low humidity, and high temperatures, the fire grew
rapidly over late April, prompting the closure of Arizona State
Route 87 and evacuation orders for 1,000 houses in Coconino County.
These orders remained until May 4. Almost 700 firefighters were
involved in combating the fire, which was fully contained on May 24. It
destroyed 96 buildings, including 33 homes, and cost $7,500,000 to
contain and suppress. An investigation determined that the Tinder Fire
was caused by an illegal campfire.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinder_Fire>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1888:
French inventor Louis Le Prince filmed Roundhay Garden Scene
(featured), the earliest surviving motion picture, in Leeds, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundhay_Garden_Scene>
1956:
B. R. Ambedkar, a leader of India's "Untouchable" caste,
publicly converted to Buddhism and became the leader of the Dalit
Buddhist movement.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit_Buddhist_movement>
1979:
At least 75,000 people attended the National March on
Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington, D.C., to demand
equal civil rights for LGBT people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_March_on_Washington_for_Lesbian_and_…>
2021:
Approximately 10,000 John Deere employees went on strike in one
of the largest private-sector strikes in the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_John_Deere_strike>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
annulus:
1. A ring- or donut-shaped area or structure.
2. (anatomy) A ring of fibrous tissue; specifically (cardiology), such a
ring around an opening of a heart valve, to which the valve leaflets and
muscle fibres of the atria and ventricles are attached; an annulus
fibrosus cordis.
3. (astronomy) A ring of light in a celestial body, especially when
caused by an annular eclipse (for example, when the Sun and Moon are in
line with the Earth, but the Moon does not completely cover the Sun's
disc).
4. (biology)
5. (botany) A structure surrounding a sporangium (or part of it) which
shrinks and causes it to rupture for spore dispersal; specifically, in a
fern: a structure around about two-thirds of the sporangium consisting
of differentially thick-walled cells which dry and distort the
sporangium; and in a moss: a complete ring of cells around the tip of
the sporangium which dissolves to cause the tip to detach.
6. (mycology) The membranous remnants of a partial veil which leaves a
ring on the stem of a mushroom.
7. (mathematics)
8. (geometry) The region in a plane between two concentric circles of
different radii.
9. (topology) Any topological space homeomorphic to the region in a
plane between two concentric circles of different radii.
10. (technology) In a well such as an oil well or water well: the space
between a pipe or tube and any pipe, tube, casing, or sides of a hole
surrounding it.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/annulus>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The hand of the aggressor is stayed by strength — and strength
alone.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower>
Raymond III (1140–1187) was the count of Tripoli (in modern-day
Lebanon) from 1152 until his death. The son of Raymond II and Hodierna
of Jerusalem, he was a minor when he succeeded his father. After
reaching the age of majority in 1155, he fought the powerful Muslim
ruler Nur ad-Din, and hired pirates to pillage Byzantine territories.
>From 1164, he spent nearly ten years in Muslim captivity. Marrying the
wealthy heiress Eschiva of Bures made him prince of Galilee in the
Kingdom of Jerusalem. A close relative of the royal family, he ruled
Jerusalem as regent for Baldwin IV between 1174 and 1176, and for the
child Baldwin V from 1185 to 1186. After the child king's death, he
could not prevent the coronation of Baldwin V's mother Sibylla and her
husband Guy of Lusignan. He paid homage to Guy only after Jerusalem was
invaded by Saladin, the Muslim ruler of Egypt and Syria. One of the few
crusader leaders who escaped from the battlefield at Hattin, he died
soon after, probably of pleurisy.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_III,_Count_of_Tripoli>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1843:
B'nai B'rith (membership certificate pictured), the world's
oldest continually operating Jewish service organization, was founded in
New York City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27nai_B%27rith>
1917:
At least 30,000 people witnessed the Miracle of the Sun in the
fields of Cova da Iria near Fátima, Portugal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_Sun>
1961:
Newly elected Burundian prime minister Louis Rwagasore was
assassinated by his political rivals.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Rwagasore>
2013:
During the Hindu festival of Navaratri at a temple in Madhya
Pradesh, India, rumours about an impending bridge collapse caused a
stampede that resulted in 115 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Madhya_Pradesh_stampede>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
covey:
1. A brood or family of partridges (family Phasianidae), which includes
game birds such as grouse (tribe Tetraonini) and ptarmigans (tribe
Tetraonini, genus Lagopus).
2. (by extension)
3. A group of other birds, such as quail (superfamily Phasianoidea).
4. (figurative) A group or party of people; also, a group or set of
things.
5. (intransitive) To gather into a group. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/covey>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
As many here know, Hamas launched its attack on Simchat Torah.
This is the day that Jews celebrate finishing the reading of the Torah.
This Saturday, Jews around the world will chant the first words of the
book of Genesis. They’ll read that in the beginning, there was
darkness; and then there was light. That the first person was alone
until a partner joined them. I’m standing here today alongside our
Israeli friends and all those who reject terror to help find the
glimmers of light, even in this moment of deep darkness, and to make
clear as that as long as there’s a United States, Israel will never be
alone.
--Antony Blinken
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Antony_Blinken>
The Private Case is a collection of erotica and pornography held
initially by the British Museum and, from 1973, by the British Library.
The collection began between 1836 and 1870 and grew from the receipt of
books from legal deposit, and from requests made to the police following
seizures of obscene material. Access to the material in the Private Case
was restricted. At its height numbering some 4,000 items, the contents
of the Private Case shrank as works were moved to the general
collection, and grew with the arrival of bequests and donations from
collectors. From 1964, reflecting the changing social mores of the time,
the library began to review the Private Case, allowing public access to
its contents, a process that was completed in 1983. There have been no
new entries since 1990 and all new erotic and pornographic material is
put on open access in the general collection. There is no restriction on
access to Private Case material, except for some items which are in a
fragile condition.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Case>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1890:
The Uddevalla Suffrage Association was founded in Uddevalla,
Sweden, with the purpose of bringing about universal suffrage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uddevalla_Suffrage_Association>
1928:
The iron lung (example pictured), a type of medical ventilator,
was used for the first time, to treat an eight-year-old girl paralyzed
by polio.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_lung>
1933:
The United States Department of Justice acquired a military
prison on Alcatraz Island, transforming it over the next year into the
last-resort Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Federal_Penitentiary>
1960:
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev reportedly pounded his shoe on
a desk during a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in
protest at a speech by Philippine delegate Lorenzo Sumulong.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-banging_incident>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
winker:
1. A person or an animal that winks (“blinks with one eye; blinks with
one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication
of conspiracy”).
2. A person who connives with another; a conniver.
3. A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks.
4. (automotive, informal) Synonym of turn signal (“each of the flashing
lights on each side of a vehicle which is used to indicate that the
vehicle is moving left or right”); a blinker, an indicator.
5. (equestrianism, also attributive and figurative) Chiefly in the
plural: synonym of blinker (“a shield attached to the bridle of a horse
or other domesticated animal to prevent it from seeing things behind it
and to its side”)
6. (music) A small bellows in an organ, regulated by a spring, which
controls variations of wind pressure.
7. (ornithology) The nictitating membrane (“transparent protective fold
of skin acting as an inner eyelid”) of a birds's eye.
8. (Britain, dialectal or slang) An eye.
9. (Britain, US, dialectal or slang) An eyelash. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/winker>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
No one can ever forget what the terrorists did in Israel.
Thousands of missiles against peaceful cities. Shooting people in cars
on the roads. Men, women, children. No one was spared. Streets covered
in blood. Hostages. The terrorists themselves gave the world footage of
the atrocities, and were proud of them. Women who were beaten. Elderly
people who were kidnapped from their homes. Abducted children. And we do
not yet know how many people were captured and brutally taken away by
the terrorists. They even tried to humiliate the dead by mocking their
bodies. We saw all of this in Israel. And the Israelis themselves —
Israeli journalists who were here in Ukraine, who were in Bucha, are now
saying that they saw the same evil where Russia came. The same evil, and
the only difference is that there is a terrorist organization that
attacked Israel, and here is a terrorist state that attacked Ukraine.
The intentions declared are different, but the essence is the same. You
see it. You see the same blood on the streets. You see the same civilian
cars shot up. You see the same bodies of people who have been tortured.
--Volodymyr Zelenskyy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy>