The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) is a colossal
neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New
York City. The copper statue, an 1886 gift to the United States from the
people of France, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste
Bartholdi, and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. It is a
figure of Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty, holding a torch and a
tablet bearing the date of the United States Declaration of
Independence. A broken chain and shackle lie at her feet as she walks
forward, commemorating the national abolition of slavery following the
American Civil War. After its dedication the statue became an icon of
freedom and of the United States, and it was later seen as a symbol of
welcome to immigrants arriving by sea. Its completion was marked by New
York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over
by President Grover Cleveland.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1054:
Chinese astronomers recorded the sudden appearance of a "guest
star", later identified as the supernova that created the Crab Nebula
(pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_Nebula>
1863:
American Civil War: Confederate forces failed in an attempt to
recapture the Union-occupied Helena, Arkansas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Helena>
1954:
In what is known as "The Miracle of Bern", West Germany
defeated Hungary 3–2 to win the FIFA World Cup.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_FIFA_World_Cup_final>
1954:
CIA officers arrived in Guatemala City to begin Operation
PBHistory in an attempt to justify the overthrowing of Guatemalan
president Jacobo Árbenz one week earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_PBHistory>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
big tent:
(idiomatic, also attributive) A group, philosophy, or social or
political movement that encompasses or seeks to attract a broad range of
constituents or members, or views.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/big_tent>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We are not likely to improve our own condition or help humanity
very much until we come to the sympathetic understanding that human
nature is about the same everywhere, that it is rather evenly
distributed over the surface of the earth, and that we are all united in
a common brotherhood. We can only make America first in the true sense
which that means by cultivating a spirit of friendship and good will, by
the exercise of the virtues of patience and forbearance, by being
"plenteous in mercy," and through progress at home and helpfulness
abroad standing as an example of real service to humanity.
--Calvin Coolidge
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge>
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the tenth novel and eleventh book in
Ian Fleming's James Bond series. First published in 1963, it centres on
Bond's search to find Ernst Stavro Blofeld after the events depicted in
Thunderball (1961). In the novel, Bond falls in love with Tracy di
Vicenzo during the story. The pair marry, but hours afterwards Blofeld
and his partner, Irma Bunt, attack them and kill Tracy. Fleming
developed Bond's character within the book, showing an emotional side
that was not previously present. The novel is one of three Bond stories
to deal with the disruption of markets and the economy, in this case
Blofeld's planned disruption to the food supply by bioterrorism. The
novel received broadly positive reviews. In 1969, the book was adapted
as the sixth film in Eon Productions' James Bond film series. It was the
only film to star George Lazenby as Bond. (This article is part of a
featured topic: Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and short stories.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Ian_Fleming%27s_Jam…>
_______________________________
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>
1940:
Second World War: The Royal Navy attacked the French fleet at
Mers El Kébir, fearing that the ships would fall into Axis hands after
the French–German armistice.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Mers-el-K%C3%A9bir>
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>
1979:
U.S. president Jimmy Carter signed a presidential finding,
authorizing covert operations to aid the mujahideen against the Soviet-
backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
goropism:
1. A hypothesis, similar to the one originally propounded by Goropius
which is now discredited, that some attested or modern language such as
Dutch, Hebrew, or Turkish was the original language of human beings.
2. An absurd etymology proposed as part of such a hypothesis.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/goropism>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything
in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind.
The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march.
But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it.
--Tom Stoppard
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Stoppard>
Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the
English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury. He helped build the
case for the annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
He established the first doctrinal and liturgical structures of the
Church of England and published the Exhortation and Litany. When
Edward VI was king, Cranmer published the Book of Common Prayer,
changed doctrine or discipline in several areas, and promulgated the new
doctrines through the Homilies. Upon the accession of Mary I, Cranmer
was put on trial for treason and heresy. While imprisoned he made
recantations and reconciled himself with the Catholic Church. Mary
pushed for his execution, and he was burned at the stake after
withdrawing his recantations. Cranmer's death was immortalised in Foxe's
Book of Martyrs and his legacy continues through the Book of Common
Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cranmer>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1644:
First English Civil War: The combined forces of Scottish
Covenanters and English Parliamentarians defeated Royalist troops at the
Battle of Marston Moor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marston_Moor>
1724:
On the Feast of the Visitation, Bach led the first performance
of his Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10, based on the German
Magnificat.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meine_Seel_erhebt_den_Herren,_BWV_10>
1881:
U.S. president James A. Garfield was fatally shot by Charles J.
Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington,
D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_James_A._Garfield>
1964:
The Civil Rights Act was signed into law, outlawing segregation
in schools, at the workplace, and other facilities that served the
general public in the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
mullered:
1. Badly damaged or completely destroyed; ruined, trashed, wrecked.
2. Drunk, inebriated.
3. (often sports) Of a sportsperson, a team, etc.: utterly defeated or
outplayed; destroyed, thrashed, trounced. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mullered>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The going's rough, and so we need the laugh of bright incisors,
molars of goodwill. Our times are still not safe and sane enough for
faces to show ordinary sorrow.
--Wisława Szymborska
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wis%C5%82awa_Szymborska>
The flag of Canada is a red flag with a white square in its centre,
featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. It has become the
predominant and most recognizable national symbol of Canada. It was
adopted in 1965 to replace the Union Flag for most official purposes,
although the Canadian Red Ensign had also been unofficially used since
the 1860s and approved by a 1945 Order in Council. In 1964, Prime
Minister Lester B. Pearson appointed a committee to discuss these
issues, sparking a serious debate about a flag change. Out of three
choices, the maple leaf design by George Stanley, based on the flag of
the Royal Military College of Canada, was chosen. It made its first
appearance on February 15, 1965, a date now celebrated annually as
National Flag of Canada Day. Other flags, usually containing the maple
leaf motif in some fashion, have been created for use by Canadian
officials, government bodies, and military forces.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Canada>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1849:
Belgium introduced its first series of postage stamps, known as
epaulettes (example pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epaulettes_%28stamp%29>
1862:
American Civil War: Confederate general Robert E. Lee launched
a series of disjointed and ultimately unsuccessful assaults on the
nearly impregnable Union position on Malvern Hill in Henrico County,
Virginia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Malvern_Hill>
1874:
The Remington No. 1, the first commercially successful
typewriter, went on sale.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholes_and_Glidden_typewriter>
1999:
Legislative powers in Scotland were first devolved from the
Scottish Office in London to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Parliament>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Canuck:
1. (Canada, US, informal, sometimes derogatory) A Canadian person;
specifically (archaic), a French Canadian person; a pea-souper; also
(obsolete) a Canadian person of other descent.
2. (ice hockey) A member of the Vancouver Canucks professional ice
hockey team belonging to the National Hockey League.
3. (skiing) Chiefly as Crazy Canuck: a member of the Canadian alpine ski
team.
4. (rare) A thing from Canada.
5. (aviation, military, historical) The Avro Canada CF-100 fighter-
interceptor aircraft, in use between 1952 and 1981.
6. (US, obsolete) A Canadian horse or pony.
7. (historical, rare) synonym of Canadian French (“the French language
as spoken by Francophones in Canada”).
8. (slang) Synonym of Canadian English (“the variety of the English
language used in Canada”)
9. (originally informal, sometimes derogatory) Of, belonging to, or
relating to Canada, its culture, or people; Canadian.
10. (ice hockey) Of or relating to the Vancouver Canucks professional
ice hockey team belonging to the National Hockey League.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Canuck>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The most successful tempters and thus the most dangerous are the
deluded deluders.
--Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Georg_Christoph_Lichtenberg>
Nihonium is a synthetic chemical element with symbol Nh and atomic
number 113. It is extremely radioactive; its most stable known isotope,
nihonium-286, has a half-life of about 10 seconds. In the periodic
table, nihonium is a transactinide element at the intersection of
period 7 and group 13. Its creation was reported in 2003 by a
Russian–American collaboration at the Joint Institute for Nuclear
Research in Dubna, Russia, and in 2004 by a team of Japanese scientists
at Riken in Wakō, Japan. The discoveries were confirmed by independent
teams working in the United States, Germany, Sweden, and China. In 2015
the element was officially recognised by the IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working
Party; naming rights were assigned to Riken, as they were judged to have
been first to confirm their discovery. The name, approved in the same
year (announcement pictured), derives from a Japanese word for Japan,
Nihon. Few details are known about nihonium, as it has only been formed
in very small amounts that decay away within seconds.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonium>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1864:
A passenger train fell through an open swing bridge into the
Richelieu River near present-day Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, killing as
many as 99 people and injuring 100 others in Canada's worst railway
accident.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beloeil_train_disaster>
1889:
Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships voted to be
annexed by Chicago, forming the largest city by area in the United
States and the second-largest by population.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park_Township,_Cook_County,_Illinois>
1927:
The United States Army Air Corps aircraft Bird of Paradise
landed at Wheeler Field on the Hawaiian island of Oahu to complete the
first transpacific flight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_of_Paradise_%28aircraft%29>
1995:
Atlantis became the first U.S. Space Shuttle to dock with the
Russian space station Mir as part of the Shuttle–Mir program.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle%E2%80%93Mir_program>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sengi:
1. An elephant shrew (family Macroscelididae).
2. (historical) A former (1967–1993) monetary unit of Zaire, one
hundredth of a likuta, and one ten-thousandth of a zaire; it was issued
only in ten sengi coins.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sengi>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is
still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his
entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone
who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the
American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for
his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much
is at stake in November.
--Barack Obama
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barack_Obama>
"Well he would, wouldn't he?" is an aphorism that is commonly used as a
retort to a self-interested denial. It was said by the model Mandy Rice-
Davies (pictured) while giving evidence at the 1963 trial of Stephen
Ward, who had been accused of living off money paid to Rice-Davies and
her friend Christine Keeler for sex: part of the larger Profumo affair.
While being cross-examined Rice-Davies was told that Lord Astor, who
owned the Cliveden estate on which Ward rented a cottage, had denied an
affair with her; she replied: "Well he would, wouldn't he?" Political,
communications and psychological experts have interpreted it as a phrase
which indicates the speaker believes a person is making a self-
interested, obvious or irrelevant denial. They have also stated it
functions as a retort to mistruths made by public figures.
Linguistically, it has been noted for its use of the modal verb would to
create rhetorical effect. The phrase has been included in The Oxford
Dictionary of Quotations since 1979.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_he_would,_wouldn%27t_he%3F>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1904:
In the worst maritime disaster involving a Danish merchant
ship, SS Norge ran aground on Hasselwood Rock and sank in the North
Atlantic, resulting in more than 635 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Norge>
1914:
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of
Hohenberg, were assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Yugoslav
nationalist, sparking the outbreak of World War I.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavrilo_Princip>
1969:
In response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York
City, groups of gay and transgender people began demonstrations, a
watershed event for the worldwide gay rights movement.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots>
1989:
President Slobodan Milošević gave a speech at Gazimestan in
which he described the possibility of "armed battles" in the future of
Serbia's national development.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazimestan_speech>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bisexual lighting:
(LGBT, often art, film, television) The simultaneous use of pink,
purple, and blue lighting, often to indicate bisexuality.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bisexual_lighting>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The red rose whispers of passion, And the white rose
breathes of love;O, the red rose is a falcon,And the white rose is a
dove.But I send you a cream-white rosebudWith a flush on its petal
tips,For the love that is purest and sweetestHas a kiss of desire on the
lips.
--John Boyle O'Reilly
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Boyle_O%27Reilly>
Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) was an English author who wrote 34 novels,
7 volumes of short stories and a daily journal of more than a million
words. He also wrote or co-wrote 13 plays, wrote articles and stories
for more than 100 newspapers and periodicals, worked in and briefly ran
the UK's Ministry of Information in the First World War, and wrote for
the cinema in the 1920s. He was the most financially successful British
author of his day. Because his books appealed to a wide public rather
than to literary cliques and élites, and for his adherence to realism,
Virginia Woolf and other writers and supporters of the modernist school
belittled him, and his fiction became neglected after his death. Studies
of his writing since the 1970s have led to a re-evaluation of Bennett's
work, and his finest novels, including Anna of the Five Towns (1902),
The Old Wives' Tale (1908), Clayhanger (1910) and Riceyman Steps (1923),
are now widely recognised as major works.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Bennett>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1899:
A. E. J. Collins scored 628 runs not out, the highest
recorded score in cricket until being surpassed in 2016.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._E._J._Collins>
1954:
Jacobo Árbenz resigned as President of Guatemala following a
CIA-led coup against his administration.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
1957:
Hurricane Audrey made landfall near the Texas–Louisiana
border, killing over 400 people, mainly in and around Cameron,
Louisiana, U.S.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Audrey>
2017:
Websites of Ukrainian organizations were swamped by a massive
cyberattack, blamed on Russian military hackers, using the malware
Petya.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petya_%28malware_family%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
prior:
1. (Christianity) A high-ranking member of a religious house or
religious order.
2. In an abbey, the person ranking just after the abbot, appointed as
his deputy; a prior claustral.
3. The head of a priory (“a monastery which is usually a branch of an
abbey”), or some other minor or smaller monastery; a prior conventual.
4. The head friar of a house of friars.
5. The head of the Arrouaisian, Augustinian, and formerly
Premonstratensian religious orders.
6. An honorary position held by a priest in some cathedrals.
7. (historical)
8. A chief magistrate of the Republic of Florence (1115–1569) in what is
now Italy.
9. The elected head of a guild of craftsmen or merchants in some
countries in Europe and South America.
10. (obsolete)
11. A person who is the earliest or most prominent in a field; the
chief.
12. (business) The head of a company. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prior>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To-day is the parent of to-morrow. The present casts its shadow
far into the future. That is the law of life, individual and social.
Revolution that divests itself of ethical values thereby lays the
foundation of injustice, deceit, and oppression for the future society.
The means used to prepare the future become its cornerstone.
--Emma Goldman
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman>
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a
person for various reasons, including punishment, extracting a
confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third
parties. Some definitions of torture are restricted to acts carried out
by the state, but others include non-state organizations. A variety of
methods of torture are used, including psychological methods to provide
deniability. Beating is the most common form of physical torture. Most
victims of torture are poor and marginalized people suspected of crimes,
although torture against political prisoners or during armed conflict
has received disproportionate attention. Torture is prohibited under
international law for all states under all circumstances and is
explicitly forbidden by several treaties. Opposition to torture
stimulated the formation of the human rights movement after World
War II, and torture continues to be an important human rights issue.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1844:
Julia Gardiner married President John Tyler at the Church of
the Ascension in New York, becoming the first lady of the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gardiner_Tyler>
1889:
Bangui, the capital and largest city of the present-day Central
African Republic, was founded in French Congo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangui>
1907:
Organized by Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, among others,
Bolshevik revolutionaries robbed a bank stagecoach in Tiflis, present-
day Georgia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1907_Tiflis_bank_robbery>
1997:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first book in the
Harry Potter series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling, was published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher%27s_Stone>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
distance:
1. (transitive)
2. Often followed by from: to set (someone or something) at a distance
(noun sense 1.1) from someone or something else.
3. To cause (a place, a thing, etc.) to seem distant, or (figurative)
unfamiliar.
4. To leave behind (someone or something moving in the same direction;
specifically, other competitors in a race) some distance away; to
outpace, to outstrip.
5. (figurative)
6. To keep (someone) emotionally or socially apart from another person
or people.
7. To exceed or surpass (someone, such as a peer or rival); to outdo, to
outstrip.
8. (reflexive) To keep (oneself) away from someone or something,
especially because one does not want to be associated with that person
or thing.
9. (chiefly US, horse racing, archaic) Of a racehorse: to beat (another
horse) by a certain distance; also (passive voice), to cause (a horse)
to be disqualified by beating it by a certain distance.
10. (obsolete)
11. To cover the entire distance to (something).
12. To depart from (a place); to leave (a place) behind.
13. To indicate or measure the distance to (a place).
14. To set (two or more things) at regular distances from each other; to
space, to space out.
15. (intransitive, reflexive) Often followed by from.
16. To set oneself at a distance from someone or something else; to move
away from someone or something.
17. (figurative) To keep oneself emotionally or socially apart from
another person or people; to keep one's distance. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/distance>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man should possess an infinite appetite for life. It should be
self-evident to him, all the time, that life is superb, glorious,
endlessly rich, infinitely desirable. At present, because he is in a
midway position between the brute and the truly human, he is always
getting bored, depressed, weary of life. He has become so top-heavy with
civilisation that he cannot contact the springs of pure vitality.
--Colin Wilson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Colin_Wilson>
Mckenna Grace (born June 25, 2006) is an American actress. She began
her career at the age of five, making her onscreen debut in the sitcom
Crash & Bernstein (2012–2014). In 2017, she starred as a child prodigy
in the drama film Gifted, a breakthrough for which she received a
nomination for a Critics' Choice Movie Awards. Grace subsequently
appeared in the films I, Tonya (2017), Troop Zero (2019), and Captain
Marvel (2019). During this time, she appeared in several horror
projects, including The Bad Seed (2018), The Haunting of Hill House
(2018), and Annabelle Comes Home (2019). For playing an abused teenager
in The Handmaid's Tale (2021–2022), Grace was nominated for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
She garnered further recognition for her appearances in the supernatural
comedy films Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen
Empire (2024), and portrayed Jan Broberg in the miniseries A Friend of
the Family (2022).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mckenna_Grace>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1910:
The United States Congress passed the Mann Act, which
prohibited the interstate transport of females for "immoral purposes".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Act>
1944:
World War II: U.S. Navy and Royal Navy ships bombarded
Cherbourg, France, to support U.S. Army units engaged in the Battle of
Cherbourg.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardment_of_Cherbourg>
1950:
The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 82
condemning the North Korean invasion of South Korea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_82>
2009:
Singer Michael Jackson died as a result of the combination of
drugs in his body.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Michael_Jackson>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
plain sailing:
1. (nautical)
2. The navigation of waters free from hazards or unfavourable winds.
3. Obsolete spelling of plane sailing (“a technique for navigation using
the assumption that the journey occurs over a plane or flat surface
rather than the actual curved surface of the Earth, which is
sufficiently accurate over short distances”).
4. (figurative) Something that is easy, simple, or straightforward;
something that offers no difficulties or trouble.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/plain_sailing>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The past is a curious thing. It's with you all the time. I
suppose an hour never passes without your thinking of things that
happened ten or twenty years ago, and yet most of the time it's got no
reality, it's just a set of facts that you've learned, like a lot of
stuff in a history book. Then some chance sight or sound or smell,
especially smell, sets you going, and the past doesn't merely come back
to you, you're actually in the past.
--George Orwell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell>
1
0
June 24: Etika
by English Wikipedia Article of the Day
24 Jun '24
24 Jun '24
Desmond Daniel Amofah (1990–2019), known as Etika, was an American
YouTuber and live streamer, known online for his enthusiastic reactions
to Super Smash Bros. character trailers and Nintendo Direct
presentations. The son of Ghanaian politician Owuraku Amofah, he resided
in Brooklyn. Starting his online career in 2007, Amofah created his main
YouTube channel, EWNetwork (Etika World Network), in 2012. He garnered
popularity following the release of Super Smash Bros. 4, primarily
stemming from his reaction videos of news surrounding the game.
Beginning in October 2018, Amofah showed signs of mental distress, and
was reported missing on June 20, 2019. Officials confirmed his death on
June 25, finding it to be a suicide by drowning. His death was met with
shock and grief by fans and fellow YouTubers, with many commenting that
Amofah's mental deterioration had been dismissed or ignored. Numerous
commemorations were held to honor Amofah, including fan-made memorials
and murals.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etika>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1717:
The first Grand Lodge of Freemasonry, the Premier Grand Lodge
of England, was founded in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_Grand_Lodge_of_England>
1724:
On the Feast of St. John the Baptist, Bach led the first
performance of Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7, the third
cantata of his chorale cantata cycle.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_unser_Herr_zum_Jordan_kam,_BWV_7>
1943:
Amid racial tensions, U.S. Army military police shot and killed
a black serviceman after a confrontation at a pub in Bamber Bridge,
England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bamber_Bridge>
2010:
Julia Gillard was sworn in as the first female prime minister
of Australia after incumbent Kevin Rudd declined to contest a leadership
spill in the Labor Party.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gillard>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
cochineal:
1. (countable) A scale insect of the species Dactylopius coccus, native
to the tropical and subtropical Americas, which lives on prickly pear
cacti (genus Opuntia).
2. (uncountable) A vivid red dye made from the dried bodies of cochineal
insects.
3. (uncountable) The vivid red colour of this dye. cochineal:
4. Possessing a vivid red colour, as or as if produced from dyeing with
cochineal dye (noun sense 2).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cochineal>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Past, n. That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which
we have a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called the
Present parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. These two
grand divisions of Eternity, of which the one is continually effacing
the other, are entirely unlike. The one is dark with sorrow and
disappointment, the other bright with prosperity and joy. The Past is
the region of sobs, the Future is the realm of song. In the one crouches
Memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitential prayer; in the
sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing, beckoning to temples
of success and bowers of ease. Yet the Past is the Future of yesterday,
the Future is the Past of to-morrow. They are one — the knowledge and
the dream.
--Ambrose Bierce
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce>