Gorgosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in
western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, between about
76.5 and 75 million years ago. Fossil remains have been found in the
Canadian province of Alberta and possibly the U.S. state of Montana.
Like most known tyrannosaurids, Gorgosaurus was a bipedal predator
weighing more than a metric ton as an adult; dozens of large, sharp
teeth lined its jaws, while its two-fingered forelimbs were
comparatively small. It lived in a lush floodplain environment along
the edge of an inland sea. An apex predator, Gorgosaurus was at the top
of the food chain, preying upon abundant ceratopsids and hadrosaurs. In
some areas, it coexisted with another tyrannosaurid, Daspletosaurus.
Though these animals were roughly the same size, there is some evidence
of niche differentiation between the two. Gorgosaurus is the
best-represented tyrannosaurid in the fossil record, known from dozens
of specimens. These plentiful remains have allowed scientists to
investigate its ontogeny, life history and other aspects of its
biology.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgosaurus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1879:
Shō Tai, the last king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, abdicated when the
kingdom was annexed by Japan and became Okinawa Prefecture.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8D_Tai>
1946:
Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, was
captured by British troops.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_H%C3%B6ss>
1966:
Indonesian President Sukarno was forced to sign the Presidential Order
Supersemar, giving Suharto the authority to take whatever measures he
deemed necessary to restore order during the Indonesian killings.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersemar>
1993:
Janet Reno was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the first female
Attorney General of the United States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Reno>
2007:
Georgian authorities accused Russia of orchestrating a helicopter
attack in the Kodori Valley of the breakaway territory of Abkhazia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Georgia_helicopter_incident>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
quibble (v):
(intransitive) To complain or argue in a trivial or petty manner
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quibble>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
42px
I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.
--Douglas Adams
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams>
The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR) was a British railway
company established in 1893 that bored an underground "tube" railway
deep below the streets of London. Construction began in 1898, but was
delayed by funding problems that included the collapse of its parent
company through the massive fraud of its main shareholder Whitaker
Wright. In 1902, the BS&WR came under the control of American financier
Charles Yerkes who quickly raised the funds to enable the line to be
completed. When opened on 10 March 1906, the BS&WR's line served nine
stations and ran completely underground in a pair of tunnels for 5.81
kilometres (3.61 mi) between Baker Street and its southern terminus at
Elephant and Castle. Extensions took the northern end of the line to
the Great Western Railway's Paddington terminus by 1913 and to Watford
by 1917, with services covering a total distance of 33.34 kilometres
(20.72 mi). In 1933, the B&SWR and its parent company, the Underground
Electric Railways Company of London, were taken into public ownership
and, today, the railway's tunnels and stations form the London
Underground's Bakerloo line.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Street_and_Waterloo_Railway>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1607:
Susenyos defeated the combined armies of Yaqob and Abuna Petros II at
the Battle of Gol in Gojjam, making him Emperor of Ethiopia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susenyos_of_Ethiopia>
1876:
Alexander Graham Bell made his first successful bi-directional
telephone call, saying, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_telephone>
1975:
Ho Chi Minh Campaign: North Vietnam began its final push for victory
over South Vietnam with an attack on Ban Me Thuot.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ban_Me_Thuot>
1977:
Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory, an observatory
aboard a highly modified jet aircraft, discovered a faint planetary
ring system around Uranus.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Uranus>
2005:
Tung Chee Hwa, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong, announced his
resignation following widespread dissatisfaction with his leadership.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tung_Chee_Hwa>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
normothermic (adj):
(medicine) Having a normal body temperature
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/normothermic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Where storm-born shadows hide and hunt
I knew thee, in thy glorious youth,
And loved thy vast face, white
as truth;
I stood where thunderbolts were wont
To smite thy Titan-fashioned
front,
And heard dark mountains rock and roll;
I saw the lightning's
gleaming rod
Reach forth and write on heaven's scroll
The awful autograph of God!
--Joaquin Miller
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joaquin_Miller>
The 1910 London to Manchester air race took place between two aviators,
Claude Grahame-White (pictured) and Louis Paulhan, who each attempted
to win a £10,000 prize for flying from London to Manchester in under
24 hours. Grahame-White was the first to make the attempt, on 23 April
1910, but engine trouble forced him to land near Lichfield, where he
had to give up because of inclement weather. Several days later Paulhan
began his flight, with Graham-White, his aeroplane only just repaired,
following several hours behind. Despite Graham-White's best efforts,
Paulhan arrived in Manchester on 28 April, and won the prize. The event
marked the first long-distance aeroplane race in England, the first
take-off by a heavier-than-air machine at night, and the first powered
flight into Manchester from outside the city.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1910_London_to_Manchester_air_race>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
The Wealth of Nations by Scottish political economist Adam Smith was
first published, becoming the first modern work in the field of
economics.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations>
1925:
The British Royal Air Force began Pink's War, an air-to-ground
bombardment against the mountain strongholds of Mahsud tribesmen in
South Waziristan, British Raj, without the support of the British Army.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink%27s_War>
1932:
Éamon de Valera, one of the dominant political figures in twentieth
century Ireland, became President of the Executive Council of the Irish
Free State.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89amon_de_Valera>
1945:
World War II: A bomb raid on Tokyo by American B-29 heavy bombers
started a firestorm, killing over 100,000 people.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo>
1977:
Twelve gunmen seized three buildings in Washington, D.C., and took 149
hostages in a 39-hour standoff that ended in only two deaths.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Hanafi_Siege>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
win-win (adj):
Of a situation or outcome that benefits two parties, or that has two
distinct benefits
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/win-win>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How
else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? for the
moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone.
That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the
changes of his mind on the hop. Growth is exciting; growth is dynamic
and alarming. Growth of the soul, growth of the mind; how the
observation of last year seems childish, superficial; how this year —
even this week — even with this new phrase — it seems to us that we
have grown to a new maturity. It may be a fallacious persuasion, but at
least it is stimulating, and so long as it persists, one does not
stagnate.
--Vita Sackville-West
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vita_Sackville-West>
Martha Layne Collins (born 1936) is a businesswoman and politician from
Kentucky who was the state's 56th governor from 1983 to 1987. Prior to
her election as governor, she was the 48th Lieutenant Governor of
Kentucky, serving under John Y. Brown, Jr. She is the only woman to
have been governor of Kentucky, and her election made her the
highest-ranking Democratic woman in the U.S. at the time. She was
considered as a possible running mate for Democratic presidential
nominee Walter Mondale in the 1984 presidential election, but Mondale
chose Geraldine Ferraro instead. Her administration had two primary
focuses: education and economic development. She secured an increase in
education funding during a special legislative session in 1985 and
successfully used economic incentives to bring a Toyota manufacturing
plant to Georgetown, Kentucky, in 1986. After her term as governor, she
became president of Saint Catharine College near Springfield, Kentucky.
Her husband's conviction on charges of influence-peddling in 1993
damaged her hopes for a return to political life. She is currently an
executive scholar in residence at Georgetown College.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Layne_Collins>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1576:
A letter to King Philip II of Spain contained the first European
mention of the Mayan ruins of Copán in modern Honduras.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop%C3%A1n>
1658:
After a devastating defeat in the Northern Wars, the King of
Denmark–Norway was forced to give up nearly half his Danish territory
to Sweden to save the rest.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Roskilde>
1736:
Nader Shah, founder of the Afsharid dynasty, was crowned Shah of Iran.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nader_Shah>
1924:
Three violent explosions at a coal mine near Castle Gate, Utah, US,
killed all 171 miners working there.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Gate_Mine_disaster>
1978:
BBC Radio 4 transmitted the first episode of English author and
dramatist Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a
science fiction radio series that was later adapted into novels, a
television series, and other media formats.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_%28radi…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
maillot (n):
1. A one-piece swimsuit (for women)
2. A leotard or tights of stretchable, jersey fabric, generally worn
by dancers and gymnasts
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/maillot>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You cannot avoid making judgements but you can become more conscious of
the way in which you make them. This is critically important because
once we judge someone or something we tend to stop thinking about them
or it. Which means, among other things, that we behave in response to
our judgements rather than to that to which is being judged. People and
things are processes. Judgements convert them into fixed states. This
is one reason that judgements are often self-fulfilling.
