Ismail I (1279–1325) was the fifth Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of
Granada (map pictured) on the Iberian Peninsula, from 1314 to 1325. He
claimed the throne during the reign of his uncle, Sultan Nasr, after a
rebellion started by his father Abu Said Faraj. Ismail was proclaimed
sultan in February 1314. He spent the early years of his reign fighting
Nasr, who attempted to regain the throne after enlisting the help of
Castile. The war reached its climax in the Battle of the Vega in 1319, a
complete victory for Ismail's forces over Castile. The deaths in the
battle of Infante Peter and Infante John, the two regents for the infant
King Alfonso XI, left Castile leaderless. Ismail followed up his
victory with the capture of castles on the Castilian border in 1324 and
1325. He was murdered by his relative Muhammad ibn Ismail. Historians
characterise Ismail as an effective ruler who improved the emirate's
position with military victories.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismail_I_of_Granada>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1888:
American inventor George Eastman registered the trademark
"Kodak" after receiving a patent for his roll film camera.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak>
1914:
World War I: The German army began an assault against French
positions on high ground near the city of Nancy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grand_Couronn%C3%A9>
1977:
A gang-related shooting took place in Chinatown, San Francisco,
leaving five dead and spurring police to end Chinese gang violence in
the city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dragon_massacre>
2007:
Three terrorists suspected to be part of al-Qaeda were arrested
in Germany after planning attacks on Frankfurt Airport and Ramstein Air
Base.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_bomb_plot_in_Germany>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bread and circuses:
1. Food and entertainment provided by the state, particularly if
intended to placate the people.
2. (by extension) Grand spectacles staged or statements made to distract
and pacify people.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bread_and_circuses>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If this country can’t find its way to a human path, if it
can’t inform conduct with a deep sense of life, then all of us, black
as well as white, are going down the same drain… I picked up a pencil
and held it over a sheet of white paper, but my feelings stood in the
way of my words. Well, I would wait, day and night, until I knew what to
say. Humbly now, with no vaulting dream of achieving a vast unity, I
wanted to try to build a bridge of words between me and that world
outside, that world which was so distant and elusive that it seemed
unreal. I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and
if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to
tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of the hunger for life that
gnaws in us all, to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the
inexpressibly human.
--Richard Wright
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Wright>
The cactus wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) is a large wren that
is endemic to the deserts of the US and Mexico. It is the state bird of
Arizona. The wren's upperparts are brown with black and white spots and
the underparts are cinnamon-buff with a whiter breast; it has striking
white eyebrows. The song is loud and raspy. Cactus wrens are ground
feeders and eat mainly insects, with some plant material; they can meet
their water needs from their diet. The wrens use saguaro and cholla
cacti as nesting sites, which provide protection for their large bulky
nests and their young. The wrens are non-migratory and territorial
around their nests. Pairs are monogamous; males build nests, females
incubate eggs, and both parents feed chicks. Populations have declined
due to human activities, habitat loss and introduced species including
cats, but the wrens still number in the millions. The species is classed
as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of
Nature.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cactus_wren>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
American Revolutionary War: The British Army and their Hessian
allies defeated an American militia at the Battle of Cooch's Bridge.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cooch%27s_Bridge>
1901:
The flag of Australia flew for the first time from the Royal
Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Australia>
1935:
On the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, British racing motorist
Malcolm Campbell became the first person to drive an automobile over
300 mph (480 km/h).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Campbell>
2004:
Russian security forces stormed a school in Beslan, North
Ossetia, ending a three-day hostage crisis in which 334 of more than
1,100 hostages were killed (photographs of victims pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_siege>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bosk:
1. (obsolete except dialectal) A bush.
2. (archaic) A thicket; a small wood.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bosk>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
True art, springing fresh from Nature, must have in it, to live,
much of the glance of an eye, much of the sound of a voice, much of the
life of a life.
--Louis Sullivan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Sullivan>
The Third Silesian War was a conflict between Prussia and an Austrian
alliance that lasted from 1756 to 1763 and confirmed Prussia's control
of Silesia (now in south-western Poland). The war was fought mainly in
Silesia, Bohemia and Upper Saxony and formed one theatre of the Seven
Years' War. It can be viewed as a continuation of the First and Second
Silesian Wars of the previous decade. The war was costly on both sides
and ended inconclusively when neither of the main belligerents could
sustain the conflict any longer. The war began with a Prussian invasion
of Saxony in mid-1756, and it ended in a Prussian diplomatic victory
with the 1763 Treaty of Hubertusburg. The conflict formed part of the
ongoing Austria–Prussia rivalry that would shape German politics for
more than a century. The war enhanced the prestige of Prussia, which was
recognised as a major European power, and of Frederick, who cemented his
reputation as a preeminent military commander. (This article is part of
a featured topic: Silesian Wars.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Silesian_Wars>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1870:
Franco-Prussian War: Prussian forces captured Napoleon III in
Sedan, France, which led to the collapse of the Second French Empire
within days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sedan>
1957:
South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm began an official
visit to Australia, the first by a foreign incumbent head of state to
the country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngo_Dinh_Diem_presidential_visit_to_Australia>
1992:
An earthquake registering 7.7 Mw off the coast of Nicaragua
became the first tsunami earthquake to be captured on modern broadband
seismic networks.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Nicaragua_earthquake>
1998:
A fire on Swissair Flight 111, en route from New York City to
Geneva, caused the aircraft to crash into the Atlantic Ocean, killing
all 229 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
inthronize:
(obsolete) To enthrone.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inthronize>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There are conditions of blindness so voluntary that they become
complicity.
--Paul Bourget
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Bourget>
Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin) by Claudio
Monteverdi is an extended composition for the evening vespers on Marian
feasts, printed in 1610. The composer set the usual Latin psalms and
Magnificat, but also solo concertos in the style of the emerging opera.
The ambitious composition, which uses traditional Gregorian chant as
cantus firmus, is scored for soloists, choirs of up to ten parts, and
orchestra. Monteverdi wrote it when he was maestro di capella in Mantua,
where he served as musician and composer for the Gonzagas, the Dukes of
Mantua. He had it printed in Venice, with a dedication to Pope Paul V
dated 1 September 1610 (pages from a copy pictured). He then travelled
to Rome to deliver it to Pope Paul in person. Monteverdi became director
of music at San Marco in Venice in 1613. His Vespers represent a
milestone of music history at the transition from Renaissance to Baroque
styles.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespro_della_Beata_Vergine>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1774:
Under orders from royal governor Thomas Gage, British soldiers
removed gunpowder from a magazine in the Province of Massachusetts Bay,
causing Patriots to prepare for war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_Alarm>
1902:
The first science fiction film, titled A Trip to the Moon and
based on From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, was released in
France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon>
1967:
At the Arab League summit, eight nations issued the Khartoum
Resolution, declaring "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel,
[and] no negotiations with it".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khartoum_Resolution>
2019:
Hurricane Dorian, the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on
record outside of the tropics, made landfall in the Bahamas at
Category 5 intensity.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Dorian>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pandeism:
1. (religion) A belief in a god who is both pantheistic and deistic, in
particular a god who designed the universe and then became it and ceased
to exist separately and act consciously with respect to it.
2. (religion, rare) Worship which admits or tolerates favourable aspects
of all religions; omnitheism.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pandeism>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All my life, I've always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I
should have been more specific.
--Lily Tomlin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lily_Tomlin>
New York State Route 175 is a west–east state highway located in
Onondaga County, New York, in the United States. The 15.46-mile
(24.88 km) route begins at an intersection with U.S. Route 20 east of
the village of Skaneateles. It heads towards the northeast as Lee Mulroy
Road, traversing farmland. It then passes through the village of
Marcellus before ending at a junction with U.S. Route 11 in Syracuse.
Designated in the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the
highway brought about an increase in population and development along
its route. The section of Route 175 from downtown Marcellus to New York
State Route 173 in Onondaga was built along the historical Seneca
Turnpike, which was established in 1800 and dissolved in 1852. At 157
miles (253 km), the turnpike was the longest in the state at the time
and was instrumental in the development of the villages of Skaneateles
and Marcellus.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Route_175>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1935:
In an effort to stay out of the growing European conflict, the
U.S. Congress passed the first of the Neutrality Acts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrality_Acts_of_the_1930s>
1997:
Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their
driver Henri Paul were killed in a car accident in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Diana,_Princess_of_Wales>
2016:
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was removed from office
following her impeachment on charges of criminal administrative
misconduct.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilma_Rousseff>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
chantwell:
(chiefly Trinidad and Tobago, music) A (generally female) lead singer of
traditional cariso music, or of a calypso band.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chantwell>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The role of art is to make a world which can be inhabited.
--William Saroyan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Saroyan>
House of Music is the fourth and final album by American R&B; band Tony!
Toni! Toné!, released in 1996 by Mercury Records. Bassist-vocalist
Raphael Saadiq (pictured), guitarist-vocalist D'wayne Wiggins, and
percussionist-keyboardist Timothy Christian Riley worked on its songs
independently before recording them together as a group. While doing
most of the production, Tony! Toni! Toné! emphasized musicianship and
expanded on their previous work's traditional soul influences with live
instrumentation and balladry. Music journalists have noted the album's
incorporation of old-fashioned and modern sensibilities, themes of love
and romance, and witty, sensitive lyrics. The album charted for
31 weeks on the Billboard 200 and sold over a million units in the
United States. Critics praised the musicianship and songwriting, later
deeming it a masterpiece of 1990s R&B.; Despite its success, the group
disbanded shortly after due to creative differences and Mercury's
management of the album's short-lived marketing campaign.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Music>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
American Civil War: Confederate forces won the Second Battle
of Bull Run in Prince William County, Virginia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Bull_Run>
1918:
Fanny Kaplan fired three shots with a pistol at Vladimir Lenin
in a failed assassination shortly before the beginning of the Red
Terror.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Kaplan>
1974:
An express train carrying foreign workers from Yugoslavia to
West Germany derailed in Zagreb, killing 153 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagreb_train_disaster>
1995:
Bosnian War: NATO forces began a bombing campaign against the
Army of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deliberate_Force>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
xerocracy:
(informal) Political influence achieved by copying and distributing
leaflets and similar material.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/xerocracy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Purpose crosses disciplines. Purpose is an essential element of
you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in
history. Your very existence is wrapped up in the things you are here to
fulfill. Whatever you choose for a career path, remember, the struggles
along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose.
--Chadwick Boseman
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chadwick_Boseman>
The Commissioner Government was a short-lived Serbian collaborationist
puppet government established in the German-occupied territory of Serbia
during World War II from 30 April to 29 August 1941. It was headed by
Milan Aćimović (pictured) and was pro-German, anti-Semitic and anti-
communist. The Aćimović government was merely an instrument of the
German occupation regime, carrying out its orders within the occupied
territory without appearing to moderate its policies. The government
actively assisted the Germans in exploiting the population and the
economy, and its members regarded their own participation in the
Holocaust as "unpleasant but unavoidable". By mid-July, the Germans had
decided that the Aćimović regime was incompetent, and the Commissioner
Government resigned at the end of August. It was succeeded by the
Government of National Salvation, in which Aćimović initially retained
the interior portfolio.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commissioner_Government>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1831:
Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, leading
to the formulation of his law of induction.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday%27s_law_of_induction>
1903:
The Russian battleship Slava, the last of the five Borodino-
class battleships, was launched.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Slava>
1930:
The last 36 residents of St Kilda, Scotland, now a UNESCO World
Heritage Site for its natural and cultural qualities, voluntarily
evacuated to Morvern.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Kilda,_Scotland>
1959:
Mona Best opened the Casbah Coffee Club with a performance by
the Quarrymen, the precursor of the Beatles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casbah_Coffee_Club>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ex contractu:
(law, postpositive) Of a legal obligation: arising from a contractual
relationship.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ex_contractu>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism,
false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate.
… President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to
Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the
president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair
questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to
spew propaganda and lies to the world. … No prior president has ever
abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President
Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for
America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us
who we are — a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of
liberty at home and abroad. American presidents must be the champions of
that cause if it is to succeed. Americans are waiting and hoping for
President Trump to embrace that sacred responsibility. One can only hope
they are not waiting totally in vain.
--John McCain
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_McCain>
The Réunion ibis (Threskiornis solitarius) is an extinct bird formerly
endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Réunion. Subfossil remains were
found in 1974, and it was formally described in 1987. Early travellers
described a white bird on Réunion that flew with difficulty, later
assumed to refer to a white relative of the dodo. The ibis subfossil
suggested that the tales referred to this bird instead. The ibis was
mainly white, although its wing tips and plume feathers on its rear were
black. The neck and legs were long, and the beak was relatively straight
and short for an ibis. Similar to its extant relatives but more robust,
it was about 65 cm (25 in) long. Subfossil wing-bones indicate that it
had reduced flight capabilities. The diet of the ibis was invertebrates
foraged from the soil. In the 17th century it lived only in mountainous
areas, perhaps due to predation by introduced animals and hunting by
humans for its tasty meat. These factors had driven the ibis to
extinction by the early 18th century.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9union_ibis>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1859:
A powerful solar storm began, later causing a coronal mass
ejection to strike the Earth's magnetosphere that generated aurorae
visible in the middle latitudes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_1859_geomagnetic_storm>
1901:
Silliman University in Dumaguete, Philippines, was founded as
the first American educational institution in Asia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silliman_University>
1950:
In tennis, Althea Gibson became the first African-American
woman to compete at the U.S. National Championships.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althea_Gibson>
1993:
243 Ida became the first asteroid found to have a moon when it
was visited by NASA's Galileo probe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/243_Ida>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Faustian bargain:
1. (idiomatic) An agreement in which a person abandons his or her
spiritual values or moral principles in order to obtain knowledge,
wealth or other benefits.
2. (idiomatic) A deal in which one focuses on present gain without
considering the long-term consequences.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Faustian_bargain>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no
longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows
the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.
--Donald Trump
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Trump>
Operation PBFortune was a covert United States operation to overthrow
the democratically elected Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz
(pictured) in 1952. The operation was planned by the Central
Intelligence Agency and authorized by President Harry Truman. It was
motivated by US fears that Árbenz was being influenced by communists,
and lobbied for by the United Fruit Company. The operation was planned
with the support of Anastasio Somoza García, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo
and Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the dictators of Nicaragua, the Dominican
Republic and Venezuela, respectively. The plan involved providing
weapons to the exiled Guatemalan military officer Carlos Castillo Armas,
who was to lead an invasion from Nicaragua. US secretary of state Dean
Acheson became concerned that the coup attempt would damage the image of
the US and terminated the operation. Two years later, another covert CIA
action, Operation PBSuccess, toppled the Árbenz government and ended
the Guatemalan Revolution.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_PBFortune>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1928:
The first three of more than sixty nations signed the
Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of national
policy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellogg%E2%80%93Briand_Pact>
1964:
South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Khánh entered into a
triumvirate power-sharing arrangement with rival generals Trần Thiện
Khiêm and Dương Văn Minh, who had both been involved in plots to
unseat Khánh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C6%B0%C6%A1ng_V%C4%83n_Minh>
1990:
American musician Stevie Ray Vaughan, one of the most
influential guitarists in the revival of blues in the 1980s, was killed
in a helicopter crash.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Stevie_Ray_Vaughan>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
as ever trod shoe-leather:
(idiomatic, archaic) As ever existed or lived.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/as_ever_trod_shoe-leather>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying, "Now you
are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the
leaders you please." You do not take a person who, for years, has been
hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of
a race and then say, "You are free to compete with all the others," and
still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not
enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have
the ability to walk through those gates. And this is the next and the
more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just
freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human
ability, not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a
fact, and equality as a result.
--Lyndon B. Johnson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson>
The Battle of Crécy was fought on 26 August 1346 in north-east France
during the Hundred Years' War. It resulted in a victory for a greatly
outnumbered English army led by King Edward III over the French led by
King Philip VI and heavy loss of life among the French. The English
prepared a defensive position on a hillside near Crécy-en-Ponthieu.
After the French mercenary crossbowmen were routed by English
longbowmen, French cavalry made repeated charges. They had to force
their way uphill over muddy ground across pits dug by the English, while
taking heavy casualties from the longbowmen. The ensuing hand-to-hand
combat against the English men-at-arms was described as "murderous,
without pity, cruel, and very horrible". The French charges continued
late into the night, all with the same fierce fighting, until the French
were repulsed. The battle established the effectiveness of the longbow
as a dominant weapon on the Western European battlefield.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cr%C3%A9cy>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1071:
Byzantine–Seljuq wars: Seljuk Turks led by Alp Arslan
captured Byzantine emperor Romanos IV at the Battle of Manzikert.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manzikert>
1914:
First World War: The German colony of Togoland surrendered to
French and British forces after a 20-day campaign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togoland_Campaign>
1970:
Betty Friedan and the National Organization for Women organized
the Women's Strike for Equality in New York City, in which 50,000 women
protested the continuing lack of gender equality.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Strike_for_Equality>
1980:
A bomb was planted at Harvey's Resort Hotel (detonation
pictured) in Stateline, Nevada, which the FBI later described as the
most complex improvised explosive device ever created.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey%27s_Resort_Hotel_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
doldrums:
1. Usually preceded by the: a state of apathy or lack of interest; a
situation where one feels boredom, ennui, or tedium; a state of
listlessness or malaise.
2. (nautical) Usually preceded by the: the state of a sailing ship when
it is impeded by calms or light, baffling winds, and is unable to make
progress.
3. (nautical, oceanography, by extension) Usually preceded by the: a
part of the ocean near the equator where calms, squalls, and light,
baffling winds are common.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doldrums>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then
there is no hurt, but only more love.
--Mother Teresa
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa>