Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (25 May 1846 – 9 June 1923) was
the fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She was educated by
private tutors chosen by her father and his close friend and adviser,
Baron Stockmar. Her childhood was spent with her parents, travelling
between royal residences in Britain. In 1866 she married the
impoverished German Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. She was the
most active member of the royal family, carrying out an extensive
programme of royal engagements at a time when royalty was not expected
to appear often in public. An active patron of charities, she was one of
the founding members of the British Red Cross. She was founding
president of the Royal School of Needlework, and president of the
Workhouse Infirmary Nursing Association. As president of the Royal
British Nurses' Association, she was a strong supporter of nurse
registration against the advice of Florence Nightingale.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Helena_of_the_United_Kingdom>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1644:
Ming general Wu Sangui let the invading Manchus pass through
the Great Wall of China, allowing them to capture Beijing, leading to
the foundation of the Qing dynasty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China>
1738:
King George II of Great Britain negotiated a cease-fire between
the British colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania, ending Cresap's War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cresap%27s_War>
1816:
The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge published one of his
most famous poems, "Kubla Khan".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubla_Khan>
1979:
Six-year-old Etan Patz disappeared on his way to school in New
York City, and later became one of the first missing children to have
his picture featured on milk cartons.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Etan_Patz>
2013:
Naxalite insurgents of the Communist Party of India (Maoist)
attacked a convoy of Indian National Congress leaders in the state of
Chhattisgarh, causing at least 27 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Naxal_attack_in_Darbha_valley>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
overthrow:
1. (transitive, now rare) To throw down to the ground, to overturn.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/overthrow>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It will never make any difference to a hero what the laws are.
His greatness will shine and accomplish itself unto the end, whether
they second him or not. If he have earned his bread by drudgery, and in
the narrow and crooked ways which were all an evil law had left him, he
will make it at least honorable by his expenditure. Of the past he will
take no heed; for its wrongs he will not hold himself responsible: he
will say, All the meanness of my progenitors shall not bereave me of the
power to make this hour and company fair and fortunate. Whatsoever
streams of power and commodity flow to me, shall of me acquire healing
virtue, and become fountains of safety. Cannot I too descend a Redeemer
into nature? Whosoever hereafter shall name my name, shall not record a
malefactor, but a benefactor in the earth. If there be power in good
intention, in fidelity, and in toil, the north wind shall be purer, the
stars in heaven shall glow with a kindlier beam, that I have lived. I am
primarily engaged to myself to be a public servant of all the gods, to
demonstrate to all men that there is intelligence and good will at the
heart of things, and ever higher and yet higher leadings. These are my
engagements; how can your law further or hinder me in what I shall do to
men? On the other hand, these dispositions establish their relations to
me. Wherever there is worth, I shall be greeted. Wherever there are men,
are the objects of my study and love. Sooner of later all men will be my
friends, and will testify in all methods the energy of their regard. I
cannot thank your law for my protection. I protect it. It is not in its
power to protect me. It is my business to make myself revered. I depend
on my honor, my labor, and my dispositions for my place in the
affections of mankind, and not on any conventions or parchments of
yours.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson>
Wonder Stories was an early American science fiction magazine published
under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback
after he lost control of his first science fiction magazine, Amazing
Stories. In 1936 he sold Wonder Stories to Ned Pines at Beacon
Publications; retitled Thrilling Wonder Stories, it continued for nearly
20 years. The editors under Gernsback's ownership were David Lasser,
who worked hard to improve the quality of the fiction, and later Charles
Hornig. They published some well-received fiction, such as Stanley G.
Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey", but were overshadowed by the success of
their chief competitor Astounding Stories. For a period in the early
1940s the magazine was aimed at younger readers, with a juvenile
editorial tone and covers that depicted beautiful women in implausibly
revealing spacesuits. By the end of the 1940s, in the opinion of science
fiction historian Mike Ashley, the magazine briefly rivaled Astounding.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Stories>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1689:
The Act of Toleration became law in England, granting freedom
of worship to nonconformists under certain circumstances, but
deliberately excluding Catholics.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toleration_Act_1689>
1883:
New York City's Brooklyn Bridge opened – the longest
suspension bridge in the world at the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge>
1956:
The first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was held in
Lugano, Switzerland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest>
1970:
On the Kola Peninsula in Russia, drilling began on the Kola
Superdeep Borehole, eventually reaching 12,262 metres (40,230 ft),
making it the deepest hole ever drilled and the deepest artificial point
on the earth.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole>
2014:
A gunman opened fire at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in
Brussels, killing four people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Museum_of_Belgium_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dodman:
1. (Britain, dialectal) A snail's shell.
2. (Britain, dialectal) Any shellfish which casts its shell, such as a
lobster.
3. (Britain, dialectal) A surveyor.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dodman>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is truth and then again there is truth. For all that the
world is full of people who go around believing they've got you or your
neighbor figured out, there really is no bottom to what is not known.
The truth about us is endless. As are the lies.
--Philip Roth
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Roth>
The 1988 Giro d'Italia was the 71st running of this annual race in
cycling's Grand Tour. It started in Urbino on 23 May with a 9 km
(5.6 mi) individual time trial, and concluded in Vittorio Veneto on 12
June. A total of 180 riders from 20 teams entered the 21-stage race,
which was won by Andrew Hampsten of the United States, with Erik
Breukink of the Netherlands finishing second and Urs Zimmermann of
Switzerland third. It was the third time – and second successive year
– in the history of the Giro with no Italian riders in the top three
finishers. In the first half of the race, the overall classification was
headed for several days by Massimo Podenzana, who participated in a
breakaway during stage 4a and held the race leader's jersey for more
than a week. The 14th stage of the race was conducted in adverse
weather, including a snowstorm. Hampsten became the first American, and
non-European, to win the Giro. Johan van der Velde was the winner of the
points classification, and Carrera Jeans–Vagabond won the team
classification.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Giro_d%27Italia>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1555:
Giovanni Pietro Carafa became Pope Paul IV and had a short, but
tumultuous papacy, during which the Papal States suffered a serious
military defeat.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Paul_IV>
1706:
War of the Spanish Succession: Led by the Duke of Marlborough,
the allied forces of England, the Dutch Republic, and Denmark–Norway
defeated the Franco-Spanish-Bavarian army in Ramillies, present-day
Belgium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ramillies>
1873:
The North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police, was established to bring law and order to, and
assert Canadian sovereignty over, the Northwest Territories.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Mounted_Police>
1951:
Delegates of the 14th Dalai Lama and the government of the
newly established People's Republic of China signed the Seventeen Point
Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, affirming Chinese
sovereignty over Tibet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Point_Agreement_for_the_Peaceful_Li…>
2013:
An oversize load struck several support beams on the bridge
carrying Interstate 5 over the Skagit River in the U.S. state of
Washington, leading to its immediate collapse (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-5_Skagit_River_Bridge_collapse>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
veisalgia:
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/veisalgia>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Every relation, every gradation of nature is incalculably
precious, but only to the soul which is poised upon itself, and to whom
no loss, no change, can bring dull discord, for it is in harmony with
the central soul.
--Margaret Fuller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Fuller>
Elizabeth David (1913–1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-
20th century she helped revitalise home cookery in her native country
and beyond with articles and books about European cuisines and
traditional British dishes. Born to an upper-class family, she studied
art in Paris and travelled to Greece, where she was nearly trapped by
the German invasion in 1941. Returning to England in 1946, she was
dismayed by the contrast between the bad food served in Britain and the
simple foods she had enjoyed in France, Greece and Egypt. She wrote
magazine articles about Mediterranean cooking, and in 1950 published A
Book of Mediterranean Food. Her recipes called for ingredients such as
aubergines, basil, figs, garlic, olive oil and saffron, which at the
time were scarcely available in Britain. By the 1960s David was a major
influence on domestic and professional British cooking. Between 1950 and
1984 she published eight books; after her death a further four were
published.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_David>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
853:
Byzantine–Arab Wars: The Byzantine navy began to sack and
plunder the port city of Damietta on the Nile Delta, whose garrison was
absent at the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Damietta_(853)>
1762:
The Trevi Fountain in Rome was officially inaugurated by Pope
Clement XIII.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevi_Fountain>
1849:
Abraham Lincoln was issued a patent for an invention to lift
boats over obstacles in a river, making him the only U.S. President to
ever hold a patent.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln%27s_patent>
1958:
Ethnic rioting broke out in Ceylon, targeted mostly at the
minority Sri Lankan Tamils, resulting in up to 300 deaths over the next
five days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_anti-Tamil_pogrom>
2012:
Tokyo Skytree, the tallest tower in the world at a height of
634 m (2,080 ft), opened to the public.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Skytree>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
food web:
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/food_web>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The progress of the sciences toward theories of fundamental
unity, cosmic symmetry (as in the unified field theory) — how do such
theories differ, in the end, from that unity which Plato called
“unspeakable” and “indiscribable,” the holistic knowledge shared
by so many peoples of the earth, Christians included, before the advent
of the industrial revolution made new barbarians of the peoples of the
West? In the United States, before spiritualist foolishness at the end
of the last century confused mysticism with “the occult” and
tarnished both, William James wrote a master work of metaphysics;
Emerson spoke of “the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which
every part and particle is equally related, the eternal One . . .”;
Melville referred to “that profound silence, that only voice of
God”; Walt Whitman celebrated the most ancient secret, that no God
could be found “more divine than yourself.” And then, almost
everywhere, a clear and subtle illumination that lent magnificence to
life and peace to death was overwhelmed in the hard glare of technology.
Yet that light is always present, like the stars of noon. Man must
perceive it if he is to transcend his fear of meaningless, for no amount
of “progress” can take its place.
--Peter Matthiessen
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Matthiessen>
Augustus Owsley Stanley (May 21, 1867 – August 12, 1958) was an
American politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. A Democrat, he
served as the 38th Governor of Kentucky. From 1903 to 1915, Stanley
represented Kentucky's 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House of
Representatives, where he gained a reputation as a progressive reformer.
Beginning in 1904, he called for an antitrust investigation of the
American Tobacco Company for driving down prices for the tobacco farmers
of his district; a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court case broke up the
company in 1911. He also chaired a committee that conducted an antitrust
investigation of U.S. Steel. Many of his ideas were incorporated into
the Clayton Antitrust Act. In 1915, Stanley ran for governor and won.
Historian Lowell H. Harrison called his administration the apex of the
Progressive Era in Kentucky. Among the reforms adopted during his tenure
were a state antitrust law, a campaign finance reform law, and a
workers' compensation law.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Owsley_Stanley>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1403:
King Henry III of Castile sent an embassy to the court of Timur
(Tamerlane) to discuss the possibility of an alliance between Timur and
Castile against the Ottoman Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timurid_relations_with_Europe>
1856:
A crowd of about 800 pro-slavery Americans ransacked the town
of Lawrence, Kansas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacking_of_Lawrence>
1894:
The Manchester Ship Canal, linking Manchester in North West
England to the Irish Sea, officially opened, becoming the largest
navigation canal in the world at the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Ship_Canal>
1911:
Mexican President Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary
Francisco Madero signed the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to
the fighting between the forces of both men, and thus concluding the
initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez>
1998:
Indonesian President Suharto resigned as a result of the
collapse of support for his three-decade-long reign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suharto>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
fret:
1. (transitive) To chafe or irritate; to worry.
2. (transitive) To make rough, to agitate or disturb; to cause to ripple.
3. (transitive) In the form fret out: to squander, to waste.
4. (transitive, intransitive) To gnaw; to consume, to eat away.
5. (transitive, intransitive) To be chafed or irritated; to be angry or
vexed; to utter peevish expressions through irritation or worry.
6. (intransitive) To be worn away; to chafe; to fray.
7. (intransitive) To be anxious, to worry.
8. (intransitive) To be agitated; to rankle; to be in violent commotion.
9. (intransitive, brewing, oenology) To have secondary fermentation
(fermentation occurring after the conversion of sugar to alcohol in
beers and wine) take place.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fret>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
He who tells a lie, is not sensible how great a task he
undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that
one.
--Alexander Pope
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Pope>
Arlington is a small city in the Seattle metropolitan area of northern
Snohomish County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies on the
Stillaguamish River in the western foothills of the Cascade Range,
adjacent to the city of Marysville and 10 miles (16 km) north of
Everett. The population was 17,926 in the 2010 U.S. census. Arlington
was established in the 1880s and incorporated as a city on May 20, 1903.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, federal projects in the
Arlington area included a municipal airport that would serve as a naval
air station during World War II. Beginning in the 1980s, Arlington
became increasingly suburban, annexing new neighborhoods to the south
and west. The economy of the Arlington area transitioned from timber and
agriculture to a service economy in the late 20th century. A Boeing
facility is in Everett, and Arlington's airport is home to many
aerospace jobs.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlington,_Washington>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
794:
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, King Æthelberht II of
East Anglia was beheaded on the order of King Offa of Mercia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelberht_II_of_East_Anglia>
1873:
Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a patent for using copper
rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim overalls, allowing their
company to start manufacturing blue jeans.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_W._Davis>
1882:
The Triple Alliance was created between the German Empire,
Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Alliance_(1882)>
1983:
A team of researchers led by French virologist Luc Montagnier
published their discovery of HIV, but were not then certain that it
caused AIDS.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Montagnier>
2012:
The first of two major earthquakes struck Northern Italy,
resulting in seven deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Northern_Italy_earthquakes>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
creed:
1. (specifically, religion) A reading or statement of belief that
summarizes the faith it represents; a confession of faith for public
use, especially one which is brief and comprehensive.
2. (rare) The fact of believing; belief, faith.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/creed>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavouring to
stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an
evil still. First: the opinion which it is attempted to suppress by
authority may possibly be true. Those who desire to suppress it, of
course deny its truth; but they are not infallible. They have no
authority to decide the question for all mankind, and exclude every
other person from the means of judging. To refuse a hearing to an
opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their
certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of
discussion is an assumption of infallibility. Its condemnation may be
allowed to rest on this common argument, not the worse for being common.
Unfortunately for the good sense of mankind, the fact of their
fallibility is far from carrying the weight in their practical judgment,
which is always allowed to it in theory; for while every one well knows
himself to be fallible, few think it necessary to take any precautions
against their own fallibility, or admit the supposition that any
opinion, of which they feel very certain, may be one of the examples of
the error to which they acknowledge themselves to be liable.
--On Liberty
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/On_Liberty>
Dungeons & Dragons is a studio album by American musical group Midnight
Syndicate, released in 2003 by Entity Productions. The album is designed
as a soundtrack for Wizards of the Coast's role-playing game Dungeons &
Dragons. After an initial meeting with Wizards of the Coast, Edward
Douglas and Gavin Goszka of Midnight Syndicate produced tracks
independently of one another, then jointly arranged the album and
mastered the tracks. The fantasy album was a change in style from their
earlier works, which had been almost entirely horror-based. Artwork in
the album booklet came from sourcebooks for the game, including works
from prominent game designers such as Skip Williams. The album was well
received by music critics and the gaming community. Wizards of the Coast
described the band's music as "the perfect accompaniment to role-playing
game sessions", and acknowledged the album as the first official
Dungeons & Dragons soundtrack.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_(album)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
715:
The papacy of Gregory II began; his conflict with Byzantine
emperor Leo III eventually led to the establishment of the popes'
temporal power.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_II>
1743:
French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin published the design of a
mercury thermometer with the centigrade scale, with 0 representing the
freezing point of water and 100 its boiling point.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius>
1845:
Captain Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated Arctic expedition
departed from Greenhithe, England; 129 men would die on the expedition.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition>
1997:
The Sierra Gorda Biosphere, which encompasses the most
ecologically diverse region in Mexico, was established as a result of
grassroots efforts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Gorda>
2015:
A corroded oil pipeline in Santa Barbara County, California,
burst, spilling 142,800 U.S. gallons (3,400 barrels) of crude oil onto
one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the U.S. West Coast.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugio_oil_spill>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nuptials:
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nuptials>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Humanity may endure the loss of everything: all its possessions
may be torn away without infringing its true dignity; — all but the
possibility of improvement.
--Johann Gottlieb Fichte
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johann_Gottlieb_Fichte>
Gillingham F.C. is an English football club based in Gillingham, Kent.
The club was formed in 1893, and played in the Southern League until
1920, when its top division was absorbed into the Football League as its
new Division Three. The club was voted out of the league in favour of
Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season, but returned 12 years
later, when that league was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs. Twice in the
late 1980s Gillingham came close to winning promotion to the second tier
of English football, but a decline set in, and in 1993 the club narrowly
avoided relegation to the Football Conference. In 2000, the "Gills"
reached the second tier of the English league for the first time in the
club's history and went on to spend five seasons at this level,
achieving a club-record highest league finish of eleventh place in
2002–03. The club has twice won the fourth-level division in the
football league pyramid: the Football League Fourth Division
championship in 1963–64 and the Football League Two championship in
2012–13.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gillingham_F.C.>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1388:
During the Battle of Buir Lake, General Lan Yu led a Chinese
army forward to crush the Mongol hordes of Toghus Temur, the Khan of
Northern Yuan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Buir_Lake>
1896:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Plessy v.
Ferguson, upholding the legality of racial segregation in public
transportation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v._Ferguson>
1944:
The Soviet Union forcibly deported the entire population of
Crimean Tatars to the Uzbek SSR and elsewhere in the country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars>
1955:
Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of 310,000
Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French
Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam following the end of
the First Indochina War, ended.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Passage_to_Freedom>
2006:
The Parliament of Nepal unanimously voted to strip King
Gyanendra of many of his powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_democracy_movement_in_Nepal>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Bauhaus:
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bauhaus>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else,
that prevents men from living freely and nobly. The State and Property
are the great embodiments of possessiveness; it is for this reason that
they are against life, and that they issue in war. Possession means
taking or keeping some good thing which another is prevented from
enjoying; creation means putting into the world a good thing which
otherwise no one would be able to enjoy. Since the material goods of the
world must be divided among the population, and since some men are by
nature brigands, there must be defensive possession, which will be
regulated, in a good community, by some principle of impersonal justice.
But all this is only the preface to a good life or good political
institutions, in which creation will altogether outweigh possession, and
distributive justice will exist as an uninteresting matter of course.
The supreme principle, both in politics and in private life, should be
to promote all that is creative, and so to diminish the impulses and
desires that center round possession.
--Bertrand Russell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell>
Ngô Đình Cẩn (1911–1964) was a younger brother and confidant of
South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Đình Diệm, who put Cẩn in
charge of central Vietnam, stretching from Phan Thiết in the south to
the border at the 17th parallel. Based in the former imperial capital of
Huế, Cẩn earned a reputation as the most oppressive of the Ngô
brothers, operating private armies and secret police that controlled the
central region. Cẩn's influence began to wane after his elder brother
Ngô Đình Thục was appointed the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Huế.
Thục overshadowed Cẩn and aggressively promoted Catholicism, which
led to the banning of the Buddhist flag in 1963 during Vesak, the
celebration of the birthday of Gautama Buddha. Cẩn's forces opened
fire on a crowd protesting the ban, killing nine and precipitating the
Buddhist crisis and the eventual toppling of the Diem regime in a
November 1963 coup. Cẩn was arrested and turned over to the military
junta, which executed him in 1964.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng%C3%B4_%C4%90%C3%ACnh_C%E1%BA%A9n>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1521:
English nobleman Edward Stafford, whose father had been
beheaded for rebelling against King Richard III, was himself executed
for treason against King Henry VIII.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Stafford,_3rd_Duke_of_Buckingham>
1642:
The Société Notre-Dame de Montréal founded a permanent
mission known as Ville-Marie, which eventually grew into the city of
Montreal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal>
1902:
The Antikythera mechanism (fragment pictured), the oldest known
surviving geared mechanism, was discovered among artifacts retrieved
from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism>
1977:
The first Chuck E. Cheese's location, the first family
restaurant to integrate food, animated entertainment, and an indoor
arcade, opened in San Jose, California, U.S.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_E._Cheese%27s>
2000:
Following the killings of two English football fans in the
previous month by Galatasaray supporters, British and Turkish hooligans
attacked each other on the day of the UEFA Cup Final.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_UEFA_Cup_Final_riots>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
hearts beat as one:
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hearts_beat_as_one>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The noblest and most fruitful work of the human intelligence is
to make a clean sweep of every enforced idea — of advantages or
meanings — and to go right through appearances in search of the
eternal bases. Thus you will clearly see the moral law at the beginning
of all things, and the conception of justice and equality will appear to
you beautiful as daylight.
--Henri Barbusse
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henri_Barbusse>
The Battle of Albuera (16 May 1811) was fought during the Peninsular
War. A mixed British, Spanish and Portuguese corps engaged elements of
the French Armée du Midi (Army of the South) at the small Spanish
village of La Albuera, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the
frontier fortress town of Badajoz, Spain. Since October 1810, Marshal
Masséna's French Army of Portugal had been tied down in an increasingly
hopeless stand-off against Wellington's Allied forces. Acting on
Napoleon's orders, in early 1811 Marshal Soult led a French expedition
from Andalusia into Extremadura in a bid to draw Allied forces away from
the battle lines and ease Masséna's plight. In April 1811, following
news of Masséna's complete withdrawal from Portugal, Wellington sent
the powerful Anglo-Portuguese Army commanded by Sir William Beresford to
retake the border town. Meeting at Albuera, both sides suffered heavily,
and the French finally withdrew on 18 May.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Albuera>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1866:
The United States Congress authorized the minting of the
country's first copper-nickel five-cent piece, the Shield nickel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shield_nickel>
1918:
The Sedition Act was passed in the United States, forbidding
Americans from using "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive
language" about the United States government, flag, or armed forces
during the ongoing World War I.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918>
1959:
The Triton Fountain in Valletta, one of Malta's most important
Modernist landmarks, was turned on for the first time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_Fountain_(Malta)>
1961:
The Military Revolution Committee, led by Park Chung-hee,
carried out a bloodless coup against the government of Yun Bo-seon,
ending the Second Republic of South Korea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_16_coup>
1975:
Based on the results of a referendum held about one month
earlier, Sikkim abolished its monarchy and was annexed by India,
becoming its 22nd state.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkim>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
vermiculation:
1. (obsolete, rare) The process of being turned into a worm.
2. The state of being infested or consumed by worms.
3. A pattern of irregular wavy lines resembling worms or their casts or
tracks, found on the plumage of birds, used to decorate artworks and
buildings, etc.
4. (medicine, dated) Peristalsis.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vermiculation>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
At this weak, pale, tabescent moment in the history of American
literature, we need a battalion, a brigade, of Zolas to head out into
this wild, bizarre, unpredictable, Hog-stomping, Baroque country of ours
and reclaim it as literary property.
--Tom Wolfe
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Wolfe>