"Over There" is the two-part second-season finale of the Fox science
fiction drama series Fringe. Both parts were written by Academy Award-
winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, together with showrunners Jeff
Pinkner and J. H. Wyman. Goldsman also served as director. Fringe's
premise is based on the idea of two parallel universes, our own and the
Other Side, which began to clash in 1985, after Dr. Walter Bishop (John
Noble) stole the parallel universe version of his son, Peter, following
his own son's death. The finale's narrative recounts what happens when
Peter (Joshua Jackson) is taken back to the Other Side by his real
father, dubbed "Walternate" (Noble). FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv,
pictured) and Walter lead a team of former Cortexiphan test subjects to
retrieve him, after discovering that Peter is an unwitting part of
Walternate's plans to bring about the destruction of our universe using
an ancient doomsday device. Part one aired on May 13, 2010, to an
estimated 5.99 million viewers, while part two broadcast a week later
to 5.68 million. Both episodes received overwhelmingly positive
reviews, with critics lauding the subtle differences between each
universe. The finale was selected for multiple 2010 "best of
television" lists.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_There_(Fringe)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1535:
Conquistador Francisco Pizarro founded Ciudad de los Reyes,
present-day Lima, Peru, as the capital of the lands he conquered for the
Spanish Crown.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lima>
1778:
English explorer James Cook became the first known European to
reach the Sandwich Islands, now known as the Hawaiian Islands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Islands>
1866:
Wesley College, the largest school in Australia by enrolment,
was established in Melbourne.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_College_(Victoria)>
1871:
A number of independent German states unified into the German
Empire, with Prussian King Wilhelm I being proclaimed as its first
Emperor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Germany>
1943:
World War II: As part of Operation Iskra, the Soviet Red Army
broke the Siege of Leningrad, opening a narrow land corridor to the
city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Iskra>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
scuttle:
(transitive) To deliberately sink a ship or boat by order of the
vessel's commander or owner.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scuttle>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The worst that can happen under monarchy is rule by a single imbecile,
but democracy often means the rule by an assembly of three or four
hundred imbeciles.
--Robert Anton Wilson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson>
The Lisbon Appointment was the decision in 1965 by Britain's self-
governing colony in Rhodesia to open its own diplomatic mission in
Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, which would operate independently from
the British embassy there. Britain objected to the proposal when it was
put forward in June 1965, and tried unsuccessfully to block it. The
affair came amidst the larger dispute between Whitehall and Salisbury
about sovereign independence for the colony. Whitehall insisted that
there could be no independence before majority rule, which was opposed
by Rhodesia's mostly white government. Rhodesia's staunch opposition to
immediate majority rule and its disillusionment regarding Britain
propelled it towards Portugal, which governed the neighbouring
territories of Angola and Mozambique. Portugal, while insisting it was
neutral regarding Rhodesia, officially recognised Harry Reedman as
"Chief of the Rhodesian Mission" in September 1965. It was careful to
avoid provoking Britain, omitting the word "diplomatic" from the titles
given to Reedman and his mission, but the Rhodesians still regarded
themselves as victorious. Less than two months later, Rhodesia
unilaterally declared independence.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon_Appointment>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1781:
American Revolutionary War: American forces won a surprising
victory over the British at the Battle of Cowpens, one of the most
pivotal battles of the war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cowpens>
1912:
Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition reached
the South Pole, only to find that Roald Amundsen's team had beaten them
by 33 days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_Expedition>
1946:
The United Nations Security Council (chamber pictured), the
organ of the United Nations charged with the maintenance of
international peace and security, held its first meeting at Church House
in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council>
1957:
USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, launched
from Groton, Connecticut, with the message, "Underway on nuclear power."
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nautilus_(SSN-571)>
1961:
Former Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was murdered in
circumstances suggesting the support and complicity of the governments
of Belgium and the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
indigent:
Poor; destitute; in need.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/indigent>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Mankind naturally and generally love to be flatter'd: Whatever sooths
our Pride, and tends to exalt our Species above the rest of the
Creation, we are pleas'd with and easily believe, when ungrateful Truths
shall be with the utmost Indignation rejected. "What! bring ourselves
down to an Equality with the Beasts of the Field! with the meanest part
of the Creation! 'Tis insufferable!" But, (to use a Piece of common
Sense) our Geese are but Geese tho' we may think 'em Swans; and Truth
will be Truth tho' it sometimes prove mortifying and distasteful.
--Benjamin Franklin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin>
Dudley Clarke (1899–1974) was an officer in the British Army, known as
a pioneer of military deception operations during the Second World War.
His ideas for combining fictional orders of battle, visual deception and
double agents helped define Allied deception strategy during the war.
Clarke trained with the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War,
and then led a varied career doing intelligence work in the Middle East.
In 1936 he was posted to Palestine, where he helped organise the British
response to the 1936 Arab uprising. Early in the Second World War,
Clarke proposed, and helped implement, an idea for commando raids into
France. In 1940, he was placed in charge of strategic deception in
Cairo, and was called to London in 1941 as his deception work had come
to the attention of Allied high command. Throughout 1942 Clarke
implemented Operation Cascade, an order of battle deception which added
many fictional units to the Allied formations; by the end of the war the
enemy accepted most of the formations as real. From 1942 to 1945, Clarke
continued to organise deception in North Africa and southern Europe. He
retired in 1947 and lived the rest of his life in relative obscurity.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudley_Clarke>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
27 BC:
Gaius Octavianus was given the title Augustus by the Roman
Senate when he became the first Roman emperor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus>
1809:
Peninsular War: French forces under Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult
attacked the amphibious evacuation of the British under Sir John Moore
in Corunna, Galicia, Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Corunna>
1919:
The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified
by thirty-six of the forty-eight states, establishing the prohibition of
alcoholic beverages in the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Con…>
1938:
Benny Goodman performed a concert at New York City's Carnegie
Hall which has been considered instrumental in establishing jazz as a
legitimate form of music.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Goodman>
1945:
World War II: Adolf Hitler and his staff moved into the
Führerbunker, where he would eventually commit suicide.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrerbunker>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
smurf account:
(Internet slang) An alternate account used by a known or experienced
user to appear to be someone else.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smurf_account>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We live in a culture in which intelligence is denied relevance
altogether, in a search for radical innocence, or is defended as an
instrument of authority and repression. In my view, the only
intelligence worth defending is critical, dialectical, skeptical,
desimplifying.
--Susan Sontag
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susan_Sontag>
The Hudson Valley Rail Trail is a paved 4-mile (6.4 km) east–west
rail trail in Ulster County, New York, stretching from the Hudson River
through the hamlet of Highland. It was originally part of the
Poughkeepsie Bridge Route, a rail corridor that crossed the Hudson via
the Poughkeepsie Bridge. Controlled by a variety of railroads throughout
the 19th and 20th centuries, the bridge was damaged and became
unusable after a 1974 fire. The section of the corridor west of the
Hudson was acquired from a convicted felon by Ulster County in 1991 and
transferred to the town of Lloyd. During the 1990s, a broadband utility
seeking to lay fiber optic cable paid the town to pass through the
former corridor. The town used part of its payment to pave the route and
open it as a public rail trail in 1997. While the trail originally ended
at Route 44–55, it was extended eastward between 2009 and 2010,
intersecting Route 9W and continuing to the Poughkeepsie Bridge. The
bridge, now a pedestrian walkway, connects the trail with the Dutchess
Rail Trail to the east, creating a 30-mile (48 km) rail trail system
that spans the Hudson. The trail is expected to be extended west, where
it will border Route 299.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Valley_Rail_Trail>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1759:
The British Museum in London, today containing one of the
largest and most comprehensive collections in the world, opened to the
public in Montagu House, Bloomsbury.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum>
1910:
Construction on the Buffalo Bill Dam, then the tallest dam in
the world, on the Shoshone River in the U.S. state of Wyoming was
completed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill_Dam>
1943:
The highest-capacity office building in the world, the
headquarters of the United States Department of Defense known as the
Pentagon (pictured), was dedicated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon>
1991:
Elizabeth II, as Queen of Australia, signed letters patent
allowing Australia to become the first Commonwealth realm to institute
its own separate Victoria Cross award in its own honours system.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Cross_for_Australia>
1993:
Salvatore "The Beast" Riina, one of the most powerful members
of the Sicilian Mafia, was arrested after three decades as a fugitive.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Riina>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
floccinaucinihilipilificate:
(colloquial) To describe or regard something as worthless.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/floccinaucinihilipilificate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge,
aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.>
The Adelaide leak was the revelation to the press of a dressing-room
incident during the third cricket Test match of the "Bodyline" series of
1932–33 between England and Australia. During the course of play on
14 January 1933, the Australian Test captain Bill Woodfull was struck
over the heart by a ball delivered by Harold Larwood (incident
pictured). On his return to the dressing room, Woodfull was visited by
the England manager Pelham Warner who enquired after Woodfull's health,
but to Warner's embarrassment, the latter said he did not want to speak
to him owing to England's Bodyline tactics. The matter became public
knowledge when someone present leaked the exchange to the press; such
leaks were practically unknown at the time. In the immediate aftermath,
many people assumed Jack Fingleton, a full-time journalist, was
responsible. Fingleton later wrote that Donald Bradman, Australia's star
batsman, disclosed the story. Bradman always denied this, and continued
to blame Fingleton. Woodfull's earlier public silence on the tactics had
been interpreted as approval; the leak was significant in persuading the
Australian public that Bodyline was unacceptable.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide_leak>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1301:
The Árpád dynasty, which had ruled Hungary since the late 9th
century, ended with the death of King Andrew III.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81rp%C3%A1d_dynasty>
1761:
The Afghans led by Ahmad Shah Abdali defeated the French-
supplied and trained Maratha troops at the Third Battle of Panipat in
Panipat, present-day Haryana, India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Panipat_(1761)>
1814:
Sweden and Denmark–Norway signed the Treaty of Kiel, whereby
Frederick VI of Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden in return for the
Swedish holdings in Pomerania.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Kiel>
1973:
Elvis Presley's concert Aloha from Hawaii was broadcast live
via satellite, and set a record as the most watched broadcast by an
individual entertainer in television history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloha_from_Hawaii_Via_Satellite>
1975:
British teenage heiress Lesley Whittle was kidnapped by Donald
Neilson and subsequently murdered during a failed ransom collection
attempt.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Lesley_Whittle>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
orgulous:
Proud; haughty; disdainful.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/orgulous>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I do not want to frighten you by telling you about the temptations life
will bring. Anyone who is healthy in spirit will overcome them. But
there is something I want you to realize. It does not matter so much
what you do. What matters is whether your soul is harmed by what you do.
If your soul is harmed, something irreparable happens, the extent of
which you won't realize until it will be too late.
--Albert Schweitzer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer>
The New Forest pony is one of the recognised mountain and moorland or
native pony breeds of the British Isles. Height varies from around
12 hands (48 inches, 122 cm) to 14.2 hands (58 inches, 147 cm).
The ponies are valued for hardiness, strength, and surefootedness. The
breed is indigenous to the New Forest in Hampshire in southern England,
where equines have lived since before the last Ice Age. The New Forest
pony can be ridden by children and adults, can be driven in harness, and
competes successfully against larger horses in horse show competition.
The population of ponies on the Forest has fluctuated in response to
varying demand for youngstock. Numbers fell to fewer than six hundred in
1945 but have since risen steadily, and thousands now run loose in semi-
feral conditions. The welfare of ponies grazing on the Forest is
monitored by five Agisters, employees of the Verderers of the New
Forest. The ponies are gathered annually in a series of drifts, to be
checked for health, wormed, and tail-marked; each pony's tail is trimmed
to the pattern of the Agister responsible for that pony. Many of the
foals bred on the Forest are sold through the Beaulieu Road pony sales,
which are held several times each year.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Forest_pony>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1815:
War of 1812: British troops captured Fort Peter in St. Marys,
Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Peter>
1898:
The Paris newspaper L'Aurore published "J'accuse...!", an open
letter by French writer Émile Zola to Félix Faure, the President of
the Republic, exposing the Dreyfus affair.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%27accuse>
1915:
About 30,000 people in Avezzano, Italy—96% of its
population—were killed when an earthquake struck the region.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1915_Avezzano_earthquake>
1953:
An article published in Pravda accused some of the most
prestigious physicians in the Soviet Union, mostly Jews, of taking part
in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and
military leadership.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors%27_plot>
1986:
The month-long South Yemen Civil War began in Aden between
supporters of President Ali Nasir Muhammad and his predecessor Abdul
Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Yemen_Civil_War>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gherao:
(India) A protest in which a group of people surrounds a politician,
building, etc. until demands are met.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gherao>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
--G. I. Gurdjieff
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/G._I._Gurdjieff>
Little Moreton Hall is a moated half-timbered manor house near Congleton
in Cheshire, England. The earliest parts of the house were built for the
prosperous Cheshire landowner William Moreton in about 1504–08, and
the remainder was constructed in stages by successive generations of the
family until about 1610. It remained in the possession of the Moreton
family for almost 450 years, until ownership was transferred to the
National Trust in 1938. The building is highly irregular, with three
asymmetrical ranges forming a small, rectangular cobbled courtyard.
Little Moreton Hall and its sandstone bridge across the moat are
designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. The house
has been fully restored and is open to the public from April to December
each year. At its greatest extent, in the mid-16th century, the Little
Moreton Hall estate occupied an area of 1,360 acres (550 ha) and
contained a cornmill, orchards, gardens, and an iron bloomery with
water-powered hammers. The gardens lay abandoned until their 20th-
century re-creation. As there were no surviving records of the layout of
the original knot garden it was replanted according to a pattern
published in the 17th century.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Moreton_Hall>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1838:
In order to avoid persecution by anti-Mormons, Latter Day Saint
movement founder Joseph Smith and his followers fled Kirtland, Ohio, for
Far West, Missouri.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith>
1899:
During a storm, the crew of the Lynmouth Lifeboat Station
transported their 10-ton lifeboat 15 mi (24 km) overland in order to
rescue a damaged schooner.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynmouth_Lifeboat_Station>
1945:
World War II: The Soviet Union's Red Army crossed the Vistula
River in Poland on their way to invade Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistula%E2%80%93Oder_Offensive>
1969:
In American football, the New York Jets upset the Baltimore
Colts to win Super Bowl III in one of the greatest upsets in American
sports history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_III>
2007:
Comet McNaught reached perihelion and became the brightest
comet in over 40 years with an apparent magnitude of −5.5.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2006_P1>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
heave in sight:
(nautical) To appear at a distance, to emerge in the field of vision.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heave_in_sight>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their
disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites, — in
proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity, — in
proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above
their vanity and presumption, — in proportion as they are more
disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference
to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling
power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it
there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the
eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be
free. Their passions forge their fetters.
--Edmund Burke
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke>
Little Moreton Hall is a moated half-timbered manor house near Congleton
in Cheshire, England. The earliest parts of the house were built for the
prosperous Cheshire landowner William Moreton in about 1504–08, and
the remainder was constructed in stages by successive generations of the
family until about 1610. It remained in the possession of the Moreton
family for almost 450 years, until ownership was transferred to the
National Trust in 1938. The building is highly irregular, with three
asymmetrical ranges forming a small, rectangular cobbled courtyard.
Little Moreton Hall and its sandstone bridge across the moat are
designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. The house
has been fully restored and is open to the public from April to December
each year. At its greatest extent, in the mid-16th century, the Little
Moreton Hall estate occupied an area of 1,360 acres (550 ha) and
contained a cornmill, orchards, gardens, and an iron bloomery with
water-powered hammers. The gardens lay abandoned until their 20th-
century re-creation. As there were no surviving records of the layout of
the original knot garden it was replanted according to a pattern
published in the 17th century.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Moreton_Hall>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1838:
In order to avoid persecution by anti-Mormons, Latter Day Saint
movement founder Joseph Smith and his followers fled Kirtland, Ohio, for
Far West, Missouri.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith>
1899:
During a storm, the crew of the Lynmouth Lifeboat Station
transported their 10-ton lifeboat 15 mi (24 km) overland in order to
rescue a damaged schooner.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynmouth_Lifeboat_Station>
1945:
World War II: The Soviet Union's Red Army crossed the Vistula
River in Poland on their way to invade Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistula%E2%80%93Oder_Offensive>
1969:
In American football, the New York Jets upset the Baltimore
Colts to win Super Bowl III in one of the greatest upsets in American
sports history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_III>
2007:
Comet McNaught reached perihelion and became the brightest
comet in over 40 years with an apparent magnitude of −5.5.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2006_P1>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
heave in sight:
(nautical) To appear at a distance, to emerge in the field of vision.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heave_in_sight>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their
disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites, — in
proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity, — in
proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above
their vanity and presumption, — in proportion as they are more
disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference
to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling
power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it
there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the
eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be
free. Their passions forge their fetters.
--Edmund Burke
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke>
The Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground line, was opened
to the public on 10 January 1863. It connected the mainline railway
termini at Paddington, Euston and King's Cross to London's financial
heart in the City using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam
locomotives. The railway was soon extended and completed the Inner
Circle in 1884, but the most important route became the line to Verney
Junction in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles (80 km) from London.
Electric traction was introduced in 1905 and by 1907 electric multiple
units operated most of the services. The Railway developed land for
housing and after World War I promoted housing estates near the railway
with the "Metro-land" brand. On 1 July 1933, the Metropolitan Railway
was amalgamated with the railways of the Underground Electric Railways
Company of London and the capital's tramway and bus operators to form
the London Passenger Transport Board.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Railway>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1645:
William Laud (pictured), Archbishop of Canterbury and a fervent
supporter of King Charles I, was beheaded in the midst of the English
Civil War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Laud>
1776:
Common Sense by Thomas Paine, a document denouncing British
rule in the Thirteen Colonies, was published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Sense_(pamphlet)>
1954:
BOAC Flight 781 suffered an explosive decompression at altitude
and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, killing everyone on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOAC_Flight_781>
1993:
The Braer Storm, the strongest extratropical cyclone ever
recorded in the North Atlantic, reached its peak intensity.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braer_Storm_of_January_1993>
2007:
A general strike, an attempt to force President Lansana Conté
to resign which eventually resulted in the appointment of two new prime
ministers, began in Guinea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Guinean_general_strike>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
zeptomole:
(chemistry, physics) A small amount of a substance, especially a
countable number of atoms or molecules.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/zeptomole>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed
by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses
which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist.
--John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton>
Richard Nixon (1913–1994) was the 37th President of the United States,
serving from 1969 to 1974. He graduated from Whittier College in 1934
and Duke University School of Law in 1937, returning to California to
practice law. He served in the United States Navy during World War II.
Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the
Senate in 1950. He served for eight years as vice president, from 1953
to 1961, and waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960,
narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy. In 1968, Nixon ran again for
president and was elected. He initially escalated the Vietnam War, but
ended US involvement in 1973. Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of
China in 1972 opened diplomatic relations between the two nations.
Though he presided over Apollo 11, he scaled back manned space
exploration. He was re-elected by a landslide in 1972. A series of
revelations in the Watergate scandal cost Nixon much of his political
support in his second term, and on August 9, 1974, he resigned as
president. In retirement, Nixon's work as an elder statesman, authoring
several books and undertaking many foreign trips, helped to rehabilitate
his public image.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1816:
Inventor Humphry Davy first tested his Davy lamp (examples
pictured), a safety lamp containing a candle for use in coal mines.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_lamp>
1857:
A 7.9 Mw earthquake ruptured part of the San Andreas fault in
California and was felt as far east as Las Vegas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1857_Fort_Tejon_earthquake>
1981:
U.S. Representative Raymond F. Lederer was convicted of bribery
and conspiracy for his role in the Abscam scandal, but continued to
serve his term for three more months.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_F._Lederer>
1991:
Representatives from the United States and Iraq met at the
Geneva Peace Conference to try to find a peaceful resolution to the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Peace_Conference>
2004:
Twenty-eight illegal Albanian emigrants died when their
inflatable boat stalled near the Karaburun Peninsula while on the way to
Brindisi, Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaburun_tragedy>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
carpe diem:
Seize the day, make the most of today, enjoy the present.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/carpe_diem>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Science condemns itself to failure when, yielding to the infatuation of
the serious, it aspires to attain being, to contain it, and to possess
it; but it finds its truth if it considers itself as a free engagement
of thought in the given, aiming, at each discovery, not at fusion with
the thing, but at the possibility of new discoveries; what the mind then
projects is the concrete accomplishment of its freedom.
--Simone de Beauvoir
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir>