The Nashville Sounds are a minor league baseball team of the Pacific
Coast League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They
are located in Nashville, Tennessee, and are named for the city's
association with the music industry. The team plays its home games at
Herschel Greer Stadium, which opened in 1978 and holds 10,300Â fans.
Established as a Double-A team in 1978, the Sounds moved up to the
Triple-A level in 1985. The team has served as a farm club for six major
league franchises. A total of 22Â managers have helmed the club and its
over 950Â players. As of the completion of the 2011 season, the team had
played in 4,869 regular season games and compiled a win–loss record
of 2,527–2,342. The team fielded in 1980 was recognized as one of the
100Â greatest minor league teams of all time. The Sounds won the PCL
Championship in 2005, sweeping the Tacoma Rainiers in three games in the
final series. Previous league titles won by the team are the Southern
League title in 1979, as the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds,
and again in 1982 as the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Sounds>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1795:
French Revolutionary Wars: Off the coast of Brittany, a British
Royal Navy battle squadron commanded by William Cornwallis fended off a
numerically superior French Navy battlefleet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwallis%27s_Retreat>
1846:
Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti was crowned Pius IX, and he
would become the longest-reigning elected pope in the history of the
Catholic Church.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_IX>
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>
1960:
The thriller/horror film Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
and based on a novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, was released.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(film)>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
abeyance:
1. (law) Expectancy; condition of being undetermined; undetermined
ownership.
2. Suspension; temporary suppression.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/abeyance>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If others have their will Ann hath a way. in
--Ulysses
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel)>
Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737) was the queen consort of King George II
of Great Britain. Her father, John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-
Ansbach, was the ruler of a small German state. As a young woman,
Caroline was much sought-after as a bride. After rejecting the suit of
the nominal King of Spain, Archduke Charles of Austria, she married
George Augustus, the third-in-line to the British throne and heir
apparent to the Electorate of Hanover. Caroline moved permanently to
Britain in 1714 when her husband became Prince of Wales. Caroline
succeeded as queen and electress consort in 1727, when her husband
became King George II. Her eldest son, Frederick, became Prince of
Wales. He was a focus for the opposition, like his father before him,
and Caroline's relationship with him was strained. As princess and as
queen, Caroline was known for her political influence. Her tenure
included four regencies during her husband's stays in Hanover, and she
is credited with strengthening the Hanoverian dynasty's place in Britain
during a period of political instability. Her death in 1737 left
Caroline widely mourned not only by the public, but also by the King,
who refused to remarry.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_of_Ansbach>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1219:
Northern Crusades: According to a popular Danish legend, the
Dannebrog (Flag of Denmark), today one of the oldest state flags in the
world still in use, fell from the sky and gave the Danish forces renewed
hope to defeat the Estonians at the Battle of Lyndanisse (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lyndanisse>
1520:
Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Exsurge Domine to censure
propositions from Martin Luther's 95Â theses and threaten him with
excommunication.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exsurge_Domine>
1859:
The shooting of a pig in the San Juan Islands led to the so-
called Pig War over the border between the United States and British
North America.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_War>
1920:
Three African American circus workers were lynched by a mob in
Duluth, Minnesota, a crime that shocked the country for having taken
place in the Northern United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_Duluth_lynchings>
1954:
The Union of European Football Associations, the administrative
and controlling body for European football, was founded in Basel,
Switzerland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
encapsulate:
1. To cover something as if in a capsule.
2. To epitomize something by expressing it as a brief summary.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/encapsulate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
People don't ever seem to realise that doing what's right's no guarantee
against misfortune.
--William McFee
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_McFee>
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is a 1984 motion picture released by
Paramount Pictures. The film is the third feature film of the Star Trek
science fiction franchise and is the center of a three-film story arc
that begins with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and concludes with
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. After the death of Spock (Leonard
Nimoy), the crew of the USS Enterprise (pictured) returns to Earth. When
James T. Kirk (William Shatner) learns that Spock's spirit is held in
the mind of Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Kirk and
company steal the Enterprise to return Spock's body to his home planet.
The crew must also contend with hostile Klingons, led by Kruge
(Christopher Lloyd), bent on stealing the secrets of a powerful
terraforming device. Paramount commissioned the film after positive
critical and commercial reaction to The Wrath of Khan. Nimoy directed,
the first Star Trek cast member to do so. Producer Harve Bennett wrote
the script starting from the end and working back, and intended the
destruction of the Enterprise to be a shocking development. The film
grossed $76Â million at the domestic box office and a total of
$87Â million worldwide. Critical reaction to The Search for Spock was
mixed to positive. Reviewers generally praised the cast and characters,
while criticism tended to focus on the plot; the special effects were
conflictingly received. Roger Ebert called the film a compromise between
the tones of the first and second Star Trek films.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_III:_The_Search_for_Spock>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1645:
English Civil War: In the Battle of Naseby, the main army of
King Charles I was defeated by the Parliamentarian New Model Army under
Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Naseby>
1822:
In a paper presented to the Royal Astronomical Society, English
mathematician Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine (pictured),
an automatic, mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial
functions.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine>
1940:
World War II: Four days after the French government fled Paris,
German forces occupied the French capital, essentially ending the Battle
of France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_France>
1985:
The Schengen Agreement, a treaty to abolish systematic border
controls between participating European countries, was signed between
five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement>
1994:
After the Vancouver Canucks lost to the New York Rangers in ice
hockey's Stanley Cup Finals, a riot ensued in Downtown Vancouver,
causing C$1.1 million in damage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Vancouver_Stanley_Cup_riot>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vexillology:
The study of flags.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vexillology>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
By what strange law of mind is it that an idea long overlooked, and
trodden under foot as a useless stone, suddenly sparkles out in new
light, as a discovered diamond?
--Harriet Beecher Stowe
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe>
The Ediacara biota consisted of enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped,
mostly sessile organisms which lived during the Ediacaran Period (c.
635–542 Ma). Trace fossils of these organisms have been found
worldwide, and represent the earliest known complex multicellular
organisms. The Ediacara biota radiated in an event called the Avalon
Explosion, 575 million years ago, after the Earth had thawed from the
Cryogenian period's extensive glaciation, and largely disappeared
contemporaneous with the rapid appearance of biodiversity known as the
Cambrian explosion. Most currently existing body-plans of animals first
appeared only in the fossil record of the Cambrian rather than the
Ediacaran. For macroorganisms, the Cambrian biota completely replaced
the organisms that populated the Ediacaran fossil record.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ediacara_biota>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1886:
King Ludwig II of Bavaria was found dead in Lake Starnberg near
Munich under mysterious circumstances.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria>
1955:
Soviet geologists discovered the Mir mine (pictured), the first
diamond mine in the USSR and the second largest excavated hole in the
world, in Eastern Siberia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_mine>
1981:
English teenager Marcus Sarjeant fired six blank shots at Queen
Elizabeth II as she rode down The Mall to the Trooping the Colour
ceremony.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Sarjeant>
1996:
After an 81-day standoff sparked by their refusal to be evicted
from their foreclosed property in Jordan, Montana, US, the Christian
Patriot group Montana Freemen surrendered to the FBI.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_Freemen>
2010:
The Japanese Hayabusa space mission became the first to return
samples of an asteroid (25143 Itokawa) to Earth for analysis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
corniche:
A road built alongside a sea, especially one cut into a cliff.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/corniche>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Gradually I began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally
influenced lines of thinking which had been characteristic of my
orientation. This began, most recognizably, with the rejection of
politically-oriented thinking as essentially a hopeless waste of
intellectual effort.
--John Forbes Nash
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash>
Resident Evil 2 is a survival horror video game originally released for
the PlayStation in 1998. Developed by Capcom as the second installment
in the Resident Evil series, its story takes place two months after the
events of the first game, Resident Evil. It is set in Raccoon City, a
Midwestern American mountain community whose residents have been
transformed into zombies by the T-virus, a biological weapon developed
by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella. In their escape from the city,
the two protagonists, Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, encounter
other survivors, and are confronted by William Birkin, the mutated
creator of the G-virus, a more powerful variation of the T-virus. The
gameplay of Resident Evil 2 focuses on exploration, puzzle solving and
combat, and features typical survival horror elements such as limited
saves and ammunition. The game's main difference from its predecessor is
the "Zapping System", which provides each playable character with unique
storylines and obstacles. Resident Evil 2 was well received by critics,
who praised its atmosphere, setting, graphics and audio. Its controls,
voice acting and inventory system were criticized, however, and certain
reviewers disliked its puzzles. The game has become a million-seller,
and is the franchise's most successful title on a single platform. Years
after its first release, Resident Evil 2 was included in several lists
of the 100 best games.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_2>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1783:
Iceland's Laki craters began an eight-month eruption,
triggering major famine and massive fluorine poisoning.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laki>
1887:
German-American statistician Herman Hollerith received a patent
for his punch card calculator.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card>
1950:
Thomas Blamey became the first Australian to attain the rank of
Field Marshal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Blamey>
1995:
Danish-Greenlandic programmer Rasmus Lerdorf released the first
version of the scripting language PHP, which is now used as the server-
side language on 75% of all Web servers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP>
2007:
A major storm in New South Wales, Australia, beached the bulk
carrier ship MVÂ Pasha Bulker.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Pasha_Bulker>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
oneironaut:
A person who explores dream worlds, usually associated with lucid
dreaming.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oneironaut>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Nothing is slower than the true birth of a man.
--Marguerite Yourcenar
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marguerite_Yourcenar>
The Red-billed Chough is a bird in the crow family; it is one of only
two species in the genus Pyrrhocorax. It lives and breeds on mountains
and coastal cliffs, from Ireland and Great Britain east through southern
Europe and North Africa, and farther east to Central Asia, India, and
China. It has a glossy black plumage, a long curved red bill, red legs,
and a loud, ringing call. It has a buoyant, acrobatic flight with widely
spread primaries. The Red-billed Chough pairs for life and displays
fidelity to its breeding site, which is usually a cave or crevice in a
cliff face. It builds a wool-lined stick nest and typically lays three
eggs. It feeds, often in flocks, on short grazed grassland, consuming
mainly invertebrate prey. The main threat to this species is changes in
agricultural practices, which have led to population decline, some local
extirpation, and range fragmentation in Europe; however, it is not
threatened globally. The bird has also been depicted on postage stamps
in a few countries, including the Isle of Man, with four different
stamps, and The Gambia, where this species does not occur.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-billed_Chough>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1494:
Ferdinand II of Aragon and John II of Portugal (pictured left
and right, respectively) signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, dividing the
Americas and Africa between their two countries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas>
1810:
Journalist Mariano Moreno published Argentina's first
newspaper, the Gazeta de Buenos Ayres.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariano_Moreno>
1929:
The Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See signed the Lateran Treaty
to bring Vatican City into existence, thus ending the "Roman Question".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateran_Treaty>
1975:
The inaugural Cricket World Cup, the premier international
championship of men's One Day International cricket, began in England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_World_Cup>
2006:
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, was
killed when the United States Air Force bombed his safehouse near
Baqubah.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musab_al-Zarqawi>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
trendite:
(slang) A person given to following trends.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trendite>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Art is a refining and evocative translation of the materials of the
world.
--Gwendolyn Brooks
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gwendolyn_Brooks>
Peter Heywood (1772–1831) was a British naval officer who was aboard
HMS Bounty during the mutiny of 28 April 1789. Bounty had left England
in 1787 on a mission to collect breadfruit from the Pacific. Shortly
after the ship began its homeward voyage, discontented crew members led
by Fletcher Christian seized its captain, William Bligh, and took
control of the vessel. Bligh and 19 loyalists were set adrift in an open
boat; Heywood remained aboard Bounty. He and 15 others settled in
Tahiti, while Bounty sailed on to Pitcairn Island. Bligh eventually
reached England, where he implicated Heywood in the mutiny. In 1791
Heywood and his companions were captured and brought back to England.
Heywood was court-martialed and sentenced to hang, but was subsequently
pardoned by King George III. During his trial powerful family
connections worked on his behalf, and the extent of his guilt was
clouded by contradictory statements and possible false testimony.
Heywood's career subsequently prospered; he was given his first command
at the age of 27, and made a post-captain at 31. After leaving the navy
in 1816 he enjoyed a long and peaceful retirement.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Heywood>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1674:
Shivaji (pictured), who led a resistance to free the Maratha
from the Sultanate of Bijapur and the Mughal Empire, was crowned the
first Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivaji>
1813:
War of 1812: The British ambushed an American encampment near
present-day Stoney Creek, Ontario, capturing two senior officers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stoney_Creek>
1844:
The YMCA, today a worldwide movement of more than 45 million
members from 124 national federations, was founded in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YMCA>
1859:
Queen Victoria signed letters patent separating the colony of
Queensland from New South Wales.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland>
1971:
Vietnam War: The Australian Army attacked a heavily fortified
Vietnamese communist forces base camp in the Battle of Long Khanh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Long_Khanh>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
enfranchise:
To grant the franchise to an entity, generally meaning to grant the
privilege of voting to a person.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/enfranchise>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are
about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven
these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and
prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company
with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will
bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination
of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for
ourselves in a free world. Your task will not be an easy one.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower>
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus
passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the
solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small
black disk moving slowly across the face of the Sun. A transit is
similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon, but while the diameter of Venus
is more than three times that of the Moon it is much further from Earth
and so appears smaller and generally takes longer (up to eight hours) to
travel across the solar disk. Transits of Venus are among the rarest of
predictable astronomical phenomena—they occur in a pattern that
repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart
separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. The next transit
of Venus occurs on 5 and 6 June 2012, and will be the last Venus transit
this century. Historically, Venus transits were of great scientific
importance as they were used to gain the first realistic estimates of
the size of the solar system. A transit of Venus can be safely observed
by taking the same precautions used when observing the partial phases of
a solar eclipse.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1832:
The June Rebellion, an anti-monarchist uprising of students,
broke out in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Rebellion>
1849:
A new constitution was introduced in Denmark, establishing a
constitutional monarchy and the Rigsdag, a bicameral parliament
consisting of the Landsting and the Folketing.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark>
1941:
Second Sino-Japanese War: During one sortie in a five-year
bombing campaign on Chongqing, 4,000 people died of asphyxiation when
the tunnel they were hiding in became blocked.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Chongqing>
1981:
The Centers for Disease Control recorded a cluster of
Pneumocystis pneumonia cases among homosexual men in Los Angeles, the
first reported cases of AIDS.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS>
2001:
Tropical Storm Allison made landfall in southeast Texas,
causing $5.5 billion in damage to make it the costliest tropical storm
in US history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Allison>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vulgarian:
A vulgar individual, especially one who emphasizes or is oblivious to
their vulgar qualities.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vulgarian>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on
the unthinking.
--John Maynard Keynes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes>
Kaga was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Originally
intended to be one of two Tosa-class battleships, Kaga was converted
under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty into an aircraft carrier
as the replacement for the battlecruiser Amagi, which had been damaged
during the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake. Kaga's aircraft first supported
Japanese troops in China during the Shanghai Incident of 1932 and
participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930s. With
other carriers, she took part in the Pearl Harbor raid in December 1941
and the invasion of Rabaul in the Southwest Pacific in January 1942. The
following month her aircraft participated in a [[combined carrier
airstrike on Darwin, Australia, helping secure the conquest of the Dutch
East Indies by Japanese forces. During the Battle of Midway in June,
Kaga and the other carriers were attacked by American aircraft from
Midway Atoll and the carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown. Dive
bombers from Enterprise severely damaged Kaga; when it became obvious
she could not be saved, she was scuttled by Japanese destroyers to
prevent her from falling into enemy hands. In 1999, debris from Kaga was
located on the ocean floor; the main body of the carrier has not yet
been found.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aircraft_carrier_Kaga>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1792:
Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound in the
Pacific Northwest for Great Britain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puget_Sound>
1920:
The Kingdom of Hungary was split into five countries with the
signing of the Treaty of Trianon in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Trianon>
1939:
The German ocean liner St. Louis, carrying 937 Jewish refugees
seeking political asylum from Nazi persecution, was denied permission to
land in the United States, after already having been turned away from
Cuba.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis>
1987:
American intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard pleaded guilty
to charges of spying for Israel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard>
1989:
The People's Liberation Army violently cracked down on the
Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, leaving at least 241 dead and
7,000 wounded, and causing widespread international condemnation of the
Chinese government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sexton:
A church official who looks after a church and its graveyard and may act
as a gravedigger and bell-ringer.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sexton>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Yelling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them. Sticks
and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts.
--Robert Fulghum
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Fulghum>