Terry Fox (1958–1981) was a Canadian humanitarian, athlete and cancer
research activist. He was a distance runner and basketball player, and
continued both pursuits after his right leg was amputated upon being
diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 1977. His experiences in chemotherapy
inspired Fox to attempt the Marathon of Hope, a cross-Canada run, in
the hopes of raising C$1 for every person in the country for cancer
research. He began on April 12, 1980, at St. John's, Newfoundland, and
ran west for 143 days and 5,373 kilometres – the equivalent of a
marathon a day – until forced to stop near Thunder Bay, Ontario, after
cancer returned in his lungs. Fox captivated the country; he was named
Newsmaker of the Year in both 1980 and 1981, and was the youngest
person ever named a Companion of the Order of Canada. His run and
subsequent battle with the disease united the nation and led to
millions of dollars in donations. He inspired the Terry Fox Run, held
in over 60 countries and the world's largest one-day fundraiser for
cancer research; over $500 million has been raised in his name.
Considered a national hero, many buildings, roads and parks have been
named in his honour across Canada.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
American Revolutionary War: British troops engaged American forces at
the first Battle of Saratoga in New York.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Saratoga>
1796:
George Washington's Farewell Address was published in many American
newspapers, warning citizens, among others, about the dangers of
political factionalism and to avoid permanent alliances with other
foreign powers.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington%27s_Farewell_Address>
1944:
Finland and the Soviet Union signed the Moscow Armistice to end the
Continuation War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation_War>
1964:
An armed revolt by Montagnards serving in the Army of the Republic of
Vietnam against the rule of Nguyen Khanh led to the deaths of 70 ethnic
Vietnamese soldiers.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Khanh>
1985:
An 8.1Â ML earthquake struck Mexico City, killing at least nine thousand
people and leaving up to 100,000 homeless.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Mexico_City_earthquake>
1991:
Ötzi the Iceman, a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about
3300Â BC, was discovered by two German tourists.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi_the_Iceman>
1995:
The Manifesto of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski was published in The
Washington Post and The New York Times, almost three months after it
was submitted.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Kaczynski>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
epitome (n):
1. The embodiment or encapsulation (of something).
2. A representative example.
3. The height; the best
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/epitome>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The soul of man is larger than the sky,
Deeper than ocean, or the abysmal dark
Of the unfathomed center.
Like that ark,
Which in its sacred hold uplifted high,
O'er the drowned hills, the
human family,
And stock reserved of every living kind,
So, in the compass of the
single mind,
The seeds and pregnant forms in essence lie,
That make all worlds.
--Hartley Coleridge
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hartley_Coleridge>
If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by
Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. After a series of editors,
including Paul W. Fairman, Larry T. Shaw, and Damon Knight, Quinn sold
the magazine to Robert Guinn at Galaxy Publishing and in 1961 Frederik
Pohl became editor. Under Pohl, If won the Hugo Award for best
professional magazine three years running from 1966 to 1968. In 1969
Guinn sold all his magazines to Universal Publishing and Distribution
(UPD). The magazine was not as successful with Ejler Jakobsson as
editor and circulation plummeted. In early 1974 Jim Baen took over from
Jakobsson as editor, but increasing paper costs meant that UPD could no
longer afford to publish both Galaxy and If. Galaxy was regarded as the
senior of the two magazines, so If was merged into Galaxy after the
December 1974 issue, its 175th issue overall. Over its 22Â years, If
published many award-winning stories, including Robert A. Heinlein's
novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Harlan Ellison's short story "I
Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". Several well-known writers sold their
first story to If; the most successful was Larry Niven, whose story
"The Coldest Place" appeared in the December 1964 issue.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_%28magazine%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
96:
Following the assassination of Roman Emperor Domitian, the Roman Senate
appointed Nerva , the first of the Five Good Emperors, to succeed him.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerva>
324:
Constantine the Great decisively defeated Licinius in the Battle of
Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman
Empire, and ultimately leading to the conversion of the whole empire to
Christianity.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chrysopolis>
1809:
The second theatre of the Royal Opera House in London opened after a
fire destroyed the original theatre one year earlier.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Opera_House>
1931:
The Mukden Incident: A section of the Japanese-built South Manchuria
Railway was destroyed, providing an excuse for the Japanese to blame
the act on Chinese dissidents, and thus giving a pretext for the
Japanese occupation of Manchuria.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident>
1948:
The Donald Bradman-led Australian cricket team completed the
unprecedented feat of going through an English summer without defeat.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Bradman_with_the_Australian_cricket_tea…>
1998:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a
non-profit organization that manages the assignment of domain names and
IP addresses in the Internet, was established.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pangram (n):
A sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pangram>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
As it is necessary not to invite robbery by supineness, so it is our
duty not to suppress tenderness by suspicion; it is better to suffer
wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to
trust.
--Samuel Johnson
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson>
The Ormulum is a 12th-century work of biblical exegesis, written in
early Middle English verse by a monk named Orm (or Ormin). Because of
the unique phonetic orthography adopted by the author, it preserves
many details of English pronunciation at a time when the language was
in flux after the Norman Conquest. Consequently, and in spite its lack
of literary merit, it is invaluable to philologists in tracing the
development of the language. Orm was concerned with priests' ability to
speak the vernacular, and developed an idiosyncratic spelling system to
guide his readers to pronounce each vowel. He composed using a strict
poetic meter which ensured that readers would know which syllables were
stressed. Modern scholars use these two features to reconstruct Middle
English as Orm spoke it.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ormulum>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1176:
Byzantine–Seljuk wars: The Seljuk Turks prevented the Byzantines from
taking the interior of Anatolia at the Battle of Myriokephalon in
Phrygia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Myriokephalon>
1787:
The text of the United States Constitution was finalized at the
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution>
1894:
The Imperial Japanese Navy defeated the Beiyang Fleet of Qing China in
the Battle of the Yalu River at the mouth of the Yalu River in Korea
Bay, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Yalu_River_%281894%29>
1916:
World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of
the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai,
France.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Richthofen>
1939:
World War II: The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, sixteen
days after Nazi Germany's attack on that country from the west.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland_%281939%29>
1978:
President Anwar Al Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of
Israel (pictured with U.S. President Jimmy Carter) signed the Camp
David Accords after twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Accords>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
long in the tooth (adj):
(idiomatic) Old, aged
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/long_in_the_tooth>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Many questions haven't been answered as yet. Our poets may be wrong;
but what can any of us do with his talent but try to develop his
vision, so that through frequent failures we may learn better what we
have missed in the past.
--William Carlos Williams
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Carlos_Williams>
Murray Maxwell (1775–1831) was a British Royal Navy officer who served
with distinction in the late 18th and early 19th centuries,
particularly during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Maxwell first gained recognition as one of the British captains
involved in the successful Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814, during which
he was responsible for the destruction of a French armaments convoy at
the Action of 29 November 1811. As a result of further success in the
Mediterranean, Maxwell was given increasingly important commissions
and, despite the loss of his ship HMSÂ Daedalus off Ceylon in 1813, was
specially selected to escort the British Ambassador to China in 1816.
The voyage to China subsequently became famous when Maxwell's ship
HMSÂ Alceste was wrecked in the Gaspar Strait, and he and his crew
became stranded on a nearby island. The marooned sailors suffered from
shortages of food and were repeatedly attacked by Malay pirates, but
thanks to Maxwell's leadership no lives were lost. Eventually rescued
by an Honourable East India Company ship, the party returned to Britain
as popular heroes, Maxwell being especially commended. He was knighted
for his services, and made a brief and unsuccessful foray into politics
before resuming his naval career. In 1831 Maxwell was appointed
Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island, but fell ill and died
before he could take up the post.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Maxwell>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1701:
Prince James Francis Edward Stuart , more commonly referred to as the
"Old Pretender", became the Jacobite claimant of the thrones of England
and Scotland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Francis_Edward_Stuart>
1776:
American Revolutionary War: On hearing the British troops sounding
their bugles as if it were a fox hunt, the Americans held their ground
and achieved a victory at the Battle of Harlem Heights in present-day
New York City.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Harlem_Heights>
1963:
Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (present-day Sabah), and Sarawak merged
to form Malaysia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia>
1982:
A Lebanese militia under the direct command of Elie Hobeika carried out
a massacre in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila,
killing at least 700 civilians.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre>
1987:
The Montreal Protocol, an international treaty designed to protect the
ozone layer by phasing out the production of a number of substances
believed to be responsible for ozone depletion, opened for signature.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
festoon (v):
To hang ornaments, such as garlands or chains, which hang loosely from
two tacked spots
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/festoon>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Descend, descend, Urania, speak
To men in their own tongue!
Leave not the breaking heart to break
Because thine own is strong.
This is the law, in dream and deed,
That heaven must walk on earth!
O, shine upon the humble creed
That holds the heavenly birth.
--Alfred Noyes
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Noyes>
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, is a single player computer
role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios, and published by
Bethesda Softworks and Ubisoft. It is the third installment in The
Elder Scrolls series of games. It was released in North America in 2002
for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox. Well-received publicly and
critically, selling over four million copies and winning more than 60
awards, including Game of the Year, Morrowind holds an average review
score of 89% from both Metacritic and Game Rankings. The game spawned
two expansion packs for the PC: Tribunal and Bloodmoon. Both were
eventually repackaged into a full set containing all three, Morrowind:
Game of the Year Edition, which shipped on October 30, 2003, for both
PC and Xbox. The main story takes place on Vvardenfell, an island in
the Dunmer province of Morrowind, which lies in the empire of Tamriel
and is far from the more civilized lands to the west and south that
typified Daggerfall and Arena. The central quests concern the deity
Dagoth Ur, housed within the volcanic Red Mountain, who seeks to gain
power and break Morrowind free from Imperial reign. Morrowind was
designed with an open-ended free-form style of gameplay in mind, with a
lessened emphasis on the game's main plot. This choice received mixed
reviews in the gaming press, though such feelings were tempered by
reviewers' appreciation of Morrowind's expansive and detailed game
world.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_III%3A_Morrowind>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1830:
During the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway , British
Member of Parliament William Huskisson was struck and killed by the
locomotive engine Rocket.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_and_Manchester_Railway>
1831:
The John Bull, currently the oldest operable steam locomotive in the
world, ran for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy
Railroad.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bull_%28locomotive%29>
1835:
During the second voyage of HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin reached the
Galápagos Islands, where he further developed his theories of
evolution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal%C3%A1pagos_Islands>
1935:
Nazi Germany enacted the Nuremberg Laws, which deprived German Jews of
citizenship, and adopted a new national flag emblazoned with a
swastika.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws>
2008:
The financial crisis of 2007–2010: The global financial-services firm
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy while holding over US$600Â billion
in assets, the largest such filing in U.S. history.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_of_Lehman_Brothers>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
eclectic (adj):
1. Selecting a mixture of what appear to be best of various doctrines,
methods, or styles.
2. Unrelated and unspecialized; heterogeneous
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eclectic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly
in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.
--Agatha Christie
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie>
Interstate 15 in Arizona is part of Interstate 15 (I-15), a
transcontinental Interstate Highway from San Diego, California, to the
Canadian border. The highway segment passes through Mohave County in
the far northwest corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. Despite its
length of 29.43Â miles (47.36 km) and isolation from the rest of the
state in the remote Arizona Strip, it is notable for the scenic section
through the Virgin River Gorge. The highway heads in a northeasterly
direction from the Nevada border northeast of Mesquite, Nevada, to the
Utah border southwest of St. George, Utah. The southern portion of the
routing of I-15 was built close to the alignment of the old U.S. Route
91, but the northern section through the Virgin River Gorge was built
along an alignment that previously had no road. The southern section of
the highway was complete and opened in the early 1960s, while the
section through the gorge did not open to traffic until 1973. When it
opened, the portion of I-15 through the Virgin River Gorge was the most
expensive section of rural Interstate per mile.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_15_in_Arizona>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1759:
Seven Years' War: British forces defeated the French at the Battle of
the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City, New France, though General
James Wolfe was mortally wounded .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Plains_of_Abraham>
1814:
War of 1812: Fort McHenry in Baltimore's Inner Harbor was attacked by
British forces during the Battle of Baltimore, later inspiring Francis
Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner," which later became the
national anthem of the United States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_McHenry>
1848:
American railroad worker Phineas Gage survived an accident in which a
large iron rod was driven completely through his head and destroyed
areas of his brain's frontal lobes.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage>
1964:
South Vietnamese Generals Lam Van Phat and Duong Van Duc staged a coup
attempt after junta leader Nguyen Khanh demoted them.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_1964_South_Vietnamese_coup_attempt>
1993:
After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, PLO leader Yasser Arafat
and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin formally signed the Oslo Peace
Accords.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords>
2007:
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, setting out the individual and collective
rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to culture,
identity, language, employment, health, education and other issues.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_on_the_Rights_of_Indigenous_Peoples>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
corkscrew (v):
1. To wind or twist in the path of a corkscrew; to move with much
horizontal and vertical shifting.
2. To extract information or consent from someone
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/corkscrew>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent,
And what to those we give, to Jove is lent.
--Alexander Pope
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Pope>
Roy of the Rovers is a British comic strip about the life and exploits
of a fictional footballer named Roy Race, who played for Melchester
Rovers. The strip first appeared in the Tiger in 1954, before giving
its name to a weekly (and later monthly) comic magazine, published by
IPC and Fleetway from 1976 until 1995, in which it was the main
feature. The weekly strip ran until 1993, following Roy's playing
career until its conclusion after he lost his left foot in a helicopter
crash. When the monthly comic was launched later that year, the focus
switched to Roy's son, Rocky, who also played for Melchester. This
publication folded after only 19 issues. The adventures of the Race
family were subsequently featured from 1997 until May 2001 in the
monthly Match of the Day football magazine, in which father and son
were reunited as manager and player respectively. Football-themed
stories were a staple of British comics from the 1950s onwards, and Roy
of the Rovers was one of the most popular. To keep the strip exciting,
Melchester was almost every year either competing for major honours or
struggling against relegation to a lower division. The strip followed
the structure of the football season, thus there were several months
each year when there was no football.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_of_the_Rovers>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1297:
First War of Scottish Independence: The Scots defeated English troops
at the Battle of Stirling Bridge on the River Forth near Stirling.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stirling_Bridge>
1709:
An allied British-Dutch-Austrian force defeated the French at the
Battle of Malplaquet, one of the bloodiest battles of the War of the
Spanish Succession.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Malplaquet>
1789:
U.S. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, co-writer of the Federalist
Papers, became the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton>
1945:
The Japanese-run camp at Batu Lintang, Sarawak in Borneo was liberated
by the Australian 9th Division, averting the planned massacre of its
2,000-plus Allied POWs and civilian internees by four days.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Lintang_camp>
1992:
The eye of Hurricane Iniki, the most powerful hurricane to strike the
state of Hawaii and the Hawaiian Islands in recorded history, passed
directly over the island of Kauai, killing six people and causing
around USD$1.8 billion dollars in damage.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Iniki>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
masochism (n):
The enjoyment of receiving pain
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/masochism>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
On September 11, 2001, the world fractured. It's beyond my skill as a
writer to capture that day, and the days that would follow — the
planes, like specters, vanishing into steel and glass; the slow-motion
cascade of the towers crumbling into themselves; the ash-covered
figures wandering the streets; the anguish and the fear. Nor do I
pretend to understand the stark nihilism that drove the terrorists that
day and that drives their brethren still. My powers of empathy, my
ability to reach into another's heart, cannot penetrate the blank
stares of those who would murder innocents with abstract, serene
satisfaction.
--Barack Obama
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barack_Obama>