--Neil Postman
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman>
Cyclone Elita was an unusual tropical cyclone that made landfall on
Madagascar three times. Elita developed on January 24 in the Mozambique
Channel. It strengthened to become a tropical cyclone before striking
northwestern Madagascar on January 28. Elita weakened to tropical
depression status while crossing the island, and after exiting into the
southwest Indian Ocean it turned to the west and moved ashore for a
second time on January 31 in eastern Madagascar. After crossing the
island, the cyclone intensified again after reaching the Mozambique
Channel, and Elita turned to the southeast to make its final landfall
on February 3 along southwestern Madagascar. Elita dropped heavy
rainfall of over 200 mm (8 inches), which damaged or destroyed
thousands of houses in Madagascar. Over 50,000 people were left
homeless, primarily in Mahajanga and Toliara provinces. Flooding from
the storm damaged or destroyed more than 450 km2 (170 sq mi) of
agricultural land, including important crops for food. Across the
island, the cyclone caused at least 33 deaths. Elsewhere, the cyclone
brought rainfall and damage to Mozambique and Malawi, while its outer
circulation produced rough seas and strong winds in Seychelles,
Mauritius, and Réunion.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Elita>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1277:
Étienne Tempier, Bishop of Paris, promulgated a Condemnation of 219
philosophical and theologica] propositions that were being discussed at
the University of Paris.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tienne_Tempier>
1887:
The North Carolina General Assembly established North Carolina State
University , today the largest university in North Carolina, as a land
grant institution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_State_University>
1968:
Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam began Operation Truong
Cong Dinh to sweep the area surrounding the Mekong Delta town of My Tho
to root out Viet Cong forces in the area.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Truong_Cong_Dinh>
1985:
The charity single "We Are the World" by the supergroup USA for Africa
was released, and would go on to sell over 20 million copies.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_the_World>
2009:
Two off-duty soldiers of the British Army's 38 Engineer Regiment were
shot dead by the Real IRA in Antrim town, Northern Ireland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Massereene_Barracks_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
phillumenist (n):
A person who collects match-related items, like matchbox labels,
matchboxes, matchbooks, or matchbook covers
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/phillumenist>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded
what others do only from fear of the law.
--Aristotle
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aristotle>
Banksia cuneata is an endangered species of flowering plant in the
Proteaceae family. Endemic to southwest Western Australia, it belongs
to the subgenus Isostylis, which contains three closely related species
with flower clusters that are dome-shaped heads rather than
characteristic Banksia flower spikes. A shrub or small tree up to 5 m
(16 ft) high, it has prickly foliage and pink and cream flowers. The
common name Matchstick Banksia arises from the blooms in late bud, the
individual buds of which resemble matchsticks. The species is
pollinated by honeyeaters. Although B. cuneata was first collected
before 1880, it was not until 1981 that Australian botanist Alex George
formally described and named the species. There are two genetically
distinct population groups, but no recognised varieties. This Banksia
is classified as endangered, surviving in fragments of remnant bushland
in a region which has been 93% cleared for agriculture. As Banksia
cuneata is killed by fire and regenerates from seed, it is highly
sensitive to bushfire frequency; fires recurring within four years
could wipe out populations of plants not yet mature enough to set seed.
Banksia cuneata is rarely cultivated, and its prickly foliage limits
its utility in the cut flower industry.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia_cuneata>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1447:
Tomaso Parentucelli became Pope Nicholas V.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Nicholas_V>
1834:
York, Upper Canada, was incorporated as Toronto.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto>
1853:
Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata premiered at Venice's La Fenice, but the
performance was so bad that it caused the Italian composer to revise
portions of the opera.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_traviata>
1945:
Petru Groza of the Ploughmen's Front, became the first Prime Minister
of the Communist Party-dominated governments of Romania.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petru_Groza>
1988:
In Operation Flavius, the British Special Air Service killed three
Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers while they were conspiring
to bomb a parade of British military bands in Gibraltar.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Flavius>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
begorra (int):
(Ireland) A mild minced oath; a euphemism for "by God"
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/begorra>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Most men judge only by their senses and let themselves be persuaded by
what they see... On top of that, insufferable vanity has convinced
humans that nature has been made only for them, as though the sun, a
huge body four hundred and thirty-four times as large as the earth, had
been lit only to ripen our crab apples and cabbages. … Do people really
think that because the sun gives us light every day and year, it was
made only to keep us from bumping into walls? No, no, this visible god
gives light to man by accident, as a king's torch accidentally shines
upon a working man or burglar passing in the street.
--Cyrano de Bergerac
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cyrano_de_Bergerac>
The Battle of Barrosa (5 March 1811) was an unsuccessful French attack
on a larger Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish force attempting to lift the siege
of Cádiz in Spain during the Peninsular War. Cádiz had been invested by
the French in early 1810, but in March of the following year a
reduction in the besieging army gave its garrison of Anglo-Spanish
troops an opportunity to lift the siege. A large Allied strike-force
was shipped south from Cádiz to Tarifa, and moved to engage the siege
lines from the rear. The French, under the command of Marshal Victor,
were aware of the Allied movement and redeployed to prepare a trap.
Victor placed one division on the road to Cádiz, blocking the Allied
line of march, while his two remaining divisions fell on the single
Anglo-Portuguese rearguard division under the command of Sir Thomas
Graham. Following a fierce battle on two fronts, the British succeeded
in routing the attacking French forces. A lack of support from the
larger Spanish contingent prevented an absolute victory, and the French
were able to regroup and reoccupy their siege lines. Graham's tactical
victory proved to have little strategic effect on the continuing war,
to the extent that Victor was able to claim the battle as a French
victory since the siege remained in force until finally being lifted on
24 August 1812. (more...)
Recently featured: Rutherford B. Hayes – Kevin O'Halloran – Murder of
Julia Martha Thomas
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Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Barrosa>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1616:
Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, describing
his heliocentric theory of the solar system, was banned by the Roman
Catholic Church.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_revolutionibus_orbium_coelestium>
1770:
British soldiers fired into a crowd in Boston, Massachusetts, killing
five civilians.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Massacre>
1824:
The First Anglo-Burmese War, the longest and most expensive war in
British Indian history, began.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Anglo-Burmese_War>
1936:
The prototype of the Supermarine Spitfire, a British single-seat
fighter that was later used by the Royal Air Force and many other
Allied countries during the Second World War, flew for the first time.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire>
1975:
Computer hackers in Silicon Valley held the first meeting of the
Homebrew Computer Club, whose members would go on have great influence
on the development of the personal computer.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrew_Computer_Club>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Tinker to Evers to Chance (n):
(US, idiomatic) A task accomplished quickly by well-executed teamwork;
those involved in the teamwork
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Tinker_to_Evers_to_Chance>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
This is a haunted world. It hath no breeze
But is the echo of some voice beloved:
Its pines have human tones;
its billows wear
The color and the sparkle of dear eyes.
Its flowers are sweet with
touch of tender hands
That once clasped ours. All things are beautiful
Because of
something lovelier than themselves,
Which breathes within them, and will never die. —
Haunted, — but
not with any spectral gloom;
Earth is suffused, inhabited by heaven.
--Lucy Larcom
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lucy_Larcom>
100px|Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) was the 19th President of the United
States (1877–1881). Taking office as president on March 4, 1877, he
oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the
Second Industrial Revolution. Hayes was a reformer who began the
efforts that would lead to civil service reform and attempted,
unsuccessfully, to reconcile the divisions that had led to the American
Civil War fifteen years earlier. When the Civil War began, Hayes left a
successful political career to join the Union Army. Wounded five times,
most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain, he earned a reputation
for bravery in combat and was promoted to the rank of major general.
After the war, he served in the U.S. Congress from 1865 to 1867 as a
Republican. Hayes left Congress to run for Governor of Ohio and was
elected to three terms, serving from 1867 to 1871 and 1876 to 1877. In
1876, Hayes was elected president in one of the most contentious
elections in American history. Losing the popular vote to Democrat
Samuel J. Tilden, Hayes narrowly won the presidency after the
Compromise of 1877, in which a Congressional commission awarded him
twenty disputed electoral votes. (more...)
Recently featured: Kevin O'Halloran – Murder of Julia Martha Thomas –
Warren County, Indiana
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Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1386:
Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila was crowned Władysław II Jagiełło, King
of Poland, beginning the Jagiellon dynasty.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jogaila>
1769:
French astronomer Charles Messier first noted the Orion Nebula , a
bright nebula visible to the naked eye in the night sky situated south
of Orion's Belt, later cataloguing it as Messier 42 in his list of
Messier objects.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula>
1877:
Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake debuted at
the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake>
1987:
U.S. President Ronald Reagan made a nationally televised address in
which he accepted full responsibility for illegal actions in the
Iran–Contra affair.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
philtrum (n):
The shallow groove running down the center of the outer surface of the
upper lip
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/philtrum>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The idea of "crime" in existing criminology is artificial, for what is
called crime is really an infringement of "existing laws", whereas
"laws" are very often a manifestation of barbarism and violence. Such
are the prohibiting laws of different kinds which abound in modern
life. The number of these laws is constantly growing in all countries
and, owing to this, what is called crime is very often not a crime at
all, for it contains no element of violence or harm. On the other hand,
unquestionable crimes escape the field of vision of criminology, either
because they have not recognized the form of crime or because they
surpass a certain scale. In existing criminology there are concepts: a
criminal man, a criminal profession, a criminal society, a criminal
sect, and a criminal tribe, but there is no concept of a criminal
state, or a criminal government, or criminal legislation. Consequently
what is often regarded as "political" activity is in fact a criminal
activity.
--P. D. Ouspensky
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/P._D._Ouspensky>
Kevin O'Halloran (1937–1976) was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the
1950s, who won a gold medal in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay at the
1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. The first Western Australian to win
Olympic gold, O'Halloran learnt to swim in his home town of Katanning.
He moved to Perth to attend secondary schooling at Guildford Grammar
School, where he began swimming passionately. Competitive swimming was
not well developed in Western Australia; races were held in muddy river
pools, so in late 1955, O'Halloran moved to the east coast to support
his attempt to qualify for the Olympics. His new coach, Frank Guthrie,
overhauled his training regimen, and within a year, O'Halloran had
reduced his times by approximately 10%. He gained Olympic selection in
the relay and the 400 m freestyle. O'Halloran led off the Australian
quartet on the way to a new world record, before placing sixth in the
400 m. Thereafter, O'Halloran's career was beset by ear problems, and
he retired in 1958 after failing to qualify for the 1958 British Empire
and Commonwealth Games. In 1976, O'Halloran died after tripping and
accidentally shooting himself. (more...)
Recently featured: Murder of Julia Martha Thomas – Warren County,
Indiana – Psilocybin
Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_O%27Halloran>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1284:
The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporated the Principality of Wales into
England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Rhuddlan>
1776:
American Revolutionary War: Samuel Nicholas and the Continental
Marines successfully landed on New Providence and captured Nassau in
the Bahamas.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nassau>
1945:
A former Armia Krajowa unit massacred at least 150 Ukrainian civilians
in Pawłokoma, Poland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paw%C5%82okoma_massacre>
1991:
Motorist Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles policemen, causing
public outrage that increased tensions between the African American
community and the police department over the issues of police brutality
and social inequalities in the area.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King>
1997:
The Sky Tower in Auckland, the tallest free-standing structure in the
Southern Hemisphere at 328 metres (1,076 ft), opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Tower>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
beey (adj):
(informal, rare) Reminiscent of or containing bees
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beey>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Those who try to combat the production of shoddy pictures are enemies
of the best art today. Those woodland lakes in a thousand sitting-rooms
with gold-tinted wallpaper belong to the profoundest inspirations of
art. It always feels tragic to see people labouring to saw off the
branch they are sitting on.
--Asger Jorn
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Asger_Jorn>
The murder of Julia Martha Thomas was one of the most notorious crimes
in Britain in the late 19th century. Thomas, a widow who lived in
Richmond in west London, was killed on 2 March 1879 by Kate Webster,
her Irish maid (pictured). Webster dismembered the body, boiled the
flesh off the bones, and threw most of it into the River Thames,
allegedly offering the fat to neighbours as dripping and lard. Part of
Thomas's remains were soon recovered but her severed head was only
found in October 2010 during building works being carried out for the
naturalist Sir David Attenborough. After the murder, Webster posed as
Thomas for two weeks but was exposed and fled to her family home at
Killanne, Ireland. She was arrested on 29 March and stood trial in
London at the Old Bailey in July 1879, where she was convicted and
sentenced to death. She confessed to the murder the night before she
was hanged on 29 July at Wandsworth Prison. The case attracted
considerable interest from the public and press in Great Britain and
Ireland.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Julia_Martha_Thomas>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1444:
Skanderbeg organised the League of Lezhë, an alliance of Albanian
Principalities that is regarded as the first unified Albanian state.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Lezh%C3%AB>
1484:
The College of Arms, one of the few remaining official heraldic
authorities in Europe, was established by royal charter in London.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_Arms>
1776:
American Revolutionary War: Patriot militia from Georgia and South
Carolina attempted to resist the British action to seize and remove
supply ships anchored at Savannah, Georgia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Rice_Boats>
1919:
Communist, revolutionary socialist, and syndicalist delegates met in
Moscow to establish the Communist International.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Congress_of_the_Comintern>
1933:
The film King Kong made its premiere at Radio City Music Hall in New
York City.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong_%281933_film%29>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
leapling (n):
Someone born on a 29th of February
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/leapling>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos. Look at
the sun. If there is no sun, then we cannot exist. So nature is my god.
To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my
cathedrals.
--Mikhail Gorbachev
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev>