Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an English fossil
collector and palaeontologist. She made discoveries of Jurassic marine
fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis, which
changed the scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history
of the Earth. Her discoveries included the first correctly identified
ichthyosaur skeleton, the first two nearly complete plesiosaur
skeletons, and the first pterosaur skeleton outside Germany. Her
observations helped prove that coprolites were fossilised faeces and
that belemnite fossils contained ink sacs. As a woman, Anning could not
join the Geological Society of London and struggled to receive credit
for her contributions. Henry De la Beche painted Duria Antiquior based
on fossils Anning had found and sold its prints for her benefit. After
her death, an article about her life was published in Charles Dickens's
literary magazine All the Year Round. A statue of Anning was erected in
2022, and she has been depicted in film and in manga.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1864:
American Civil War: The inconclusive Battle of Spotsylvania
Court House in Virginia ended with combined Union and Confederate
casualties totaling around 31,000.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Spotsylvania_Court_House>
1894:
The Manchester Ship Canal, linking Manchester in North West
England to the Irish Sea, officially opened, becoming the world's
largest navigation canal at the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Ship_Canal>
1924:
University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard
Loeb (both pictured) murdered a 14-year-old boy in a thrill killing out
of a desire to commit a "perfect crime".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_and_Loeb>
2014:
A Taiwanese man carried out a stabbing spree on a Taipei Metro
train, killing four people and injuring 24 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Taipei_Metro_attack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Eurafrican:
1. A person of mixed European and African descent.
2. An African person with European ancestors.
3. (South Africa) Synonym of colored (“a person having ancestry from
more than one of the racial groups of Southern Africa (black, white, and
Asian)”)
4. Of or relating to the continents of, or countries in, both Europe and
Africa; having both European and African characteristics.
5. Of a person: of mixed European and African descent; (specifically,
South Africa) synonym of colored (“belonging to a multiracial ethnic
group or category, having ancestry from more than one of the racial
groups of Southern Africa (black, white, and Asian)”)
6. (anthropology, archaic) Of a person: from the parts of Europe and
North Africa surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Eurafrican>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I
often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon
constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe
me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women;
when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no
constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. ... It is
not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not the freedom to do as one
likes. That is the denial of liberty and leads straight to its
overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check on their freedom
soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage
few.
--Learned Hand
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Learned_Hand>
City of Champaign v. Madigan is a 2013 case decided by the Appellate
Court of the US state of Illinois, ruling that messages sent and
received by elected officials during a city council meeting and
pertaining to public business are public records subject to disclosure,
even when stored on personal electronic devices. It was the first court
ruling in Illinois to hold that private messages were subject to
disclosure under the state's Freedom of Information Act. The case
addressed a public records request from a reporter for The News-Gazette
in Champaign, Illinois, who observed city council members and the mayor
using their personal electronic devices to send messages during a city
council meeting. City officials denied the reporter's request; the case
eventually reached the Appellate Court, which held that public officials
have to disclose their records, even if they are stored on a personal
electronic device or account, but only when acting as a public body,
such as during a council meeting.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Champaign_v._Madigan>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1714:
Johann Sebastian Bach directed the first performance of his
Pentecost cantata Erschallet, ihr Lieder at the chapel of Schloss Weimar
(pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erschallet,_ihr_Lieder,_erklinget,_ihr_Saiten…>
1927:
With the signing of the Treaty of Jeddah, the United Kingdom
recognized the sovereignty of Ibn Saud over Hejaz and Nejd, which later
merged to become Saudi Arabia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Saud>
1941:
World War II: German paratroopers began the Battle of
Heraklion on the island of Crete, capturing the airfield and port in
Heraklion ten days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Heraklion>
1983:
uMkhonto we Sizwe, the paramilitary wing of the African
National Congress, detonated a car bomb in Pretoria, resulting in 19
deaths and 217 injuries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Street,_Pretoria_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
melliferous:
1. (botany) Of a plant or its parts: bearing any substance (such as
nectar or pollen) which is collected by bees to produce honey.
2. (by extension) Producing honey.
3. (figurative) Honeyed, sweet.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/melliferous>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution, is one of
those pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they
pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes. History teems
with instances of truth put down by persecution. If not suppressed for
ever, it may be thrown back for centuries. … Men are not more zealous
for truth than they often are for error, and a sufficient application of
legal or even of social penalties will generally succeed in stopping the
propagation of either. The real advantage which truth has, consists in
this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice,
or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found
persons to rediscover it, until some one of its reappearances falls on a
time when from favourable circumstances it escapes persecution until it
has made such head as to withstand all subsequent attempts to suppress
it.
--John Stuart Mill
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill>
"Gento" is a song recorded by the Filipino boy band SB19 (pictured). It
was written by the band's leader, Pablo, and produced along with his
brother Joshua Daniel Nase and the record producer Simon Servida. The
lyrics of the pop and hip hop track are themed around empowerment and
use gold mining as a metaphor for achieving success. Sony Music
Philippines released the song on May 19, 2023, as the lead single from
the boy band's second extended play (EP), Pagtatag! (2023). The song won
multiple awards, and critics praised its catchiness and lyricism. A
dance challenge set to the song became a trend on TikTok. "Gento"
achieved top-15 chart positions in the Philippines and on Billboard's
World Digital Song Sales chart; SB19 became the first Filipino group to
enter the chart. The band promoted the song with a music video depicting
them mining for gold and with various live performances, including on
their Pagtatag! World Tour.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gento_%28song%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1743:
French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin published the design of a
mercury thermometer using the centigrade scale, with 0 representing the
melting point of water and 100 its boiling point.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius>
1828:
The United States Congress passed the largest tariff in the
nation's history, which resulted in severe economic hardship in the
American South.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff_of_Abominations>
1915:
First World War: Australian and New Zealand troops repelled the
third attack on Anzac Cove, inflicting heavy casualties on the attacking
Ottoman forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_attack_on_Anzac_Cove>
2018:
The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (both pictured)
took place at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_of_Prince_Harry_and_Meghan_Markle>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sail close to the wind:
1. (nautical) To sail in a direction close to that from which the wind
is blowing, while still making headway.
2. (figurative) To behave in a manner that is on the verge of being
dangerous, illegal, or improper.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sail_close_to_the_wind>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Usually in an argument, I can see the other person's point of
view. It comes down to three basic things: different information,
different perception and different values. Once you can see where people
come from you can consider if the other person has better information
and compare their values and perceptions to yours. I am willing to
listen.
--Edward de Bono
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_de_Bono>
Tropical Storm Hernan was a short-lived tropical cyclone that caused
widespread flooding and destructive mudslides across southwestern Mexico
in late August 2020. The eighth named storm of the 2020 Pacific
hurricane season, Hernan formed to the southwest of Mexico on
August 26. The cyclone peaked with maximum sustained winds of 70 km/h
(45 mph) and a minimum atmospheric pressure of 1001 mbar (hPa;
29.56 inHg) before passing just offshore western Mexico and dissipating
in the Gulf of California. Despite not making landfall, Hernan dropped
extremely heavy rainfall across several states, peaking at nearly
610 mm (24 in) in Jalisco. More than 305 mm (12 in) of rain fell
across the Costa Grande of Guerrero from August 24 to 27. A total of
1,674 homes and 9 schools suffered severe damage. A man died after
falling off his roof while checking for storm damage. The cyclone caused
MXN$594.05 million (USD$26.91 million) in damage across seven states
along the Pacific coast of Mexico.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Hernan_%282020%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1695:
An earthquake measuring '"`UNIQ--
templatestyles-00000001-QINU`"'Ms7.8 struck Shanxi Province in northern
China, resulting in at least 52,600 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1695_Linfen_earthquake>
1927:
Disgruntled school board treasurer Andrew Kehoe set off
explosives with timers and a rifle (aftermath pictured), causing the
Bath School disaster in the Bath Consolidated School in Michigan,
killing 44 people in the deadliest mass murder in a school in United
States history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster>
1952:
First Indochina War: Viet Minh forces overran a French and
Laotian garrison at Muong Khoua, leaving only four survivors.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Muong_Khoua>
2009:
The Sri Lanka Army killed Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader
and founder of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, to bring an end to
the 26-year Sri Lankan Civil War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velupillai_Prabhakaran>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
in Minecraft:
(Internet slang, figurative, humorous) Used to supposedly keep oneself
from becoming legally liable for making a certain statement that could
be perceived as a threat, or that may otherwise pose a legal risk.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/in_Minecraft>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is better to do nothing than to do harm. Half the useful
work in the world consists of combating the harmful work. A little time
spent in learning to appreciate facts is not time wasted, and the work
that will be done afterwards is far less likely to be harmful than the
work done by those who need a continual inflation of their ego as a
stimulant to their energy.
--The Conquest of Happiness
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Conquest_of_Happiness>
Raymond Brownell (17 May 1894 – 12 April 1974) was a senior officer
in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and a World War I flying ace.
He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at the outbreak of World
War I and served in the Gallipoli campaign before transferring to the
Western Front. Awarded the Military Medal for his actions during the
Battle of Pozières, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917.
Moving with his squadron to Italy, he was awarded the Military Cross and
credited with shooting down 12 aircraft. After the war, Brownell
returned to Australia and was group captain at the outbreak of World
War II. Establishing the RAAF base in Singapore, he returned to
Australia in 1941 and was appointed to lead No. 1 Training Group. He
was Air Officer Commanding Western Area for over two years, then led the
No. 11 Group on Morotai. Retiring from the RAAF in 1947, Brownell
became a partner in a stockbroking firm. He died in 1974; his
autobiography was published posthumously.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Brownell>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1863:
American Civil War: At the Battle of Big Black River Bridge in
Mississippi, Union forces under John A. McClernand defeated a
Confederate rearguard and captured around 1,700 men.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Big_Black_River_Bridge>
1900:
The first copies of the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard
of Oz by L. Frank Baum were printed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz>
1954:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v.
Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in public schools
because "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and
therefore unconstitutional.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education>
1987:
An Iraqi jet fired two Exocet missiles at the American frigate
USS Stark, killing 37 personnel and injuring 21 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Stark_incident>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gazetteer:
1. (archaic or historical) A person who writes for a gazette or
newspaper; a journalist; (specifically) a journalist engaged by a
government.
2. (by extension, obsolete) A gazette, a newspaper.
3. (geography) A dictionary or index of geographical locations.
4. (by extension) A descriptive list (often alphabetical) of any
subject.
5. Synonym of gazette (“to announce the status of (someone) in an
official gazette”)
6. (archaic) To report about (someone) in a gazette or newspaper.
7. (transitive, geography) To describe the geography of (a country or
other place) in a gazetteer (etymology 2, noun sense 1).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gazetteer>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The infirmity of human intelligence is short sight. In too
many cases, the wiseacres are dunces of a sort, who lose sight of the
simplicity of things, and stifle and obscure it with formulae and
trivialities. It is the small things that one learns from books, not the
great ones. And even while they are saying that they do not wish for
war they are doing all they can to perpetuate it. They nourish national
vanity and the love of supremacy by force. "We alone," they say, each
behind his shelter, "we alone are the guardians of courage and loyalty,
of ability and good taste!" Out of the greatness and richness of a
country they make something like a consuming disease. Out of patriotism
— which can be respected as long as it remains in the domain of
sentiment and art on exactly the same footing as the sense of family and
local pride, all equally sacred — out of patriotism they make a
Utopian and impracticable idea, unbalancing the world, a sort of cancer
which drains all the living force, spreads everywhere and crushes life,
a contagious cancer which culminates either in the crash of war or in
the exhaustion and suffocation of armed peace. They pervert the most
admirable of moral principles. How many are the crimes of which they
have made virtues merely by dowering them with the word "national"? They
distort even truth itself. For the truth which is eternally the same
they substitute each their national truth. So many nations, so many
truths; and thus they falsify and twist the truth.
--Henri Barbusse
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henri_Barbusse>
Operation Title was an unsuccessful 1942 Allied attack on the German
battleship Tirpitz during World War II. The Allies considered Tirpitz
to be a major threat to their shipping and after several Royal Air Force
heavy bomber raids failed to inflict any damage it was decided to use
Royal Navy midget submarines instead. Operation Title involved a pair of
two-man British Chariots which were transported to Norway on board a
small boat named Arthur. Both Chariots were lost when bad weather caused
them to detach from Arthur on 31 October. It was not possible for the
Allied boat to reach the sea due to German security measures, and Arthur
was scuttled. The Allied personnel attempted to escape overland and all
but one reached neutral Sweden on 5 November. The other – a British
serviceman – was taken prisoner by German forces and murdered on 19
January 1943. Tirpitz was eventually sunk by another bomber raid on 12
November 1944.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Title>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1855:
Thieves stole 224 pounds (102 kg) of gold from a train
travelling from London to Folkestone, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Gold_Robbery>
1864:
American Civil War: A small Confederate force, which included
cadets from the Virginia Military Institute, forced the Union Army out
of the Shenandoah Valley.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Market>
1904:
Russo-Japanese War: The Japanese battleships Hatsuse and
Yashima sank after striking several mines off Port Arthur, China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yashima>
1916:
Jesse Washington, a teenage African-American farmhand, was
lynched in Waco, Texas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Jesse_Washington>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
child's play:
(idiomatic) Something particularly easy or simple.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/child%27s_play>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Thou silver deity of secret night, Direct my footsteps
through the woodland shade;Thou conscious witness of unknown
delight, The Lover’s guardian, and the Muse’s aid!
--Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lady_Mary_Wortley_Montagu>
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It was formed approximately
4.5 billion years ago, is a terrestrial planet and is the second
smallest of the Solar System's planets with a diameter of 6,779 km
(4,212 mi). A Martian solar day (sol) is 24.5 hours and a Martian solar
year is 1.88 Earth years (687 Earth days). Mars has two small and
irregular natural satellites: Phobos and Deimos. Carbon dioxide is
substantially present in Mars's polar ice caps and thin atmosphere. It
has the highest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons, and the
largest canyon, Valles Marineris. There are large annual temperature
swings on the surface, between −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) and 5.7 °C
(42.3 °F) – similar to Earth's seasons. Due to its geological
history, the possibility of past or present life on Mars remains of
great scientific interest. Mars has been explored by uncrewed spacecraft
and rovers, and is an attractive target for future human exploration
missions. (This article is part of a featured topic: Solar System.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Solar_System>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1857:
Mindon Min was crowned as King of Burma.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_Mindon_Min>
1863:
American Civil War: Union troops captured Jackson, the capital
of Mississippi.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jackson>
1931:
Five people were killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers opened
fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85dalen_shootings>
1948:
David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of
Independence at Independence Hall in Tel Aviv.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Declaration_of_Independence>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
impose:
1. (transitive)
2. (archaic) To physically lay or place (something) on another thing; to
deposit, to put, to set.
3. (Christianity) To lay or place (one's hands) on someone as a
blessing, during rites of confirmation, ordination, etc.
4. (printing) To lay (columns or pages of type, or printing plates)
arranged in a proper order on the bed of a press or an imposing stone
and secure them in a chase in preparation for printing.
5. (figurative)
6. To apply, enforce, or establish (something, often regarded as
burdensome as a restriction or tax: see sense 1.2.2) with authority.
7. To place or put (something chiefly immaterial, especially something
regarded as burdensome as a duty, an encumbrance, a penalty, etc.) on
another thing or on someone; to inflict, to repose; also, to place or
put (on someone a chiefly immaterial thing, especially something
regarded as burdensome).
8. To force or put (a thing) on someone or something by deceit or
stealth; to foist, to obtrude.
9. (UK, school or university slang) To subject (a student) to imposition
(“a task inflicted as punishment”).
10. (archaic or obsolete) To appoint (someone) to be in authority or
command over other people.
11. (obsolete) To accuse someone of (a crime, or a sin or other
wrongdoing); to charge, to impute.
12. (obsolete) To put (a conclusion or end) to something definitively.
13. (intransitive) Chiefly followed by on or upon.
14. To affect authoritatively or forcefully; to influence strongly.
15. To encroach or intrude, especially in a manner regarded as unfair or
unwarranted; to presume, to take advantage of; also, to be a burden or
inconvenience.
16. To practise deceit or stealth; to cheat, to deceive, to trick.
17. (obsolete) To subject to an impost, levy, tax, etc.
18. (obsolete) An act of placing or putting on something chiefly
immaterial, especially something regarded as burdensome as a duty, a
task, etc.; an imposition.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/impose>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
As there are a very great variety of religious sects in the world
(and which are probably adapted to different constitutions under
different circumstances, seeing there are many good and conscientious
characters in each), it is particularly recommended, as a means of
uniting the inhabitants of the village into one family, that while each
faithfully adheres to the principles which he most approves, at the same
time all shall think charitably of their neighbours respecting their
religious opinions, and not presumptuously suppose that theirs alone are
right.
--Robert Owen
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Owen>
Doom is a first-person shooter video game and a reboot of the Doom
franchise released on May 13, 2016. Players take the role of an unnamed
space marine who battles demonic forces within an energy-mining facility
on Mars and in Hell. The game also has an online multiplayer mode and a
level editor. Developer id Software and co-developers took eight years
to make the game. Their project "Doom 4" was fully overhauled in 2011
to better replicate the tone of the original Doom of 1993. Bethesda
Softworks published the 2016 Doom as the first major series installment
following Doom 3 in 2004. Its single-player campaign, graphics,
soundtrack, and gameplay received considerable praise, while its
multiplayer mode drew significant criticism. Doom became a best-seller,
with more than two million PC copies sold by the next year. Multiple
industry outlets named Doom among 2016's best video games. It received a
sequel four years later.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_%282016_video_game%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1958:
US vice president Richard Nixon's motorcade was attacked by a
mob in Caracas, Venezuela.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Richard_Nixon%27s_motorcade>
2000:
An explosion (aftermath pictured) at a fireworks factory in
Enschede, Netherlands, resulted in 23 deaths and approximately
€450 million in damage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enschede_fireworks_disaster>
2008:
Nine bombs placed by the Indian Mujahideen, then an unknown
terrorist group, exploded in a 15-minute period in Jaipur, India,
killing 80 people and injuring more than 200 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaipur_bombings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
what's your poison:
(originally US, idiomatic, humorous, informal, dated) Used to ask
someone what alcoholic beverage they would like to drink: what drink
would you like to have?
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/what%27s_your_poison>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have made a great discovery. I no longer believe in
anything. Objects don't exist for me except in so far as a rapport
exists between them or between them and myself. When one attains this
harmony, one reaches a sort of intellectual non-existence — what I can
only describe as a sense of peace, which makes everything possible and
right. Life then becomes a perpetual revelation. That is true poetry.
--Georges Braque
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Georges_Braque>
Leucippus was a Greek philosopher of the 5th century BCE. He is credited
with founding atomism, with his student Democritus. Leucippus divided
the world into two entities: atoms, indivisible particles that make up
all things, and the void, the nothingness between the atoms. Leucippus's
ideas were influential in ancient and Renaissance philosophy. They were
a precursor to modern atomic theory, but the two are only superficially
similar. Leucippus's atoms come in infinitely many forms, all in
constant motion, creating a deterministic world created by the
collisions of atoms. The soul is viewed as an arrangement of spherical
atoms, cycled through the body by respiration and creating thought and
sensory input. Little is known of his life, with a few scholars doubting
that he existed, attributing his ideas purely to Democritus. Two works
are attributed to Leucippus, The Great World System and On Mind, but all
of his writing has been lost except for one sentence.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucippus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1889:
Bandits attacked a U.S. Army paymaster's escort in the Arizona
Territory, stealing more than $28,000.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wham_Paymaster_robbery>
1970:
Lubbock, Texas, was struck by a tornado that left 26 people
dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubbock_tornado>
2010:
Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
and Leader of the Labour Party after failing to strike a coalition
agreement with the Liberal Democrats.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_Kingdom_government_formation>
2022:
Myanmar civil war: Government troops killed 37 unarmed
civilians in Mondaingbin.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon_Taing_Pin_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
syrinx:
1. (music) A set of panpipes.
2. (by extension)
3. (archaeology, Egyptology) Chiefly in the plural: a narrow channel cut
in rock, especially in Ancient Egyptian burial chambers.
4. (neurology, pathology) Any of several abnormal tube-shaped structures
in the body, especially a rare, fluid-filled neuroglial cavity in the
brain stem or within the spinal cord.
5. (ornithology, zootomy) The voice organ in birds, located at or near
where the trachea and the bronchi join.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/syrinx>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Get up, get up for shame! The blooming morn Upon her wings
presents the god unshorn. See how Aurora throws her fair Fresh-quilted
colours through the air: Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see The dew
bespangling herb and tree! Each flower has wept and bow’d toward the
east Above an hour since, yet you not drest; Nay! not so much as out
of bed? When all the birds have matins said And sung their thankful
hymns, ’tis sin, Nay, profanation, to keep in, Whereas a thousand
virgins on this day Spring sooner than the lark, to fetch in May.
--Robert Herrick
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Herrick>
The Felix M. Warburg House is a mansion at 1109 Fifth Avenue on the
Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was built from 1907 to
1908 for the German-American Jewish financier Felix M. Warburg, in the
Châteauesque style, and designed by C. P. H. Gilbert. After Warburg's
death in 1937, his widow sold it to a real estate developer. When plans
to replace it with luxury apartments fell through, ownership reverted to
the Warburgs, who donated it in 1944 to the Jewish Theological Seminary
of America. In 1947, the Seminary opened the Jewish Museum in the
mansion. The house was named a New York City designated landmark in 1981
and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. In
1993, Kevin Roche constructed an annex to the house in Gilbert's style,
built with stone from the same quarry that supplied the original
mansion. Critical reviews of the original house's architecture have
generally been positive while the extension received a mixed reception.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_M._Warburg_House>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1833:
Siamese–Vietnamese wars: Lê Văn Khôi escaped from prison
to begin a revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng, primarily to avenge his
adoptive father, Vietnamese general Lê Văn Duyệt.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%AA_V%C4%83n_Kh%C3%B4i_revolt>
1916:
Ernest Shackleton and five companions arrived at South Georgia,
completing a 1,300 km (800 mi) lifeboat voyage over 16 days to obtain
rescue for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_James_Caird>
1940:
World War II: German forces commenced their invasion of
Belgium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_invasion_of_Belgium_%281940%29>
2013:
One World Trade Center in New York City, the tallest building
in the Western Hemisphere, was topped out at a height of 1,776 feet
(541 m).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_World_Trade_Center>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
embolden:
1. To render (someone) bolder or more courageous; to encourage, to
hearten.
2. (typography) To format (text) in boldface.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/embolden>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Haec ornamenta mea.Here are my jewels.
--Cornelia (mother of the Gracchi)
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cornelia_%28mother_of_the_Gracchi%29>