Tottenham Hotspur F.C. (Spurs) have a long history as an English
football club based in Tottenham, London. They came into existence in
1882, became professional in 1895, and in 1901 became the only non-
League club to win the FA Cup since the establishment of the Football
League. They have won the FA Cup a further seven times, the Football
League twice, the League Cup four times, the UEFA Cup twice and, in
1963, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. In 1960–61, they became the first
team to complete The Double in the 20th century. The club languished
mostly in the Second Division from the late 1920s until the 1950s before
peaking in the 1960s, with a resurgence in the 1980s. They have remained
a member of the Premier League since its formation in 1992, finishing in
mid-table most seasons. In 1899 the club moved from Northumberland Park
to a site that became known as White Hart Lane, and remained there until
2017. A new stadium has been built at the same site.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Tottenham_Hotspur_F.C.>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1865:
Actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth fatally
shot U.S. President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington,
D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Abraham_Lincoln>
1906:
The Azusa Street Revival, the primary catalyst for the spread
of Pentecostalism in the 20th century, opened in Los Angeles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azusa_Street_Revival>
1944:
The freighter SS Fort Stikine, carrying a mixed cargo of cotton
bales, gold and ammunition, exploded in the harbour in Bombay, India,
sinking surrounding ships and killing about 800 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1944_Bombay_explosion>
1999:
A storm dropped an estimated 500,000 tonnes of hailstones in
Sydney (examples pictured) and along the east coast of New South Wales,
causing about A$2.3 billion in damages, the costliest natural disaster
in Australian insurance history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Sydney_hailstorm>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pang:
(transitive) To cause to have great pain or suffering; to torment, to
torture.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pang>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Everywhere in the world people were expecting the latter coming
of one or another kickshaw messiah who would remove the discomforts
which they themselves were either too lazy or too incompetent to deal
with; and nobody had anything whatever to gain with electing for
peculiarity among one's fellow creatures and a gloomier outlook.
--James Branch Cabell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Branch_Cabell>
Joe Hewitt (13 April 1901 – 1 November 1985) rose to be an air vice-
marshal in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Appointed the RAAF's
Assistant Chief of the Air Staff in 1941, he was posted the following
year to Allied Air Forces Headquarters, South West Pacific Area, as
Director of Intelligence. In 1943, he took command of No. 9 Operational
Group, the RAAF's main mobile strike force, but was controversially
sacked by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal George Jones,
less than a year later over alleged morale and disciplinary issues. As
Air Member for Personnel from 1945 to 1948, he was directly responsible
for the consolidation of what was then the world's fourth largest air
force into a much smaller peacetime service. He was appointed a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1951. Retiring from the
military in 1956, he went into business and later managed his own
publishing house. The book Adversity in Success is his first-hand
account of the South West Pacific air war.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hewitt_%28RAAF_officer%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
American Revolutionary War: British and Hessian forces
conducted a surprise attack against a Continental Army outpost at Bound
Brook, New Jersey.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bound_Brook>
1948:
Civil war in Mandatory Palestine: A convoy bringing supplies
and personnel to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital was ambushed by Arab
forces, leaving seventy-nine people dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadassah_medical_convoy_massacre>
1973:
Catch a Fire, the landmark reggae album by Bob Marley and the
Wailers, was released.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_a_Fire>
1997:
In golf, 21-year-old Tiger Woods became the youngest player to
win the US Masters, breaking the tournament's record for the lowest
four-round score (270 strokes, 18 under par).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Woods>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Department of Redundancy Department:
(humorous) A fictitious department that is cited to draw attention to
needless repetition or excessiveness.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Department_of_Redundancy_Department>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To know nothing is nothing, not to want to know anything
likewise, but to be beyond knowing anything, to know you are beyond
knowing anything, that is when peace enters in, to the soul of the
incurious seeker.
--Samuel Beckett
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett>
Allison Guyot is an undersea volcanic mountain with a flat top in the
Mid-Pacific Mountains. West of Hawaii and northeast of the Marshall
Islands, it rises 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) above the seafloor to a
platform 35 by 70 kilometres (22 mi × 43 mi) wide. It was probably
formed by a hotspot before plate tectonics moved it north to its
present-day location. Radiometric dating puts the formation of a
volcanic island at around 111 to 85 million years ago. The island was
eventually buried, forming an atoll-like structure and a carbonate
platform. The platform emerged above sea level at some time in the
Albian or Turonian ages before eventually drowning about 99 million
years ago for unknown reasons; it is possible that the emergence damaged
its reefs. After a hiatus lasting until the Paleocene, pelagic
sedimentation deposited limestone, ooze and sand, which bear traces of
climatic events and ocean currents.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_Guyot>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1807:
The Froberg mutiny at Fort Ricasoli in Malta came to a close
when the rebels blew up 600 barrels of gunpowder and escaped, although
they were later caught and executed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froberg_mutiny>
1831:
Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, collapsed,
reportedly because of mechanical resonance induced by troops marching in
step over the bridge.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broughton_Suspension_Bridge>
1910:
SMS Zrínyi, one of the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the
Austro-Hungarian Navy, was launched.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Zr%C3%ADnyi>
1980:
Terry Fox, an athlete with an artificial leg, began running his
"Marathon of Hope" from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, intending
to reach Vancouver, to raise funds for cancer research.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
spraddle:
1. (transitive, Canada, Caribbean (West Indies), US) To spread apart
(the legs).
2. (transitive, Canada, Caribbean (West Indies), US) To spread apart
the legs of (someone or something).
3. (intransitive, Canada, Caribbean (West Indies), US) To lie, move, or
stand with legs spread.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spraddle>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I honestly beleave it iz better tew know nothing than two know
what ain't so.
--Josh Billings
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Josh_Billings>
Satellite Science Fiction was an American science fiction magazine,
published from October 1956 to April 1959 by Leo Margulies' Renown
Publications. It was edited initially by Sam Merwin, then Margulies, and
finally Frank Belknap Long. In addition to a handful of short stories,
initially each issue ran a full-length novel, including the original
version of Philip K. Dick's first novel The Cosmic Puppets, and well-
received work by Algis Budrys and Jack Vance, though the quality was not
always high. Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and L. Sprague de Camp
were among the short story contributors. Sam Moskowitz wrote a series
of articles on the early history of science fiction for Satellite; these
were later to be revised as part of his book Explorers of the Infinite.
In 1958 Margulies tracked down the first magazine publication of H.G.
Wells' The Time Machine from 1894–1895, and reprinted a short excerpt
from it that had been omitted by every subsequent printing.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Science_Fiction>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1888:
The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, considered one of the world's
finest concert halls, was inaugurated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concertgebouw>
1921:
Emir Abdullah established the first centralised government in
the recently created British protectorate of Transjordan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Transjordan>
1963:
Pope John XXIII issued Pacem in terris ("Peace on Earth"), the
first papal encyclical addressed to "all men of good will", rather than
only to Catholics.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacem_in_terris>
2001:
In a FIFA World Cup qualifying match, Australia defeated
defeated American Samoa by a score of 31–0, the largest ever in an
international football match.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_31%E2%80%930_American_Samoa>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
flabbergast:
(transitive) To overwhelm with bewilderment; to amaze, confound, or
stun, especially in a ludicrous manner.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flabbergast>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Black holes ain't as black as they are painted. They are not the
eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black
hole, both to the outside, and possibly to another universe. So if you
feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out.
--Stephen Hawking
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking>
The Fall of Kampala was a battle during the Uganda–Tanzania War in
April 1979, in which the combined forces of Tanzania and the Uganda
National Liberation Front (UNLF) attacked and captured the Ugandan
capital, Kampala. Tanzanian forces were repulsing an invasion launched
by Ugandan President Idi Amin (pictured). After routing the Ugandans and
their Libyan allies in Entebbe, the Tanzanians moved on Kampala. They
entered the city with UNLF forces on 10 April, facing minimal resistance
but hampered by their lack of maps. The fall of the city was announced
the next day. The Tanzanians cleared out the remaining pockets of
opposition, while jubilant civilians celebrated through indiscriminate,
destructive looting. Amin was deposed, his forces were scattered, and a
new government was installed. The battle marked the first time in the
modern history of the continent that an African state seized the capital
of another African country and deposed its government.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Kampala>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1858:
Big Ben, the bell in the Palace of Westminster's clock tower in
London, was cast after the original bell cracked during testing.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben>
1925:
The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was first
published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby>
1959:
Crown Prince Akihito, the future Emperor of Japan, wedded
Michiko, the first commoner to marry into the Japanese Imperial Family.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Michiko>
2009:
Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo announced that he had
suspended the constitution and assumed all governance in the country
after it was ruled that the government of Prime Minister Frank
Bainimarama was illegal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Fijian_constitutional_crisis>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
deem:
1. (transitive, obsolete) To judge, to pass judgment on; to doom, to
sentence.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To adjudge, to decree.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To dispense (justice); to administer (law).
4. (transitive) To hold in belief or estimation; to adjudge as a
conclusion; to regard as being; to evaluate according to one's beliefs;
to account.
5. (transitive, intransitive) To think, judge, or hold as an opinion; to
decide or believe on consideration; to suppose.
6. (intransitive) To have or hold as an opinion; to judge; to think.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/deem>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is … no prejudice so strong as that which arises from a
fancied exemption from all prejudice.
--William Hazlitt
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Hazlitt>
Planet Nine is a hypothetical planet in the outer region of the Solar
System. Its gravitational effects could explain the unlikely clustering
of orbits for a group of extreme trans-Neptunian objects, bodies with
average distances from the Sun that are more than 250 times that of
Earth. These objects tend to make their closest approaches to the Sun in
one sector, and their orbits are similarly tilted. Their improbable
alignments suggest that an undiscovered planet may be shepherding the
orbits of the most distant known Solar System objects. Planet Nine would
have a predicted mass five to ten times that of Earth, and an elongated
orbit extending 400 to 800 times as far from the Sun as the Earth's. It
may have been ejected from its original orbit by Jupiter during the
genesis of the Solar System, wrested from another star, captured as a
rogue planet, or pulled into an eccentric orbit by a passing star.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Nine>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1917:
First World War: The Canadian Corps began the first wave of
attacks at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in Vimy, France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge>
1942:
World War II: Japanese forces defeated Allied troops at the
Battle of Bataan on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines before
beginning to forcibly transfer more than 90,000 prisoners of war to
prison camps in the Bataan Death March.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March>
1959:
NASA announced the selection of the Mercury Seven, the first
astronauts in Project Mercury.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Seven>
1999:
President of Niger Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was shot to death
by soldiers in Niamey.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Bar%C3%A9_Ma%C3%AFnassara>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
grandfather:
1. (transitive, chiefly US, law) To retain existing laws or rules for (a
person or organization previously affected by them).
2. (intransitive, chiefly US, law) To retain existing laws or rules only
for people or organizations previously affected by them, and to apply
new laws or rules to the unaffected people or organizations.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grandfather>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
No one is more dangerous than someone who thinks he has "The
Truth". To be an atheist is almost as arrogant as to be a
fundamentalist.
--Tom Lehrer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer>
Billy Martin (1928–1989) was an American Major League Baseball second
baseman and the on-again, off-again manager of the New York Yankees.
Known first as a scrappy infielder on the championship Yankee teams of
the 1950s, he built a reputation as a manager who would initially make
bad teams good, and then be fired amid dysfunction. In each of his
stints with the Yankees, he led them to winning records before being
fired or forced to resign by team owner George Steinbrenner. Martin led
the team to consecutive American League pennants in 1976 and 1977; they
lost in the 1976 World Series but triumphed over the Los Angeles Dodgers
in 1977, Martin's only World Series championship as a manager. He was
forced to resign midway through the 1978 season, returned in 1979, and
was fired at season's end. From 1980 to 1982, he managed the Oakland
A's, earning a division title with an aggressive style of play known as
"Billyball". After the A's fired him, he managed the Yankees three more
times.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Martin>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1271:
The Knights Hospitaller surrendered the Krak des Chevaliers to
the army of the Mamluk sultan Baibars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak_des_Chevaliers>
1740:
War of the Austrian Succession: The Royal Navy captured the
Spanish ship of the line Princesa, which was later mustered into British
service.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Princess_%281740%29>
1904:
France and the United Kingdom signed the Entente Cordiale,
agreeing to a peaceful coexistence after centuries of intermittent
conflict.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entente_Cordiale>
1959:
A team of computer scientists and others met to discuss the
creation of a common business-oriented programming language that became
COBOL.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
comply:
1. To yield assent; to accord; to acquiesce, agree, consent; to adapt
oneself, to conform.
2. (archaic) To accomplish, to fulfil. [from late 16th c.]
3. (archaic) To be ceremoniously courteous; to make one's compliments.
4. (archaic) To enfold; to embrace.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/comply>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Each of us believes, quite unconsciously of course, that we alone
pursue the truth, which the rest are incapable of seeking out and
unworthy of attaining. This madness is so deep-rooted and so useful that
it is impossible to realize what would become of each of us if it were
someday to disappear.
--Emil Cioran
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran>
Sabre Wulf is an action-adventure game by Ultimate Play the Game,
initially released in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum home computer. The player
navigates the pith-helmeted Sabreman through a colourful 2D jungle maze
to collect amulet pieces, avoid enemies, and bypass the guardian at its
exit. With no explicit guidance on how to play, the player is left to
decipher the game's objectives through trial and error. The game
developers had finished Sabre Wulf's sequels in advance of its release
but—in keeping with their penchant for secrecy—chose to withhold
them until later that year. They hired outside developers to port the
game to several other computing platforms. Sabre Wulf was a bestseller
and a financial success. It was recommended by reviewers, who also noted
its difficult gameplay and praised its graphics. Retrospective critics
remember Sabre Wulf as among the Spectrum's best releases.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabre_Wulf>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1949:
The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, based on
Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener, opened on Broadway.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pacific_%28musical%29>
1994:
The Rwandan genocide began, a few hours after the assassination
of President Juvénal Habyarimana; an estimated 500,000–1,000,000
Rwandans were killed in the following 100 days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide>
2017:
A hijacked truck was deliberately driven into crowds along
Drottninggatan in Stockholm killing five people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Stockholm_truck_attack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
chivvy:
1. (transitive, Britain) To coerce or hurry along, as by persistent
request.
2. (transitive, Britain) To subject to harassment or verbal abuse.
3. (transitive, Britain) To sneak up on or rapidly approach.
4. (transitive, Britain) To pursue as in a hunt.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chivvy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows Like harmony in music;
there is a dark Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles Discordant
elements, makes them cling together In one society.
--William Wordsworth
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth>
The Rogožarski IK-3 was a 1930s Yugoslav monoplane single-seat fighter,
designed as a successor to the Ikarus IK-2 fighter. Coming into service
in 1940, it was considered comparable to foreign aircraft such as the
Messerschmitt Bf 109E. Although the prototype crashed during testing, a
total of twelve production aircraft had been delivered by July 1940. Six
IK-3s were serviceable when the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia began on 6
April 1941. All six were in service with the 51st Independent Fighter
Group at Zemun near Belgrade. Pilots flying the IK-3 claimed 11 aircraft
shot down during the 11-day conflict. According to one account, to
prevent them from falling into German hands, the surviving aircraft and
incomplete airframes were destroyed by their crews and factory staff.
Another account suggests that one aircraft survived the invasion and was
later destroyed by sabotage. The IK-3 design was the basis for the post-
war Yugoslav-built Ikarus S-49 fighter.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogo%C5%BEarski_IK-3>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1812:
Peninsular War: After a three-week siege, the Anglo-Portuguese
Army, under the Earl of Wellington, captured Badajoz, Spain, and forced
the surrender of the French garrison.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Badajoz_%281812%29>
1941:
World War II: The Axis Powers began both Operation Marita and
Operation 25, invading Greece and Yugoslavia, respectively.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Yugoslavia>
1970:
Four California Highway Patrol officers were killed in a
shootout after a traffic stop in the Newhall area, north of Los Angeles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhall_incident>
2009:
A 6.3 Mw earthquake struck the region of Abruzzo in central
Italy (damage pictured), killing 308 people and injuring more than 1,500
others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_L%27Aquila_earthquake>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
wieldy:
1. (obsolete except Britain, dialectal) Able to wield one's body well;
active, dexterous.
2. Capable of being easily wielded or managed; handy.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wieldy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The government and the people are under a moral necessity of
acting together; a free press compels them to bend to one another.
--James Mill
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Mill>
Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series.
Set in London, the US and Jamaica, it was first published in the UK by
Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1954. Fleming wrote the novel at his Goldeneye
estate in Jamaica before his first book, Casino Royale, was published.
The story centres on Bond's pursuit of Mr Big, who has links to an
American criminal network, the world of voodoo and SMERSH—an arm of
the Russian secret service—all of which are threats to the West. Bond
becomes involved in the US through Mr Big's smuggling of 17th-century
gold coins from British territories in the Caribbean. The novel deals
with themes of the ongoing East–West struggle of the Cold War,
including British and American relations, Britain's position in the
world, race relations and the struggle between good and evil. It was
adapted in 1973 as the eighth film in the Eon Productions Bond series
and the first to star Roger Moore (pictured) as Bond.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_and_Let_Die_%28novel%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1710:
The Statute of Anne, the first fully fledged law regulating
copyright, received royal assent and went into effect five days later in
Great Britain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Anne>
1986:
The Libyan secret service bombed a discotheque in West Berlin,
killing 3 people and injuring 229 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_West_Berlin_discotheque_bombing>
2000:
Before a semi-final of the 2000 UEFA Cup in Istanbul, violence
broke out that resulted in two Leeds United fans being stabbed to death.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_UEFA_Cup_semi-final_violence>
2009:
The North Korean satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 was launched from
the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground and passed over Japan, sparking
concerns it may have been a trial run of technology that could be used
to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwangmy%C5%8Fngs%C5%8Fng-2>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
whelm:
1. (transitive) To bury, to cover; to engulf, to submerge.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To throw (something) over a thing so as to
cover it.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To ruin or destroy.
4. (intransitive) To overcome with emotion; to overwhelm.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/whelm>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To promise that which is known to be impossible is no covenant.
But if that prove impossible afterwards, which before was thought
possible, the covenant is valid and bindeth, though not to the thing
itself, yet to the value; or, if that also be impossible, to the
unfeigned endeavour of performing as much as is possible, for to more no
man can be obliged. Men are freed of their covenants two ways; by
performing, or by being forgiven. For performance is the natural end of
obligation, and forgiveness the restitution of liberty, as being a
retransferring of that right in which the obligation consisted.
--Thomas Hobbes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes>