SOLRADÂ 1 was a science and surveillance satellite launched into orbit
on June 22, 1960. Developed by the US Naval Research Laboratory, it was
the first satellite to successfully observe solar X-rays, the first to
conduct surveillance from orbit, and the first to be launched with
another instrumented satellite (the unrelated navigation satellite,
Transit 2A). The scientific mission was a success, sending data that
determined normal solar X-ray output and confirmed the connection
between increased solar X-ray activity and radio fade-outs. The Galactic
Radiation and Background electronic surveillance package on board had a
covert mission: mapping the Soviet Union's air defense radar network.
This mission was also successful, operating through September 22, 1960,
and revealing that the network was more extensive than had been
expected. SOLRADÂ 1 was switched off in April 1961, making it the first
satellite to be remotely deactivated.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOLRAD_1>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1807:
The British warship HMSÂ Leopard pursued and attacked the
American frigate USSÂ Chesapeake in the belief that the latter had
deserters from the Royal Navy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake%E2%80%93Leopard_affair>
1911:
George V and Mary of Teck (both pictured) were crowned King and
Queen of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Teck>
1941:
World War II: As Axis troops began their invasion of the
Soviet Union, the Lithuanian Activist Front started an uprising to
liberate Lithuania from Soviet occupation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Uprising_in_Lithuania>
2009:
Two Metro trains in Washington, D.C., collided, killing nine
people and injuring eighty others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2009_Washington_Metro_train_collision>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
smorgasbord:
1. A Swedish-style buffet comprising a variety of cold sandwiches and
other dishes; (by extension) any buffet with a wide selection of dishes.
2. (figuratively) An abundant and diverse collection of things.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smorgasbord>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 Every mission constitutes a pledge of duty. Every man is bound to
consecrate his every faculty to its fulfilment. He will derive his rule
of action from the profound conviction of that duty. Â
--Giuseppe Mazzini
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Mazzini>
Irakli Tsereteli (1881–1959) was a Georgian politician and Menshevik
during the Russian Revolution. He was born and raised in Georgia when it
was part of the Russian Empire. A member of the Russian Social
Democratic Labour Party, Tsereteli was elected to the Duma in 1907, but
was soon charged with conspiracy to overthrow the Tsarist government and
exiled to Siberia. After the 1917 February Revolution, he took a
position in the Russian Provisional Government as Minister of Post and
Telegraph, and briefly as Minister of the Interior. After the Bolsheviks
seized power during the October Revolution, Tsereteli returned to
Georgia. At the Paris Peace Conference he lobbied for international
recognition and assistance for the newly independent Democratic Republic
of Georgia; these efforts largely failed before the Bolshevik-led Red
Army invaded in 1921. He spent the rest of his life in exile, working
with socialist organisations and writing on socialism, and died in New
York.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irakli_Tsereteli>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1848:
In the Wallachian Revolution, Ion Heliade Rădulescu and
Christian Tell proclaimed a new republican government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallachian_Revolution_of_1848>
1919:
Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttled the German High Seas Fleet
in Scapa Flow to prevent the ships from being seized and divided amongst
the Allied Powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuttling_of_the_German_fleet_at_Scapa_Flow>
1957:
Ellen Fairclough became the first woman appointed to the
Canadian Cabinet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Fairclough>
1973:
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered its decision in the landmark
case Miller v. California, establishing the "Miller test" for
determining what is obscene material.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_test>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ski-through:
1. (skiing) Of a ski lodge or other hotel establishment: providing
skiers with the service of transporting their equipment, luggage, and
vehicles to other establishments so they can ski directly to those
establishments.
2. (skiing) Of a restaurant, shop, or other establishment or facility:
providing service to skiers while they are still wearing their skis.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ski-through>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 Our dreams of bringing the whole of human history under the
control of the human will are ironically refuted by the fact that no
group of idealists can easily move the pattern of history toward the
desired goal of peace and justice. The recalcitrant forces in the
historical drama have a power and persistence beyond our reckoning.
Â
--Reinhold Niebuhr
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr>
The Astronomica is a Latin didactic poem about celestial phenomena,
written in hexameters and divided into five books. It was written c. AD
10–20 by a Roman poet whose name was likely Marcus Manilius. The
earliest work on astrology that is extensive, comprehensible, and mostly
intact, the poem focuses heavily on the zodiac. It espouses a Stoic,
deterministic understanding of a universe overseen by a god and governed
by reason. It was rediscovered in the 15th century by the Italian
humanist and scholar Poggio Bracciolini, who had a copy made from which
the modern text derives. The Astronomica was read, commented upon, and
edited by scholars, but then was neglected for centuries. This started
to change during the early 20th century when the classicist A. E.
Housman published a critically acclaimed edition of the poem. Housman's
work was followed by the Latinist G. P. Goold's lauded English
translation in 1977.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomica_%28Manilius%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1815:
War of the Seventh Coalition: Napoleon Bonaparte fought and
lost his final battle, the Battle of Waterloo, in present-day Belgium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo>
1982:
The body of Italian banker Roberto Calvi, known as "God's
Banker" due to his close association with the Vatican, was found hanging
from scaffolding beneath London's Blackfriars Bridge.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Calvi>
2009:
NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, its first
mission to the moon in over ten years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Reconnaissance_Orbiter>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
meet one's Waterloo:
To be decisively defeated by an encounter with a powerful opponent or a
problem that is too difficult.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/meet_one%27s_Waterloo>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 We observe that nothing creates fascists like the threat of
freedom. Pleasantville is the kind of parable that encourages us to re-
evaluate the good old days and take a fresh look at the new world we so
easily dismiss as decadent. Yes, we have more problems. But also more
solutions, more opportunities and more freedom. I grew up in the '50s.
It was a lot more like the world of Pleasantville than you might
imagine. Yes, my house had a picket fence, and dinner was always on the
table at a quarter to six, but things were wrong that I didn't even know
the words for. Â
--Roger Ebert
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roger_Ebert>
North-Eastern Area Command was one of several geographically based
commands raised by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World
War II. It was formed in January 1942 and controlled units in central
and northern Queensland, and Papua New Guinea. Headquartered at
Townsville, Queensland, North-Eastern Area Command's responsibilities
included air defence, aerial reconnaissance and protection of the sea
lanes within its boundaries. Its flying units, equipped with fighters,
reconnaissance bombers, dive bombers and transports, took part in the
battles of Rabaul, Port Moresby and Milne Bay in 1942, and the landings
at Hollandia and Aitape in 1944. The area command continued to operate
after the war, but its assets and staffing were much reduced. Its
responsibilities were subsumed in February 1954 by the RAAF's new
functional commands: Home (operational), Training, and Maintenance
Commands. The area headquarters was disbanded in December 1956 and re-
formed as Headquarters RAAF Townsville.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-Eastern_Area_Command>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1631:
Mumtaz Mahal, wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, died in
childbirth; Jahan spent the next seventeen years constructing her
mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal>
1876:
Great Sioux War: A band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne attacked a
United States Army expedition and its Crow and Shoshone allies in the
Battle of the Rosebud.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Rosebud>
1940:
Second World War: Britain's worst maritime disaster occurred
when at least 3,000 people were killed as a result of the troopship
RMSÂ Lancastria's sinking by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lancastria>
1985:
On board Space Shuttle Discovery, Sultan bin Salman Al Saud
became the first Arab, the first Muslim, and the first astronaut of
royal blood to fly in outer space.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_bin_Salman_Al_Saud>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gastrodiplomacy:
A type of cultural diplomacy where relations between representatives of
different cultures are improved by the means of gastronomy and the
promotion of national cuisines.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gastrodiplomacy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 It has been deduced from Hitler’s great power over the masses
that the Germans are an unusually suggestible race. But in all countries
and at all times men have succumbed to the suggestive powers of unusual
personalities, even if the wielders of those powers were not always good
men in the Christian sense. Â
--Heinz Guderian
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heinz_Guderian>
Gallimimus was a theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Mongolia
about 70 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous. The genus is
part of the ostrich dinosaur group of feather-bearing, fast runners. Its
head was small and light with large eyes and a bulbous structure at the
base of the skull. The snout was longer, broader and more rounded than
in similar species. Its horny beak was toothless with a delicate lower
jaw. The neck and legs were long, and the weak forelimbs had short
three-fingered hands. Several of its fossils were discovered in the Gobi
Desert in the 1960s. Gallimimus means "chicken mimic", from the shape of
its neck vertebrae. It may have had good vision and intelligence
comparable to ratite birds, living in groups as an omnivore, a filter-
feeder or a herbivore. Gallimimus was featured in the film Jurassic Park
in a scene that included innovative special effects and shaped the
popular view of these dinosaurs as bird-like animals.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallimimus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1819:
A strong earthquake in the Kutch district of Gujarat, India,
caused a local zone of uplift that dammed the Nara river, which was
later named the Allah Bund ('Dam of God').
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1819_Rann_of_Kutch_earthquake>
1904:
Irish author James Joyce began his relationship with Nora
Barnacle, and subsequently used the date to set the actions for his 1922
novel Ulysses.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joyce>
1958:
Imre Nagy and other leaders of the failed Hungarian Revolution
of 1956 were executed following secret trials.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imre_Nagy>
2016:
Jo Cox, a British Member of Parliament, was murdered in her
constituency.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jo_Cox>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nuke:
1. (transitive, chiefly US, colloquial) To use a nuclear weapon on a
target.
2. (transitive, chiefly US, colloquial, figuratively) To destroy or
erase completely.
3. (transitive, Internet slang, by extension) To carry out a denial-of-
service attack against (an IRC user).
4. (transitive, chiefly US, colloquial) To expose to some form of
radiation.
5. (transitive, chiefly US, colloquial) To cook in a microwave oven.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nuke>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 If you are a writer you locate yourself behind a wall of silence
and no matter what you are doing, driving a car or walking or doing
housework — you can still be writing, because you have that space.
Â
--Joyce Carol Oates
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joyce_Carol_Oates>
Adam Eckfeldt (June 15, 1769 – February 6, 1852) was the second chief
coiner of the United States Mint. His father owned a large smithy and
involved himself in early attempts at American coinage. Eckfeldt built
early presses for the Mint, engraved some of its early dies, and was
responsible for some designs of early American copper pieces, as well as
the 1792 half disme, which some authorities consider the first United
States coin. He was appointed assistant coiner of the Mint in 1796, and
became chief coiner after his predecessor's death in 1814. During
Eckfeldt's tenure, the Philadelphia Mint moved to new premises and
expanded its operations. Setting aside unusual coins that were brought
in as bullion, he started the Mint's coin cabinet, which evolved into
the National Numismatic Collection. Despite his 1839 retirement,
Eckfeldt continued performing the duties of chief coiner until his
death, though his successor, Franklin Peale, bore the title.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Eckfeldt>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1878:
Eadweard Muybridge took a series of photographs to prove that
all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it gallops (animation
pictured), which became the basis of motion pictures.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallie_Gardner_at_a_Gallop>
1919:
After nearly 16 hours in the air, the Vickers Vimy flown by
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown crash-landed in County Galway,
Ireland, completing the first non-stop transatlantic flight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_flight_of_Alcock_and_Brown>
1944:
In the Saskatchewan general election, the Co-operative
Commonwealth Federation led by Tommy Douglas won enough seats in the
Legislative Assembly to form the first socialist government in North
America.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Douglas>
1996:
The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a
truck bomb in the commercial centre of Manchester, England, injuring
more than 200 people and causing widespread damage to buildings.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Manchester_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
lion's share:
(idiomatic) The majority; a large or generous portion.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lion%27s_share>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 There is nothing like an odor to stir memories. Â
--William McFee
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_McFee>
"Ice" is the eighth episode of the first season of the American science
fiction television series The X-Files. Premiering on the Fox network on
November 5, 1993, "Ice" was directed by David Nutter (pictured) and
written by Glen Morgan and James Wong. The debut was watched by
10Â million viewers in 6.2 million households and received largely
positive reviews from critics, who praised its tense atmosphere. In the
episode, FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully
(Gillian Anderson) investigate the deaths of an isolated Alaskan
research team. The agents and their team discover the existence of
extraterrestrial parasitic organisms which drive their hosts into
impulsive fits of rage. The episode was inspired by an article in
Science News about an excavation in Greenland, and series creator Chris
Carter also cited John W. Campbell's 1938 novella Who Goes There? as an
influence.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_%28The_X-Files%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1800:
War of the Second Coalition: In the Battle of Marengo,
Napoleonic forces secured victory over the Habsburgs when defeat had
appeared inevitable until the arrival of French troops led by Louis
Desaix.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marengo>
1900:
The second of the German Naval Laws was passed, doubling the
size of the Imperial German Navy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Naval_Laws>
1949:
Albert II became the first monkey in space, reaching an
altitude of 134Â km (83Â mi) in a V-2 rocket.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkeys_and_apes_in_space>
1966:
The Vatican formally abolished its 427-year-old list of
prohibited books (title page pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_Librorum_Prohibitorum>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bloviation:
(US, possibly originally Ohio, informal) A lengthy discourse in a
boastful or pompous manner.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bloviation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy. Â
--Donald Trump
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Trump>
Newberry Volcano is a large shield-shaped stratovolcano located 35 miles
(56Â km) east of the major crest of the Cascade Range and about 20 miles
(32Â km) south of Bend, Oregon, within the Newberry National Volcanic
Monument. Considered an active volcano, it is closely monitored with
sensors by the United States Geological Survey. Newberry is the largest
volcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc, with a total volume of
approximately 120 cubic miles (500Â km3) and a caldera (pictured) 4 by 5
miles (6.4 km × 8.0 km) in diameter. It was named for the geologist
and surgeon John Strong Newberry, who explored central Oregon for the
Pacific Railroad Surveys in 1855. The surrounding area has been
inhabited by Native American populations for more than 10,000 years. The
volcano and its vicinity include many pyroclastic cones, lava flows, and
lava domes, with more than 400 vents, the most of any volcano in the
contiguous United States. Newberry Volcano is a popular destination for
recreational activities.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newberry_Volcano>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1525:
Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, defying the celibacy
discipline decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharina_von_Bora>
1955:
Soviet geologists discovered a diamond-bearing deposit in
Eastern Siberia, leading to the construction of the Mir mine, the first
diamond mine in the USSR and the second-largest excavated hole in the
world.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_mine>
1969:
Governor of Texas Preston Smith signed a law converting a
research arm of Texas Instruments into the University of Texas at
Dallas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_at_Dallas>
1983:
Pioneer 10 passed the orbit of Neptune, becoming the first man-
made object to leave the proximity of the major planets of the Solar
System.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_10>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nitrox:
1. (metallurgy) An industrial process for case hardening (imparting
greater surface hardness to) metal objects, involving nitrocarburizing
(the diffusion of carbon and nitrogen into the metal) followed by
oxidation.
2. (underwater diving) A mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, the nitrogen
content being lower than what is normally present in air, which is used
in place of air as a breathing gas.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nitrox>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 The worst sin — perhaps the only sin — passion can commit, is
to be joyless. Â
--Dorothy L. Sayers
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dorothy_L._Sayers>