90px|Nathaniel Parker Willis
Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867) was an American author, poet and
editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar
Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He became the highest-paid
magazine writer of his day. For a time, he was the employer of former
slave and future writer Harriet Jacobs. Born in Portland, Maine, Willis
came from a family of publishers. He developed an interest in
literature while attending Yale College and began publishing poetry.
After graduation, he worked as an overseas correspondent for the New
York Mirror. He eventually moved to New York and began to build his
literary reputation. In 1846, he started his own publication, the Home
Journal, which was eventually renamed Town & Country. Shortly after,
Willis moved to a home on the Hudson River where he lived a
semi-retired life until his death in 1867. Willis embedded his own
personality into his writing and addressed his readers personally,
specifically in his travel writings, so that his reputation was built
in part because of his character. Critics, including his sister in her
novel Ruth Hall, occasionally described him as being effeminate and
Europeanized. Despite his intense popularity for a time, at his death
Willis was nearly forgotten. (more...)
Recently featured: Blackbeard – Canoe River train crash – M-6
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Parker_Willis>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1867:
The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England, for killing
a police officer while assisting two Irish nationalists, who had played
important roles in the failed Fenian Rising, to escape from custody.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Martyrs>
1876:
William "Boss" Tweed, a major New York City politician who had been
arrested for embezzlement, was handed to US authorities after having
escaped from prison to Spain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Tweed>
1934:
An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden encountered a
garrison of Somalis in Italian service at Walwal, which led to the
Abyssinia Crisis.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abyssinia_Crisis>
1996:
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked by three Ethiopians seeking
political asylum, then crashed into the Indian Ocean near Comoros after
running out of fuel, killing 125 of the 175 people on board.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_961>
2005:
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was declared the winner of the Liberian general
election, making her the first democratically elected female head of
state of an African country.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Johnson-Sirleaf>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
labyrinthine (adj):
1. Physically resembling a labyrinth; with the qualities of a maze.
2. Twisting, convoluted, baffling, confusing, perplexing
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/labyrinthine>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth,
for the want of which whole nations fare the worse.
--John Milton
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Milton>
80px|Canoe River cairn, erected to the memory of the 17 soldiers who
died in the Canoe River train crash
The Canoe River train crash occurred on November 21, 1950, near
Valemount in eastern British Columbia, Canada, when a westbound troop
train and the eastbound Canadian National Railway (CNR) Continental
Limited collided head-on. Twenty-one people were killed: 17 Canadian
soldiers being deployed in the Korean War (memorial to them pictured)
and the two-man locomotive crew of each train. The post-crash
investigation found that the order given to the troop train differed
from the intended message. Crucial words were missing, causing the
troop train to proceed on its way rather than halt on a siding, causing
the collision. A telegraph operator, Alfred John "Jack" Atherton, was
charged with manslaughter; the prosecution alleged he was negligent in
passing an incomplete message. His family hired his Member of
Parliament, John Diefenbaker, as defence counsel. Diefenbaker joined
the British Columbia bar in order to take the case, and obtained
Atherton's acquittal. (more...)
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canoe_River_train_crash>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1386:
Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur captured and sacked the Georgian capital
of Tbilisi, forcing King Bagrat V to convert to Islam.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur%27s_invasions_of_Georgia>
1894:
First Sino-Japanese War: The Japanese Second Army killed an estimated
20,000 Chinese servicemen and civilians in the city of Lüshunkou.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_%28China%29>
1910:
The crews of the Brazilian warships Minas Geraes, São Paulo, Bahia, and
Deodoro mutinied in what became known as the Revolt of the Lash .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_of_the_Lash>
1977:
"God Defend New Zealand" became New Zealand's second national anthem,
on equal standing with "God Save the Queen", which had been the
traditional one since 1840.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Defend_New_Zealand>
1985:
United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard was arrested
for espionage after being caught giving Israel classified information
on Arab nations.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
inquiline (n):
1. An animal that lives in the nest, burrow, gall, or dwelling place of
an animal of another species.
2. An organism that lives within a reservoir of water collected in the
hollow of a plant stem or leaf
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inquiline>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
"Man's inhumanity to man" is not the last word. The truth lies deeper.
It is economic slavery, the savage struggle for a crumb, that has
converted mankind into wolves and sheep.
--Alexander Berkman
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Berkman>
M-6 is a 19.7-mile (31.7Â km) freeway that serves portions of southern
Kent and eastern Ottawa counties south of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Initially opened to traffic on November 20, 2001, the roadway connects
Interstate 196 on the west with Interstate 96 on the east while running
through several townships on the south side of the Grand Rapids
metropolitan area. Each end is in a rural area while the central
section has suburban development along the highway. The freeway was
originally conceived in the 1960s, and it took 32Â years to approve,
plan, finance, and build M-6 from the time that the state first
authorized funding in 1972 to the time the full highway opened to
traffic in 2004. Initial construction started in November 1997, with
the first phase opened in 2001 and the remainder in November 2004. The
project was built with two firsts: the first single-point urban
interchange in the state, and a new technique to apply the pavement
markings, embedding them into the concrete to reduce the chance of a
snowplow scraping them off.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-6_%28Michigan_highway%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
284:
Diocletian became Roman Emperor, eventually establishing reforms that
brought an end to the Crisis of the Third Century.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletian>
1695:
Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early
Brazil, was executed.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumbi>
1902:
While discussing how to promote the newspaper L'Auto during a lunch
meeting in Paris, sports journalist Henri Desgrange came up with the
idea of holding a cycling race that later became known as the Tour de
France.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France>
1917:
Second World War: The Battle of Cambrai in France began with British
forces having initial success over Germany's Hindenburg Line.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cambrai_%281917%29>
1979:
A group of armed insurgents attacked and took over the Masjid al-Haram
in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, declaring that one of their leaders, Muhammad
bin abd Allah al-Qahtani, was the Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of
Islam.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Mosque_Seizure>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Christmas creep (n):
The inexorable tendency for the commercial aspects of Christmas to
appear earlier every year
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Christmas_creep>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
An extraordinary amount of arrogance is present in any claim of having
been the first in "inventing" something. It's an arrogance that some
enjoy, and others do not. Now I reach beyond arrogance when I proclaim
that fractals had been pictured forever but their true role remained
unrecognized and waited for me to be uncovered.
--Benoît Mandelbrot
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Beno%C3%AEt_Mandelbrot>
90px|Bono, lead singer of U2
Achtung Baby is the seventh studio album by rock band U2. It was
produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 19
November 1991. Stung by the criticism of their 1988 release Rattle and
Hum, U2 shifted their musical direction to incorporate influences from
alternative rock, industrial music, and electronic dance music into
their sound. Thematically, the album is darker, more introspective, and
more flippant than their previous work. Recording began at Berlin's
Hansa Studios in October 1990, but the sessions were fraught with
conflict, as the band argued over the direction and quality of their
music. After nearly breaking up, they made a breakthrough with the
improvisation of the song "One". Morale improved during the subsequent
recording sessions in Dublin in 1991. Achtung Baby received favourable
reviews and went to number one in several countries. It spawned five
hit singles, including "One", "Mysterious Ways", and "The Fly". The
album has sold 18Â million copies, and in 1993, it won the Grammy Award
for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The record and
the multimedia-intensive Zoo TV Tour were central to U2's 1990s
reinvention. Achtung Baby has regularly appeared on critics' lists of
the greatest albums of all time. (more...)
Recently featured: Battle of Vukovar – William de St-Calais – Ming
Dynasty
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Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achtung_Baby>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1493:
Christopher Columbus became the first European to land on Puerto Rico,
naming it San Juan Bautista after John the Baptist.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico>
1794:
The United States and Great Britain concluded the Jay Treaty, which was
the basis for ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Treaty>
1863:
American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the
Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery
in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address>
1941:
Second World War: The Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney and the
German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran destroyed each other off the coast of
Western Australia in the Indian Ocean.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_between_HMAS_Sydney_and_German_auxiliar…>
2005:
Iraq War: A group of United States Marines allegedly massacred
twenty-four people in the town of Haditha in Iraq.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haditha_killings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
emetic (n):
An agent that induces vomiting
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/emetic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Nobody but radicals have ever accomplished anything in a great crisis.
--James A. Garfield
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_A._Garfield>
The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of the Croatian town of
Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and paramilitaries from
Serbia, between August and November 1991. In 1990, Croatian Serb
separatists launched an armed uprising, supported by Serbian President
Slobodan Milošević, and seized control of Serb-populated areas of
Croatia. The JNA intervened in favour of the Croatian Serbs and
launched an offensive in August 1991 against Croatian government-held
territory. Vukovar was defended by around 1,800 lightly armed Croatian
soldiers and civilian volunteers, against 36,000 JNA soldiers and
Serbian paramilitaries equipped with heavy armour and artillery. When
the town fell on 18 November 1991 after prolonged fighting, hundreds
were massacred by Serb forces and the town's non-Serb population was
expelled. Vukovar was peacefully reintegrated into Croatia in 1998
after the end of the Croatian War of Independence and has since been
rebuilt, but deep ethnic divisions remain. Several Serb military and
political officials, including Milošević, were later indicted and in
some cases jailed for war crimes committed during and after the battle.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1210:
Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III
after he commanded the Pope to annul the Concordat of Worms.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_IV%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor>
1928:
Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, the first completely post-produced
synchronized sound animated cartoon, was released.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat_Willie>
1943:
Second World War: The Royal Air Force began its bombing campaign
against Berlin.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin_%28air%29>
1991:
Croatian War of Independence: Yugoslav People's Army forces captured
the Croatian city of Vukovar, ending an 87-day siege.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar>
1999:
Texas A&M University's Aggie Bonfire collapsed , killing 12 people and
injuring 27 others, and causing the university to officially declare a
hiatus on the 90-year-old annual event.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggie_Bonfire>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sny (v):
(now dialectal, intransitive) Abound, swarm, teem, be infested, with
something
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sny>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Ideas, unlike solid structures, do not perish. They remain immortal,
immaterial and everywhere, like all Divine things. Ideas are a golden,
savage landscape that we wander unaware, without a map. Be careful: in
the last analysis, reality may be exactly what we think it is.
--Alan Moore
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Moore>
60px|William of St Calais from an 11th-century manuscript
William de St-Calais was a medieval Norman monk, abbot of the abbey
of St. Vincent in Le Mans in Maine, who was nominated as Bishop of
Durham in 1080 by King William I of England. During his term as bishop,
St-Calais replaced the canons of his cathedral chapter with monks, and
began the construction of Durham Cathedral. In addition to his
ecclesiastical duties, he served as a commissioner for the Domesday
Book. He was also a councilor and advisor to both King William I and
his son, King William II, known as William Rufus. Following William
Rufus' accession to the throne in 1087, St-Calais was considered by
scholars to be the new king's chief advisor. However, when the king's
uncle, Odo of Bayeux, raised a rebellion against the king in 1088,
St-Calais was implicated in the revolt. Imprisoned briefly, St-Calais
was allowed to go into exile in Normandy, where he became a leading
advisor to Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy. By 1091, St-Calais had
returned to England and regained royal favour. In England, St-Calais
once more became a leading advisor to the king. In 1093 he negotiated
with Anselm, Abbot of Bec, concerning Anselm's becoming Archbishop of
Canterbury; in 1095 it was St-Calais who prosecuted the royal case
against Anselm after he had become archbishop. Before his death in
1096, he had made his peace with Anselm, who blessed and consoled
St-Calais on his deathbed. (more...)
Recently featured: Ming Dynasty – The Lord of the Rings – George
Koval
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_de_St-Calais>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1292:
John Balliol was chosen to be King of Scots over Robert de Brus.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Balliol>
1869:
The Suez Canal opened, allowing shipping to travel between Europe and
Asia via the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal>
1950:
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama , was enthroned as Tibet's head of
state at the age of fifteen.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Dalai_Lama>
1970:
The Soviet Union's Lunokhod 1 landed on the Moon to become the first
roving remote-controlled robot to operate on another celestial body.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_1>
2009:
Administrators at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East
Anglia discovered their servers had been hacked and thousands of emails
and files on climate change had been stolen.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
factious (adj):
1. Of, pertaining to, or caused by factions.
2. Given to or characterized by discordance or insubordination
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/factious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Make no laws whatever concerning speech, and speech will be free; so
soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free, you
will have a hundred lawyers proving that "freedom does not mean abuse,
nor liberty license"; and they will define and define freedom out of
existence. Let the guarantee of free speech be in every man's
determination to use it, and we shall have no need of paper
declarations. On the other hand, so long as the people do not care to
exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for
tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name
of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon
sleeping men.
--Voltairine de Cleyre
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltairine_de_Cleyre>
100px|The Great Wall of China
The Ming Dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644.
The Ming was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic Han Chinese.
Ming rule saw the construction of a vast navy and a standing army of
one million troops. There were enormous construction projects,
including the restoration of the Grand Canal and the Great Wall
(pictured) and the establishment of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Emperor Hongwu's rebuilding of China's agricultural base and
strengthening of communication routes through the militarized courier
system had the unintended effect of creating a vast agricultural
surplus that could be sold at burgeoning markets located along courier
routes. By the 16th century, China became involved in a new global
trade of goods, plants, animals, and food crops known as the Columbian
Exchange. Trade with European powers and the Japanese brought in
massive amounts of silver, which then replaced copper and paper
banknotes as the common medium of exchange in China. During the last
decades of the Ming the flow of silver into China was greatly
diminished, thereby undermining the entire Ming economy. The ensuing
breakdown of authority and people's livelihoods allowed rebel leaders
such as Li Zicheng to challenge Ming authority. (more...)
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Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Dynasty>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1491:
Several Jews and conversos were executed in Toledo, Spain, for the
alleged ritual murder of an infant, who was later canonised as the Holy
Child of La Guardia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Child_of_La_Guardia>
1776:
American Revolutionary War: British and Hessian units captured Fort
Washington from the Patriots.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Washington>
1944:
World War II: Operation Queen commenced in Düren, Germany, with one of
the heaviest Allied tactical bombing attacks of the war.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Queen>
1959:
The Sound of Music, a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein based on The
Story of the Trapp Family Singers, opened on Broadway at the
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Music>
1997:
Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng was released from prison after nearly
18 years of on-and-off incarceration for "medical reasons" and deported
to the United States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei_Jingsheng>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ostinato (n):
A piece of melody, a chord progression, or a bass figure that is
repeated over and over as a musical accompaniment
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ostinato>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There will not be one kind of community existing and one kind of life
led in utopia. Utopia will consist of utopias, of many different and
divergent communities in which people lead different kinds of lives
under different institutions. Some kinds of communities will be more
attractive to most than others; communities will wax and wane. People
will leave some for others or spend their whole lives in one. Utopia is
a framework for utopias, a place where people are at liberty to join
together voluntarily to pursue and attempt to realize their own vision
of the good life in the ideal community but where no one can impose his
own utopian vision upon others.
--Robert Nozick
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Nozick>
The Lord of the Rings is a 1978 American fantasy film directed by Ralph
Bakshi. It combines animation and live action footage which is
rotoscoped to give it a look more consistent with the rest of the
movie. It is an adaptation of the first half of The Lord of the Rings
by J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the film follows a group of
hobbits, elves, men, dwarves and wizards who form a fellowship. They
embark on a quest to destroy the One Ring made by the Dark Lord Sauron,
and ensure his destruction. The film features the voices of William
Squire, John Hurt, Michael Graham Cox and Anthony Daniels of Star Wars
fame. The screenplay was written by Peter S. Beagle, based on an
earlier draft by Chris Conkling. Director Ralph Bakshi encountered
Tolkien's writing early in his career, and had made several attempts to
produce The Lord of the Rings as an animated film before being given
funding by producer Saul Zaentz and distributor United Artists.
Although the film was a financial success, it received a mixed reaction
from critics, and the original distributors refused to fund a sequel to
cover the remainder of the story. However, the film sparked new
interest in Tolkien's writing, inspiring the production of several
further adaptations of the story. (more...)
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Ridge, British Columbia
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_%281978_film%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
655:
Penda of Mercia was defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria at the Battle of
the Winwaed in modern-day Yorkshire, England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penda_of_Mercia>
1859:
Sponsored by businessman Evangelos Zappas , the first modern revival of
the Olympic Games took place in Athens, Greece.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zappas_Olympics>
1935:
The Commonwealth of the Philippines was officially established, with
Manuel L. Quezon inaugurated as its president.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_the_Philippines>
1943:
The Holocaust: Heinrich Himmler ordered that Romanies were to be put
"on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porajmos>
1983:
Turkish Cypriots on the northeastern portion of Cyprus declared the
creation of a new state known as the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus, which currently remains recognised only by Turkey.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Cyprus>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
diametrically (adv):
Separated by a diameter, on exactly the opposite side
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diametrically>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A phrase begins life as a literary expression; its felicity leads to
its lazy repetition; and repetition soon establishes it as a legal
formula, undiscriminatingly used to express different and sometimes
contradictory ideas.
--Felix Frankfurter
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Felix_Frankfurter>
George Koval (1913–2006) was a Soviet intelligence officer. According
to Russian sources, Koval's infiltration of the Manhattan Project as a
GRU agent "drastically reduced the amount of time it took for Russia to
develop nuclear weapons". Koval was born to Jewish immigrants in Sioux
City, Iowa. Shortly after reaching adulthood he traveled with his
parents to the Soviet Union to settle in the Jewish Autonomous Region
near the Chinese border. Koval was recruited by the Soviet Main
Intelligence Directorate, trained, and assigned the code name DELMAR.
He returned to the United States in 1940 and was drafted into the US
Army in early 1943. Koval worked at atomic research laboratories and,
according to the Russian government, relayed back to the Soviet Union
information about the production processes and volumes of the polonium,
plutonium, and uranium used in American atomic weaponry, in addition to
descriptions of the weapon production sites. After the war, Koval left
on a European vacation but never returned to the United States. In 2007
Russian President Vladimir Putin posthumously awarded Koval the Hero of
the Russian Federation decoration for "his courage and heroism while
carrying out special missions". (more...)
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Columbia – Harry Cobby
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Koval>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1910:
Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performed the first takeoff from a ship,
flying from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in Hampton Roads,
Virginia, US.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Burton_Ely>
1940:
Second World War: Coventry Cathedral and much of the city centre of
Coventry, England, were destroyed by the German Luftwaffe during the
Coventry Blitz.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry_Blitz>
1971:
NASA's Mariner 9 reached Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit
another planet.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_9>
1984:
Cesar Climaco, mayor of Zamboanga City, the Philippines, was
assassinated.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Climaco>
1990:
Germany and Poland signed the German–Polish Border Treaty, confirming
their border at the Oder-Neisse line, which was originally defined by
the Potsdam Agreement in 1945.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oder-Neisse_line>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
salacious (adj):
Promoting sexual desire or lust
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salacious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The world of today has achieved much, but for all its declared love for
humanity, it has based itself far more on hatred and violence than on
the virtues that make one human. War is the negation of truth and
humanity. War may be unavoidable sometimes, but its progeny are
terrible to contemplate. Not mere killing, for man must die, but the
deliberate and persistent propagation of hatred and falsehood, which
gradually become the normal habits of the people. It is dangerous and
harmful to be guided in our life's course by hatreds and aversions, for
they are wasteful of energy and limit and twist the mind and prevent it
from perceiving truth.
--Jawaharlal Nehru
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru>