100px|Christopher Smart
The English poet Christopher Smart was confined to mental asylums
from 1757 until 1763. Smart was admitted into St Luke's Hospital for
Lunatics on 6Â May 1757. While in St Luke's he wrote Jubilate Agno and A
Song to David, the poems considered to be his greatest works. Although
many of his contemporaries agreed that Smart was "mad", accounts of his
condition and its ramifications varied, and some felt that he had been
committed unfairly. Smart was diagnosed as "incurable" while at St
Luke's, and when they ran out of funds for his care he was moved to Mr.
Potter's asylum. Smart's isolation led him to abandon the poetic genres
of the 18th century that had marked his earlier work, and to write
religious poetry. His asylum poetry reveals a desire for "unmediated
revelation", and it is possible that the self-evaluation found in his
poetry represents an expression of evangelical Christianity. Late
18th-century critics felt that Smart's madness justified them in
ignoring his A Song to David, but during the following century Robert
Browning and his contemporaries considered his condition to be the
source of his genius. It was not until the 20th century that critics
reconsidered Smart's case and began to see him as a revolutionary poet.
(more...)
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_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1014:
Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: Forces of the Byzantine Empire defeated
troops of the Bulgarian Empire at the Battle of Kleidion in the
Belasica Mountains near present-day Klyuch, Bulgaria.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kleidion>
1693:
Nine Years' War: France won a pyrrhic victory over the Allied forces of
William III of England at the Battle of Landen in present-day
Neerwinden, Belgium.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Landen>
1836:
The Arc de Triomphe in Paris, commemorating those who fought and died
for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, was
formally inaugurated.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe>
1967:
Vietnam War: During preparation for another strike in the Gulf of
Tonkin, the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal was hit by a series of
chain-reaction explosions caused by an unusual electrical anomaly on
its flight deck, killing 134 sailors and injuring 161 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_USS_Forrestal_fire>
1987:
Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J.R.
Jayewardene signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in an ultimately
unsuccessful attempt to resolve the ongoing Sri Lankan Civil War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Sri_Lanka_Accord>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
incontrovertibly (adv):
In a way that cannot be denied or gainsaid
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/incontrovertibly>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Now I understand what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free —
They would not listen
They did not know how,
Perhaps they'll listen now.
--Don McLean
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Don_McLean>
100px|Jack Warner
Jack Warner (1892–1978) was a Canadian-born American film executive
who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios
in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Warner's 45-year career was
longer than that of any other traditional Hollywood studio mogul. He
worked with his brother, Sam Warner, to procure the technology for the
film industry's first talking picture. Although Warner was feared by
many of his employees and inspired ridicule with his uneven attempts at
humor, he earned respect for his shrewd instincts and toughmindedness.
He recruited many of Warner Bros.' top stars and promoted the
hard-edged social dramas for which the studio became known. Although he
was a staunch Republican, Warner encouraged film projects that promoted
the agenda of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. He
speedily grasped the threat posed by European fascism and criticized
Nazi Germany well before America's involvement in World War II. During
the postwar era Warner supported an anti-Communist crusade that
culminated in the "blacklisting" of Hollywood directors, actors,
screenwriters, and technicians. Despite his controversial public image,
Warner remained a force in the motion picture industry until his
retirement in the early 1970s. (more...)
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_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1896:
Miami, today the principal city and the center of the South Florida
metropolitan area, the seventh largest metro area in the United States,
was incorporated with a population of just over 300.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Miami>
1914:
Austria-Hungary declared war after rejecting Serbia's conditional
acceptance of only part of the July Ultimatum following the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, starting World
War I.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I>
1995:
Two followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh were convicted for the
attempted assassination of the United States Attorney for the District
of Oregon.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Rajneeshee_assassination_plot>
2001:
At the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Australian Ian
Thorpe became the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single
World Championships.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Thorpe>
2010:
In the deadliest air accident in Pakistan history, Airblue Flight 202
crashed into the Margalla Hills north of Islamabad, killing all 152
aboard.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airblue_Flight_202>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
somnial (adj):
Pertaining to dreams
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/somnial>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily
be infinite.
--Karl Popper
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Popper>
The Point Park Civic Center was a proposed civic center for downtown
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the confluence of the Allegheny and
Monongahela Rivers forms the Ohio River. The structure was designed by
Frank Lloyd Wright on commission from Edgar J. Kaufmann in the late
1940s. Wright initially envisioned a circular building more than 1000
feet (300Â m) in diameter and 175 feet (50Â m) tall. The structure,
containing an opera house, sports arena, three movie theaters, and a
convention hall, was wrapped with a spiraling strip of road. The plan
expressed Wright's insistence on bringing the automobile into the
social setting. It did not find favor with Pittsburgh authorities. To
make the design more palatable to its audience, Wright developed a
radically different proposal for a monolithic tower supporting bridges
across the Allegheny and Monongahela. This too was unsuccessful, and
none of Wright's work for the site was ever built. The site is now
occupied by Point State Park. The unused design has garnered scholarly
attention, and elements of it have been compared to other Wright
designs, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and his unrealized
plans for Monona Terrace. (more...)
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_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1054:
Siward, Earl of Northumbria, led an invasion of Scotland and defeated
Macbeth, King of Scotland, in a battle north of the Firth of Forth.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siward%2C_Earl_of_Northumbria>
1302:
Byzantine–Ottoman Wars: The Ottoman emirate scored its first major
victory against the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Bapheus in
Bithynia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bapheus>
1663:
The Parliament of England passed the second of the Navigation Acts,
which required that all goods bound for the American colonies had to be
sent in English ships from English ports.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_Acts>
1921:
University of Toronto researchers led by Frederick Banting proved that
the hormone insulin regulates blood sugar.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/insulin>
1942:
World War II: Allied forces halted the Axis invasion of Egypt.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_El_Alamein>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
captious (adj):
Tending to find fault at any opportunity; prone to raising petty
objections
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/captious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I've been sleeping through my life
Now I'm waking up
And I want to stand in the sunshine
I have
never been ecstatic
Had a flower but it never bloomed
In the darkness of my wasted
youth
It was hiding in the shadows
Learning to become invisible
Uncover
me.
--Juliana Hatfield
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Juliana_Hatfield>
100px|Lord Ashfield
Albert Stanley, 1st Baron Ashfield (1874–1948) was managing director,
then chairman of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
(UERL) from 1910 to 1933 and chairman of the London Passenger Transport
Board (LPTB) from 1933 to 1947. At a young age, he held senior
positions in the developing tramway systems of Detroit and New Jersey.
In 1907, his management skills led to his recruitment by the UERL,
which was struggling through a financial crisis. He quickly integrated
the company's management and used advertising and public relations to
improve profits. As managing director of the UERL from 1910, he led the
take-over of competing underground railway companies and bus and tram
operations to form an integrated transport operation known as the
Combine. He was Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne from
December 1916 to January 1920 and was President of the Board of Trade
between December 1916 and May 1919. He returned to the UERL and then
chaired it and its successor the LPTB during the organisation's
greatest period of expansion between the two World Wars, making it a
world-respected organisation considered an exemplar of the best form of
public administration. (more...)
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Stanley%2C_1st_Baron_Ashfield>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1581:
The Act of Abjuration, the formal declaration of independence of the
Dutch Low Countries from the Spanish king, Philip II, was signed.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Abjuration>
1759:
French and Indian War: Rather than defend Fort Carillon near
present-day Ticonderoga, New York, from an approaching 11,000-man
British force, French Brigadier General François-Charles de Bourlamaque
withdrew his troops and attempted to blow the fort up.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ticonderoga_%281759%29>
1882:
Boer mercenaries declared their independence from the Transvaal
Republic and established the Republic of Stellaland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellaland>
1945:
The Labour Party won the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a
landslide, replacing Winston Churchill as Prime Minister with Clement
Attlee .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election%2C_1945>
2008:
One day after similar bombings in Bangalore, 21 bombs exploded in
Ahmedabad, India, killing 56 people and injuring over 200 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Ahmedabad_bombings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
lethargy (n):
A condition of extreme drowsiness or apathy
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lethargy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We are so captivated by and entangled in our subjective consciousness
that we have forgotten the age-old fact that God speaks chiefly through
dreams and visions.
--Carl Jung
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Jung>
Maximian (c. 250 – c. 310) was Roman Emperor from 285 to 305. He was
Caesar from 285 to 286, then Augustus from 286 to 305. He shared the
latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocletian, whose
political brain complemented Maximian's military brawn. Maximian
established his residence at Trier but spent most of his time on
campaign. From 285 to 288, he fought against Germanic tribes along the
Rhine frontier. After Carausius's rebellion in Northern Gaul was put
down in 296, Maximian moved south to combat piracy near Hispania and
Berber incursions in Mauretania. When these campaigns concluded, he
returned to Rome in 299 to receive a triumph. After several years of
leisure, he retired as Augustus at Diocletian's request in 305.
However, he took up the title once again the following year, joining
his son Maxentius in rebellion. After a failed leadership challenge in
307, Maximian fled to the court of Constantine in Trier. At the Council
of Carnuntum in November 308, Diocletian forced Maximian to once again
renounce his imperial claim. In early 310, Maximian attempted to seize
Constantine's title while the emperor was on campaign on the Rhine. Few
supported him, and he was captured by Constantine. He committed suicide
later that year on Constantine's orders.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximian>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1261:
Alexios Strategopoulos led the Nicaean forces of Michael VIII
Palaiologos to recapture Constantinople, re-establish the Byzantine
Empire, and end the Latin Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexios_Strategopoulos>
1722:
Samuel Shute, Governor of Massachusetts, declared war on the Abenaki
people to begin Dummer's War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummer%27s_War>
1893:
The Corinth Canal , connecting the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic
Gulf through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth in the Aegean Sea, opened to
sea traffic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinth_Canal>
1978:
Two Puerto Rican pro-independence activists were killed by police at
Cerro Maravilla in Villalba.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Maravilla_incident>
2000:
Air France Concorde Flight 4590, en route from Paris to New York City,
crashed in Gonesse, France, killing all 100 passengers and nine crew
members, as well as four people on the ground.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_4590>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
passing (adv):
To a surpassing degree; extremely
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/passing>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The central task of education is to implant a will and a facility for
learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly
human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and
children are students together.
In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the
future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world
that no longer exists.
--Eric Hoffer
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer>
100px|Portrait of Henry, Prince of Wales, and John Harington, by Robert
Peake the Elder
Robert Peake the elder (c. 1551–1619) was an English painter active
in the later part of Elizabeth I's reign and for most of the reign of
James I. In 1604, he was appointed picture maker to the heir to the
throne, Prince Henry, and in 1607, serjeant-painter to King James I, a
post he shared with John De Critz. Peake is often called "the elder",
to distinguish him from his son, the painter and printseller William
Peake (c. 1580–1639) and from his grandson, Sir Robert Peake (c.
1605–1667), who followed his father into the family print-selling
business. Peake was the only English-born painter of a group of four
artists whose workshops were closely connected. The others were De
Critz, Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, and the miniature painter Isaac
Oliver. Between 1590 and about 1625, they specialised in brilliantly
coloured, full-length "costume pieces" (example pictured) that are
unique to England at this time. It is not always possible to attribute
authorship between Peake, De Critz, Gheeraerts and their assistants
with certainty. (more...)
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peake_the_elder>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1927:
Wilfred Rhodes of England and Yorkshire became the only person to reach
1,000 first-class cricket matches.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Rhodes>
1970:
Qaboos overthrew his father Said bin Taimur to become Sultan of Oman.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qaboos_bin_Said_al_Said>
1983:
Air Canada Flight 143 made an emergency landing in Gimli, Manitoba,
Canada, without loss of life after the crew was forced to glide the
aircraft when it completely ran out of fuel.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider>
1995:
Hale–Bopp , one of the most widely observed comets of the twentieth
century, was discovered by two independent observers, Alan Hale and
Thomas Bopp, at a great distance from the Sun.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hale%E2%80%93Bopp>
2002:
On the 50th anniversary of its founding, the European Coal and Steel
Community disbanded, and its activities and resources were absorbed by
the European Community.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Coal_and_Steel_Community>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
illation (n):
The act of deducing; a deduction or inference
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/illation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the
truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the
second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important
than the other. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of
high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would
become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of
art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps
art from becoming ridiculous.
--Raymond Chandler
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Raymond_Chandler>
100px|A disc of californium metal
Californium is the radioactive metallic chemical element with atomic
number 98. It was first produced in 1950 by bombarding curium with
alpha particles at the University of California, Berkeley. The element
was named for California and the University of California. Two
crystalline forms exist for californium under normal pressure, and a
third exists at high pressure. Compounds of californium are dominated
by a chemical form of the element, designated californium(III), that
can participate in three chemical bonds. The most stable of
californium's twenty known isotopes is californium-251, which has a
half-life of 898Â years; this short half-life means the element is not
found in the Earth's crust. Californium-252, whose half-life is
2.645Â years, is the most common isotope used. Californium can be used
to help start up nuclear reactors, and is employed as a source of
neutrons when studying materials with neutron diffraction and neutron
spectroscopy. It can also be used in nuclear synthesis of higher mass
elements; ununoctium was synthesized by bombarding californium-249
atoms with calcium-48 ions. Use of californium must take into account
radiological concerns and the element's ability to disrupt the
formation of red blood cells by bio-accumulating in skeletal tissue.
(more...)
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_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
365:
A large earthquake that struck near Crete and its subsequent tsunami
caused widespread destruction throughout the eastern Mediterranean
region.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/365_Crete_earthquake>
1865:
In one of the few recorded instances of a "quick draw" gun duel in the
American Old West, Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt over a
poker debt.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok_%E2%80%93_Davis_Tutt_shootout>
1954:
First Indochina War: The Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone was established
at the Geneva Conference, partitioning Vietnam along the 17th parallel
north into two zones: North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh and South
Vietnam under Bao Dai.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conference_%281954%29>
1969:
During the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became
the first humans to walk on the Moon.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong>
1970:
The Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed after 11 years of
construction.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_Dam>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
charlady (n):
(chiefly archaic or historical) A woman whose professional occupation
is to clean houses; a cleaning-lady
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/charlady>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will
happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do
today. It's been that way all this year. It's been that way so many
times. All of war is that way.
--Ernest Hemingway
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway>