The Johnstown Inclined Plane is an 896.5-foot (273.3 m) funicular
railway in Johnstown, Cambria County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
The funicular is capable of carrying passengers and automobiles up or
down a slope with a grade of 70.9 percent. The incline and its two
stations connect the city of Johnstown, situated in a valley at the
confluence of the Stonycreek and the Little Conemaugh Rivers, to the
borough of Westmont on Yoder Hill. The travel time from one station to
the other is 90 seconds. After a catastrophic flood in 1889, the
Inclined Plane was constructed in 1891 to serve as an escape route for
future floods, a task which it has fulfilled twice; once in 1936 and
again in 1977. It was operated by Cambria Iron Company and its
successor Bethlehem Steel until 1935, when it was sold to the borough
of Westmont. The incline was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places in 1973 and was designated an Historic Mechanical
Engineering Landmark in 1994. It had major renovations in 1962 and from
1983 to 1984.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Inclined_Plane>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1670:
Charles II and Louis XIV signed a secret treaty, wherein England would
aid France in its against the Dutch Republic in return for French
assistance in England's attempt to rejoin the Roman Catholic Church.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_treaty_of_Dover>
1916:
Louis Brandeis became the first Jew to be appointed to the United
States Supreme Court.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis>
1942:
World War II: The crews of three Japanese Ko-hyoteki class submarines
scuttled and committed suicide after entering Sydney Harbour and
launching a failed attack.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Sydney_Harbour>
1980:
CNN, the first network to provide 24-hour television news coverage, was
launched.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNN>
2001:
Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal killed King Birendra and several members
of the Shah royal family in a shooting spree at the Narayanhity Royal
Palace in Kathmandu.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepalese_royal_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
obtrude (v):
To project into or on to something in an intrusive or unwelcome way; to
be forcibly imposed
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/obtrude>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is a legend about a bird that sings just once in its life, more
sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the
moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree and does not
rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches,
it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. Dying, it rises
above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One
superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to
listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at
the cost of the great pain. … Or so says the legend.
--Colleen McCullough
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Colleen_McCullough>
Charles Holden (1875–1960) was an English architect best known for
designing many London Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s,
for Bristol Central Library, the Underground Electric Railways Company
of London's headquarters at 55 Broadway and for the University of
London's Senate House. He also created many war cemeteries in Belgium
and northern France for the Imperial War Graves Commission. Although
not without its critics, his architecture is widely appreciated. He was
awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal for
architecture in 1936 and was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry in
1943. His station designs for London Underground became the
corporation's design standard influencing designs by all architects
working for the organisation in the 1930s. Many of his buildings have
been granted listed building status, protecting them from unapproved
alteration. Modestly believing that architecture was a collaborative
effort, he twice declined the offer of a knighthood.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Holden>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1431:
Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen,
France, after being convicted of heresy in a politically motivated
trial.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc>
1815:
The East Indiaman ship Arniston was wrecked during a storm at
Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, present-day South Africa, with the
loss of 372 lives.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arniston_%28East_Indiaman%29>
1854:
The Kansas–Nebraska Act became law, establishing the U.S. territories
of Nebraska and Kansas, repealing the 1820 Missouri Compromise, and
allowing settlers in those territories to determine if they would
permit slavery within their boundaries.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas%E2%80%93Nebraska_Act>
1922:
The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., featuring a sculpture of the
sixteenth U.S. President Abraham Lincoln by Daniel Chester French,
opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Memorial>
1967:
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu announced the establishment of Biafra, a
secessionist state in southeastern Nigeria, an event that sparked the
Nigerian Civil War one week later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nictate (v):
To wink or blink
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nictate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If I am not in the state of grace, may God put me there; and if I am,
may God so keep me.
--Joan of Arc
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc>
Deinonychus is a genus of carnivorous dromaeosaurid dinosaur that
existed during the Early Cretaceous. It contains only a single species,
D. antirrhopus. Fossils of the 3.4 meter (11 ft) long dinosaur have
been recovered from the U.S. states of Montana, Wyoming, and Oklahoma,
though teeth attributed to Deinonychus have been found as far east as
Maryland. A 1960s study of Deinonychus revolutionized the way
scientists thought about dinosaurs, leading to the "Dinosaur
renaissance" and igniting a debate on whether dinosaurs were
warm-blooded. Where the popular conception of dinosaurs had been one of
plodding reptilian giants, the study's description of Deinonychus'
small body, sleek horizontal posture, ratite-like spine and enlarged
raptorial claws suggested an active, agile predator. As in other
dromaeosaurids, the tail vertebrae have a series of ossified tendons
and super-elongated bone processes. These features would seem to make
the tail into a stiff counterbalance, but fossils of closely-related
species suggest that, in life, the tail could swish to the sides with a
high degree of flexibility. Deinonychus teeth and other remains have
been found closely associated with those of the ornithopod
Tenontosaurus, implying that it was hunted or at least scavenged upon
by Deinonychus.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinonychus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1167:
A 1,600-man force of the Holy Roman Empire led by Christian of Buch and
Rainald of Dassel defeated a 10,000-man Papal States army.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Monte_Porzio>
1453:
Constantinople fell to the besieging Ottoman army led by Sultan
Mehmed II, ending the Byzantine Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople>
1911:
English dramatist W. S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan dies while
saving a young woman from drowning in his lake.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._S._Gilbert>
1913:
The Rite of Spring, a ballet with music by Russian composer Igor
Stravinsky, was first performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in
Paris.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rite_of_Spring>
1953:
New Zealand explorer Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer
Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount
Everest .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary>
1985:
A wall at Brussels' Heysel Stadium collapsed under the pressure of
football fans escaping a riot before the European Cup Final between
England's Liverpool F.C. and Italy's Juventus F.C., killing 39 people
and injuring over 600 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heysel_Stadium_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
deathwatch (n):
1. Any of various insects which give off a ticking noise, especially
the deathwatch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum.
2. A vigil held over a dying person
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/deathwatch>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The most unfathomable schools and sages have never attained to the
gravity which dwells in the eyes of a baby of three months old. It is
the gravity of astonishment at the universe, and astonishment at the
universe is not mysticism, but a transcendent common-sense. The
fascination of children lies in this: that with each of them all things
are remade, and the universe is put again upon its trial.
--G. K. Chesterton
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton>
The Mono–Inyo Craters are a north–south-trending volcanic chain in
Eastern California that stretch 25 miles (40 km) from the northwest
shore of Mono Lake to south of Mammoth Mountain. The chain is located
in Mono County in the U.S. State of California. Eruptions along the
narrow fissure system under the chain began in the west moat of Long
Valley Caldera 400,000 to 60,000 years ago. Mammoth Mountain was formed
during this period. Multiple eruptions from 40,000 to 600 years ago
created Mono Craters and eruptions 5,000 to 500 years ago formed Inyo
Craters. The area has been used by humans for centuries. Obsidian was
collected by Mono Paiutes for making sharp tools and arrow points.Mono
Mills processed timber felled on or near the volcanoes for the nearby
boomtown Bodie in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Water
diversions into the Los Angeles Aqueduct system from their natural
outlets in Mono Lake started in 1941 after a water tunnel was cut under
Mono Craters. Mono Lake Volcanic Field and a large part of Mono Craters
gained some protection under Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area in
1984. Resource use along all of the chain is managed by the United
States Forest Service as part of Inyo National Forest.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono%E2%80%93Inyo_Craters>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1754:
French and Indian War: Led by 22-year-old George Washington, a company
of colonial militia from Virginia ambushed a force of 35 Canadiens in
the Battle of Jumonville Glen.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jumonville_Glen>
1905:
Japanese forces led by Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō destroyed the Russian
Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima, the decisive naval battle in
the Russo-Japanese War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima>
1918:
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, one of the first democratic
republics in the Muslim world, was proclaimed in Ganja by the
Azerbaijani National Council following the breakup of the
Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan_Democratic_Republic>
1987:
West German Mathias Rust flew his Cessna 172 through the supposedly
impregnable Soviet air defense system and landed in Red Square in
Moscow.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust>
1998:
The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission carried out five underground
nuclear tests, becoming the seventh country in the world to
successfully develop and publicly test nuclear weapons.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagai-I>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
personal space (n):
1. The area in which a person or animal usually moves and which it
knows well.
2. The area immediately surrounding someone which is felt to be
theirs, encroachment on which may cause discomfort or hostility
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/personal_space>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
War of any kind is abhorrent. Remember that since the end of World War
II, over 40 million people have been killed by conventional weapons.
So, if we should succeed in averting nuclear war, we must not let
ourselves be sold the alternative of conventional weapons for killing
our fellow men. We must cure ourselves of the habit of war.
--Patrick White
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patrick_White>
Ernst Lindemann (1894–1941) was a German naval captain and the only
commander of the battleship Bismarck during its eight months of service
in World War II. Born in 1894, he joined the German Imperial Navy
(German: Kaiserliche Marine) in 1913, and after his basic military
training, served on a number of warships during World War I as a
wireless telegraphy officer. After World War I, he served in various
staff as well as naval gunnery training positions. In May 1941,
Lindemann commanded Bismarck during Operation Rheinübung. The German
task force, under the command of Admiral Günther Lütjens, consisted of
the battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. It was to
break out of its base in German occupied Norway and attack British
merchant shipping lanes in the Atlantic Ocean. The force's first major
engagement was the Battle of the Denmark Strait which resulted in the
sinking of HMS Hood. Less than a week later, on 27 May, Lindemann and
most of his crew lost their lives during Bismarck's last battle. He was
posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz
des Eisernes Kreuzes), which recognized extreme bravery on the
battlefield or outstanding military leadership.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Lindemann>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1153:
Malcolm IV became King of Scotland at the age of twelve.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_IV_of_Scotland>
1799:
War of the Second Coalition: Austrian forces defeated the French and
captured the strategically important town of Winterthur, Switzerland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Winterthur_%281799%29>
1930:
Standing at 319 metres (1,047 ft), New York City's Chrysler Building
opened as the world's tallest building before it was surpassed by the
Empire State Building 11 months later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Building>
1967:
Australians overwhelmingly approved two amendments to the Constitution
granting the government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous
Australians and to count them in the national census.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_referendum%2C_1967_%28Aboriginals%29>
2006:
An earthquake measuring about 6.3 Mw struck near the Indonesian city of
Yogyakarta on the southern side of the island of Java, killing at least
5,700 people, injuring at least 36,000, and leaving at least 1.5
million homeless.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2006_Java_earthquake>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nefandous (adj):
Horrific; unspeakably appalling
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nefandous>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I am confirmed in my division of human energies. Ambitious people
climb, but faithful people build.
--Julia Ward Howe
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julia_Ward_Howe>
Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) was an English writer of novels, travel books
and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer. His
best-known works include his early satires Decline and Fall (1928) and
A Handful of Dust (1934), his novel Brideshead Revisited (1945) and his
trilogy of Second World War novels collectively known as Sword of
Honour (1952–61). Waugh, a conservative Roman Catholic whose views were
often trenchantly expressed, is widely recognised as one of the great
prose stylists of the 20th century. In the 1930s he travelled
extensively, often as a special newspaper correspondent. He served in
the British armed forces throughout the Second World War, first in the
Royal Marines and later in the Royal Horse Guards. All these
experiences, and the wide range of people he encountered, were used in
Waugh's fiction, generally to humorous effect; even his own mental
breakdown in the early 1950s, brought about by misuse of drugs, was
fictionalised. After his death in 1966 he acquired a new following
through film and television versions of his work, most memorably
Brideshead Revisited in 1982.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Waugh>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1328:
William of Ockham, originator of the methodological principle Occam's
razor, secretly left Avignon under threat from Pope John XXII.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_of_Ockham>
1857:
American slave Dred Scott , who had previously unsuccessfully sued for
his freedom, was emancipated by Henry Taylor Blow, his original owner.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott>
1897:
Irish author Bram Stoker's most famous novel Dracula was first
published.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula>
1936:
The House Un-American Activities Committee was established to
investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities by people or
organizations suspected of having communist or fascist ties.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee>
1940:
World War II: A flotilla of "little ships" began a mass evacuation of
British, French and Belgian troops cut off by the German army during
the Battle of Dunkirk.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_evacuation>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
cleanskin (n):
1. A criminal with no prior criminal record.
2. (Australia) An unbranded farm animal.
3. (Australia) An unlabelled
bottle of wine
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cleanskin>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If there must be resolution and explanation, it must be something worth
its weight in mystery. Most times, I'd be content with the mystery.
--Caitlín R. Kiernan
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Caitl%C3%ADn_R._Kiernan>
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy radio
series written by Douglas Adams and first broadcast in the United
Kingdom on BBC Radio 4 in 1978. The serial follows the adventures of
Englishman Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Prefect, an alien who writes
for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, an intergalactic encyclopedia
and travelogue. After Earth is destroyed in the first episode, Dent and
Ford find themselves aboard a stolen spaceship piloted by a motley crew
including Zaphod Beeblebrox (Ford's semi-cousin and Galactic
President), a depressed robot called Marvin and an Earth woman calling
herself Trillian, who is the only other surviving human being. A second
series was transmitted in 1980 and the first series was adapted for
television. This in turn was followed by five novels, a computer game
and several other adaptations. Before his death in May 2001, Adams
considered writing a third radio series based on his novel Life, the
Universe and Everything. Dirk Maggs eventually directed and co-produced
radio series adaptations of that novel, as well as So Long, and Thanks
for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless in 2004–05.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_%28radi…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1810:
The Primera Junta, the first independent government in Argentina, was
established in an open cabildo in Buenos Aires , marking the end of the
May Revolution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primera_Junta>
1895:
The Republic of Formosa was inaugurated in Taiwan, proclaiming
independence from Qing China.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Formosa>
1977:
Star Wars, a science fantasy film written and directed by George Lucas,
was released, becoming one of the most successful films of all time.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Episode_IV%3A_A_New_Hope>
2000:
Israel withdrew its army from most of Lebanese territory, 22 years
after its first invasion in 1978.}
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Lebanon_conflict_%281982%E2%80%932000%29>
2002:
China Airlines Flight 611 crashed in the Taiwan Strait after breaking
up in mid-air, killing all 225 people on board.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_611>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
repel (v):
1. To force back; to drive away.
2. To cause repulsion or dislike
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/repel>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Be an artist superior to tricks of art. Show frankly, as a saint would
do, all your experience, your methods, tools, and means. Welcome all
comers to the freest use of the same. And out of this superior
frankness and charity, you shall learn higher secrets of your nature,
which gods will bend and aid you to communicate.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson>
Tiny Thompson (1903–1981) was a Canadian professional ice hockey
goaltender. He played 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL),
first for the Boston Bruins, and later for the Detroit Red Wings. A
four-time Vezina Trophy winner, Thompson was inducted into the Hockey
Hall of Fame in 1959. He was a member of one Stanley Cup-winning team,
as a rookie in the 1928–29 season with the Boston Bruins. At the start
of the 1938–39 season, after ten full seasons with Boston, he was
traded to the Detroit Red Wings, where he completed the season, and
played another full one before retiring. During his NHL career, he
recorded 81 shutouts, the sixth highest of any goaltender. After
retiring from playing, he coached lower-league teams before becoming a
noted professional scout. Thompson helped popularize the technique of
catching the puck as a method of making a save. A competent
puckhandler, he was the first goaltender in the NHL to record an assist
by passing the puck with his stick to a fellow player.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Thompson>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1883:
New York City's Brooklyn Bridge, at the time the longest suspension
bridge in the world, was opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge>
1948:
Arab–Israeli War: After five days of fighting, Egyptian forces finally
captured the Israeli kibbutz Yad Mordechai after the defenders had
abandoned it.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yad_Mordechai>
1960:
Cordón Caulle in the Andes of Ranco Province, Chile, began to erupt,
less than two days after the Valdivia earthquake struck the region.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puyehue-Cord%C3%B3n_Caulle>
1970:
On the Kola Peninsula in Russia, drilling began on the Kola Superdeep
Borehole, eventually reaching 12,262 metres (40,230 ft), making it the
deepest hole ever drilled and the deepest artificial point on the
earth.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole>
1976:
In a wine competition in Paris, French judges shocked the wine industry
by rating California wines higher than French ones .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Paris_%28wine%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
jacquerie (n):
A peasants' revolt
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jacquerie>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it
take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin'
in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
--Bob Dylan
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan>
Boletus edulis is a basidiomycete fungus, widely distributed in the
Northern Hemisphere across Europe, Asia, and North America, and has
been introduced to southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The
fungus grows in deciduous and coniferous forests and tree plantations,
forming symbiotic ectomycorrhizal associations with living trees by
enveloping sheaths of fungal tissue around their underground roots. The
fungus produces spore-bearing fruit bodies above ground in summer and
autumn. The fruit body has a large brown cap which on occasion can
reach 35 cm (14 in) in diameter and 3 kg (6.6 lb) in weight. It has
tubes extending downward from the underside of the cap, rather than
gills. Prized as an ingredient in various foods, B. edulis is an edible
mushroom held in high regard in many cuisines, and is commonly prepared
and eaten in soups, pasta, or risotto. The mushroom is low in fat and
digestible carbohydrates, and high in protein, vitamins, minerals and
dietary fibre. Although it is sold commercially, it has not been
successfully grown in cultivation. Available fresh in autumn in
Central, Southern and Northern Europe, it is most often dried, packaged
and distributed worldwide.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus_edulis>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1498:
Girolamo Savonarola of Florence was executed for heresy, uttering
prophecies, sedition, and other crimes.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girolamo_Savonarola>
1533:
The marriage of Henry VIII of England and his first wife Catherine of
Aragon was annulled.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Aragon>
1568:
The Dutch Revolt broke out when rebels led by Louis of Nassau invaded
Friesland at the Battle of Heiligerlee.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Revolt>
1706:
War of the Spanish Succession: Led by the Duke of Marlborough, the
allied forces of England, the Dutch Republic, and Denmark defeated the
Franco-Bavarian army in Ramillies, present-day Belgium.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ramillies>
1934:
American criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and
killed by police on a desolate road near their hideout in Bienville
Parish, Louisiana.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_and_Clyde>
1949:
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany came into effect as
the de facto constitution of West Germany.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Law_for_the_Federal_Republic_of_Germany>
2008:
To resolve a 29-year-old territorial dispute, the International Court
of Justice awarded Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca to
Singapore.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedra_Branca_dispute>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
destitution (n):
The condition of being without the necessary resources for life;
extreme poverty
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/destitution>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Might the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy be laid to
heart! Might a sense of the true aims of life elevate the tone of
politics and trade, till public and private honor become identical!
--Margaret Fuller
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Fuller>
God Hates Us All is the ninth studio album by American thrash metal
band Slayer. Released on September 11, 2001 the album received mixed
critical reviews, although it entered the Billboard 200 at number 28.
Recorded in three months at The Warehouse Studio in Canada, God Hates
Us All includes the Grammy Award-nominated "Disciple" and is the band's
last album to feature drummer Paul Bostaph. Guitarist Kerry King wrote
approximately 80% of the lyrics, adopting a different approach from
earlier recordings by including prevalent themes such as religion,
murder, revenge, and self-control. Limiting the lyrics to topics which
everyone could relate to, King wished to explore more in depth,
realistic subject matter. The band experimented musically by recording
two songs with seven-string guitars, and a further two with drop B
tunings. The album's release was delayed due to the graphic nature of
its artwork for which slip covers were created to cover the original
artwork, difficulties encountered during audio mixing, and the change
of distributor by the band's record label during the release period.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Hates_Us_All>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1826:
HMS Beagle departed on its first voyage from Plymouth for a
hydrographic survey of the Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego regions of
South America.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Beagle>
1915:
Lassen Peak in the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California
violently erupted , the only volcanic eruption in the continental U.S.
in the 20th century until Mount St. Helens in 1980.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassen_Peak>
1958:
Ethnic rioting broke out in Ceylon, targeted mostly at the minority Sri
Lankan Tamils, resulting in up to 300 deaths over the next five days.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_riots_in_Ceylon>
1987:
During Hindu–Muslim rioting in Meerut, India, 19 members of the
Provincial Armed Constabulary allegedly massacred 42 Muslims and dumped
the bodies in water canals.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashimpura_massacre>
2003:
Swedish golfer Annika Sörenstam became the first woman to play in a PGA
Tour event in 58 years.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annika_S%C3%B6renstam>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
reveille (n):
The sounding of a bugle or drum early in the morning to awaken soldiers
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reveille>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The more we progress the more we tend to progress. We advance not in
arithmetical but in geometrical progression. We draw compound interest
on the whole capital of knowledge and virtue which has been accumulated
since the dawning of time.
--Arthur Conan Doyle
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle>