Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish
Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within
the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. The sculpture and AT&T
Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. Constructed between 2004 and 2006,
the sculpture is nicknamed "The Bean" because of its legume-like shape.
Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly
polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33 feet by 66 feet by 42
feet (10 m × 20 m × 13 m), and weighs 110 short tons (99.8 t; 98.2 long
tons). Kapoor's design was inspired by liquid mercury and the
sculpture's surface reflects and distorts the city's skyline. Visitors
are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate's 12-foot (3.7 m) high
arch. On the underside is the omphalos, a concave chamber that warps
and multiplies reflections. The sculpture builds upon many of Kapoor's
artistic themes, although many tourists simply view the sculpture and
its unique reflective properties as a photo-taking opportunity.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Gate>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
474:
As the seven-year old Leo II was deemed too young to rule, his father
Zeno was crowned as the co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_%28emperor%29>
1825:
After no presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes,
the United States House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams
President of the United States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election%2C_1824>
1895:
William G. Morgan, a YMCA physical education director in Holyoke,
Massachusetts, USA, invented a game called Mintonette, which evolved
into volleyball .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/volleyball>
1920:
The Spitsbergen Treaty was signed, recognizing Norwegian sovereignty
over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, but all signatories were also
given equal rights to engage in commercial activities on the islands.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitsbergen_Treaty>
1943:
World War II: Allied forces declared Guadalcanal secure, ending the
Guadalcanal Campaign as a significant strategic victory for Allied
forces fighting Japan in the Pacific War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalcanal_Campaign>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
disquietude (n):
1. A state of disquiet, uneasiness, or anxiety.
2. A fear or an instance of uneasiness
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disquietude>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be
beautiful and happy without losing the power of living on earth. I will
not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind.
And it is just this faith of mine that they laugh at. But how can I
help believing it? I have seen the truth — it is not as though I had
invented it with my mind, I have seen it, seen it, and the living image
of it has filled my soul for ever.
--Fyodor Dostoevsky
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoevsky>
The Roman–Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between states of the
Greco-Roman world and two successive Iranian empires. Contact between
Parthia and the Roman Republic began in 92 BC; wars began under the
late Republic, and continued through the Roman and Sassanid empires.
Although warfare between the Romans and the Iranians lasted for seven
centuries, the frontier remained largely stable. Neither side had the
logistical strength or manpower to maintain such lengthy campaigns so
far from their borders, and thus neither could advance too far without
risking stretching their frontiers too thin. Both sides did make
conquests beyond the border, but the balance was almost always restored
in time. The resources expended during the Roman–Persian Wars
ultimately proved catastrophic for both empires. The prolonged and
escalating warfare of the sixth and seventh centuries left them
exhausted and vulnerable in the face of the sudden emergence and
expansion of the Caliphate, whose forces invaded both empires only a
few years after the end of the last Roman–Persian war. Arab Muslim
armies swiftly conquered the entire Sassanid Empire, and deprived the
Eastern Roman Empire of its territories in the Levant, the Caucasus,
Egypt, and the rest of North Africa. Over the following centuries, most
of the Byzantine Empire came under Muslim rule.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman%E2%80%93Persian_Wars>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1587:
Mary I, Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay Castle for her
involvement in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Elizabeth I of
England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_I_of_Scotland>
1879:
At a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute, engineer and inventor
Sandford Fleming first proposed the adoption of worldwide standard time
zones based on a single universal world time.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandford_Fleming>
1904:
The Russo-Japanese War began with a surprise torpedo attack by the
Japanese on Russian ships near present-day Lüshunkou, China.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War>
1910:
Newspaper man and magazine publisher William D. Boyce established the
Boy Scouts of America, expanding the Scout Movement into the United
States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Boyce>
1915:
Film director D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation was released,
becoming one of the most influential and controversial films in the
history of American cinema.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation>
1969:
The Allende meteorite, the largest carbonaceous chondrite ever found on
Earth, fell near Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allende_meteorite>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
supplant (v):
1. To take the place of; to replace, to supersede.
2. To uproot, to remove violently
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/supplant>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man's constitution is so peculiar that his health is purely a negative
matter. No sooner is the rage of hunger appeased than it becomes
difficult to comprehend the meaning of starvation. It is only when you
suffer that you really understand.
--Jules Verne
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jules_Verne>
Carucage was a medieval English land tax introduced by King Richard I
in 1194, based on the size of the estate owned by the taxpayer. It was
a replacement for the danegeld, last imposed in 1162, which had become
difficult to collect because of an increasing number of exemptions.
Carucage was levied just six times: by Richard in 1194 and 1198; John,
his brother and successor, in 1200; and John's son, Henry III, in 1217,
1220, and 1224, after which it was replaced by taxes on income and
personal property. The taxable value of an estate was initially
assessed from the Domesday Survey, but other methods were later
employed, such as valuations based on the sworn testimony of neighbours
or on the number of plough-teams the taxpayer used. Carucage never
raised as much as other taxes, but nevertheless helped to fund several
projects dear to the kings' hearts. It paid the ransom for Richard's
release in 1194, after he was taken prisoner by Leopold V, Duke of
Austria; it covered the tax John had to pay Philip II of France in 1200
on land he inherited in that country; and it helped to finance Henry
III's military campaigns in England and on the European continent.
Carucage was an attempt to secure new sources of revenue to supplement
and increase royal income increase in a time when new demands were
being made on royal finances. Although derived from the older geld,
carucage was an experiment in revenue collection, but it was only
levied for specific purposes, rather than as a regularly assessed tax.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carucage>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1301:
The title of Prince of Wales was granted for the first time to an heir
apparent to the English throne, Edward of Carnarvon.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_II_of_England>
1795:
The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting the
ability of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to sue U.S. states in
federal courts, was ratified in order to overrule the U.S. Supreme
Court decision in Chisholm v. Georgia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Consti…>
1863:
In New Zealand's worst maritime tragedy, HMS Orpheus of the British
Royal Navy sank off the coast of Auckland, killing 189 crew out of the
ship's complement of 259.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Orpheus_%281860%29>
1907:
Over 3,000 women trudged through the cold and the rutty streets of
London in the Mud March, the first large procession organized by the
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, to advocate for women's
suffrage.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_March_%28Suffragists%29>
2009:
A series of 400 individual bushfires ignited across the Australian
state of Victoria on Black Saturday, eventually resulting in 173 total
deaths, the highest ever loss of life from a bushfire in Australia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_bushfires>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hoity-toitily (adv):
In a pompous or snobbish manner
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hoity-toitily>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of
it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who
read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of
thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the
formation of the first link on one memorable day.
--Charles Dickens
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens>
Ghosts I–IV is the seventh studio release by American industrial rock
act Nine Inch Nails, released on March 2, 2008. The team behind the
project included Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor (pictured),
studio-collaborators Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder, and instrumental
contributions from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew, and Brian
Viglione. Reznor described the music of Ghosts as "a soundtrack for
daydreams", a sentiment echoed by many critics who compared it with the
work of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp. The songs are unnamed, and are
identified only by their track listing, position, and album art. The
album is the first independent release from Nine Inch Nails following
its announcement that it had severed its ties with Interscope Records.
Initially intended to be a five-track EP, the final release consists of
four nine-track instrumental EPs, totaling 36 tracks. The album was
released under a Creative Commons license, and in a variety of
differing packages at various price points, including a US$300
"Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition". Ghosts was initially released digitally
on the official Nine Inch Nails website without any prior advertisement
or promotion. Critical reception of the album has been generally
favorable, with its unorthodox release attracting positive comments
from many critics. Much coverage of Ghosts I–IV has compared it to the
digital-download releases of Radiohead's In Rainbows as well as Saul
Williams' The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!. The
album was nominated for two Grammy Awards, in the categories "Best Rock
Instrumental Performance" and "Best Box Set or Limited Edition
Package".
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghosts_I%E2%80%93IV>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1819:
British official Stamford Raffles signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein
Shah of Johor, establishing Singapore as a new trading post for the
British East India Company.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_of_modern_Singapore>
1840:
The British and the Māori signed the Treaty of Waitangi, considered as
the founding document of New Zealand.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi>
1862:
Union forces earned one of their first important victories in the
American Civil War at the Battle of Fort Henry in western Tennessee.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Henry>
1934:
In an attempted coup d'état against the French Third Republic, far
right leagues demonstrated on the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6_February_1934_crisis>
1952:
Elizabeth II ascended to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand and three other Commonwealth countries upon the
death of her father, George VI.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II_of_the_United_Kingdom>
1958:
British European Airways Flight 609, carrying the Manchester United
football club, a number of their fans and journalists covering the
team, crashed while attempting to take off from Munich-Riem Airport in
Munich, West Germany, killing eight players and 15 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_air_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
lament (n):
1. An expression of grief, suffering, or sadness.
2. A song expressing grief
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lament>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
One love,
One heart,
Let's get together
And feel alright.
--Bob Marley
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bob_Marley>
GRB 970508 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on May 8, 1997, at
21:42 UTC. A gamma-ray burst is a highly luminous flash of gamma rays,
the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, which is often
followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitting at longer wavelengths
(X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio). GRB 970508 was
detected by the Gamma Ray Burst Monitor on the Italian–Dutch X-ray
astronomy satellite BeppoSAX. Astronomer Mark Metzger determined that
GRB 970508 occurred at least 6 billion light years from Earth; this was
the first measurement of the distance to a gamma-ray burst. Until this
burst, astronomers had not reached a consensus regarding how far away
GRBs occur from Earth. Some supported the idea that GRBs occur within
the Milky Way, but are visibly faint because they are not highly
energetic. Others concluded that GRBs occur in other galaxies at
cosmological distances and are extremely energetic. Although the
possibility of multiple types of GRBs meant that the two theories were
not mutually exclusive, the distance measurement unequivocally placed
the source of the GRB outside the Milky Way, effectively ending the
debate. GRB 970508 was also the first burst with an observed radio
frequency afterglow.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRB_970508>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1782:
Running out of medical supplies to combat the disease scurvy, British
troops surrendered to an allied Franco-Spanish force, ending the
latter's invasion of the Island of Minorca in the Mediterranean Sea.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Minorca%2C_1781>
1783:
The first of five strong earthquakes hit the region of Calabria in
present-day southern Italy, killing more than 32,000 people over a
period of nearly two months.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1783_Calabrian_earthquakes>
1862:
Domnitor Alexander John Cuza merged his two principalities, Wallachia
and Moldavia, to form the Danubian Principalities.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_John_Cuza>
1885:
Leopold II of Belgium established the Congo Free State as his personal
possession in Africa through his organization International African
Association and his private army, the Force Publique.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State>
1917:
The U.S. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917 with an
overwhelming majority, overriding U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's veto,
banning, among others, immigration from nearly all of South and
Southeast Asia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1917>
1958:
A Mark 15 nuclear bomb now known as the Tybee Bomb disappeared off the
shores of Tybee Island, Georgia, U.S. after it was jettisoned during a
practice exercise when the bomber carrying it collided in midair with a
fighter plane.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tybee_Island_B-47_crash>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
affront (v):
1. To insult intentionally, especially openly; to offend purposefully.
2. To meet defiantly; to confront.
3. (obsolete) To meet or encounter
face to face
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/affront>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions. All
change is the result of a change in the contemporary state of mind.
Don't be afraid of being out of tune with your environment, and above
all pray God that you are not afraid to live, to live hard and fast. To
my way of thinking it is not the years in your life but the life in
your years that count in the long run. You'll have more fun, you'll do
more and you'll get more, you'll give more satisfaction the more you
know, the more you have worked, and the more you have lived. For yours
is a great adventure at a stirring time in the annals of men.
--Adlai Stevenson
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson>
Wii Sports is a sports game developed and produced by Nintendo as a
launch title for the Wii video game console. It was first released in
North America along with the Wii on November 19, 2006, and was released
in Japan, Australia, and Europe the following month. The game is
included as a pack-in game with the Wii console in all territories
except Japan, making it the first game included with the launch of a
Nintendo system since Mario's Tennis for the Virtual Boy in 1995. Wii
Sports is part of the Touch! Generations brand. The game is a
collection of five sports simulations, designed to demonstrate the
motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote to new players. The five
sports included are tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, and boxing.
Players use the Wii Remote to mimic actions performed in real life
sports, such as swinging a tennis racket. The rules for each game are
simplified to make them more accessible to new players. The game also
features training and fitness modes that monitor player progress in the
sports. Overall, Wii Sports has been well received by critics and
received awards from the gaming press and entertainment community. It
is the best-selling video game of all time, having outsold the previous
best-seller, Super Mario Bros., in 2009. As of December, 31, 2009,
60.67 million copies sold worldwide. Wii Sports has been featured on
television in Wii commercials, news reports, and other programming. It
was followed by a sequel, Wii Sports Resort, in 2009.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Sports>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
960:
Emperor Taizu began his reign in China, initiating the Song Dynasty
period that would eventually last for more than three centuries.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_Dynasty>
1703:
Forty-six of the Forty-Seven Ronin committed seppuku (ritual suicide)
in Edo, present-day Tokyo, as recompense for avenging the death of
their master, Daimyo of Akō Asano Naganori.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty-Seven_Ronin>
1859:
German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovered the Codex
Sinaiticus, a 4th century uncial manuscript of the Greek Bible, in
Saint Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus>
1945:
World War II: Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph
Stalin (pictured left-to-right) met at the Yalta Conference in Yalta on
the Crimean Peninsula to discuss Europe's postwar reorganization.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_Conference>
1957:
USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, logged her 60,000th
nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional Nautilus
described in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nautilus_%28SSN-571%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sanctimonious (adj):
1. Making a show of being morally better than others, especially
hypocritically pious.
2. (archaic) Holy, devout
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sanctimonious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt
pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working,
dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain,
seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life. This
is our modern danger — one of the waxen wings of flight. It may cause
our civilization to fall unless we act quickly to counteract it, unless
we realize that human character is more important than efficiency, that
education consists of more than the mere accumulation of knowledge.
--Charles Lindbergh
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh>
The Marshalsea was a prison on the south bank of the River Thames in
Southwark, now part of London. From at least 1329 until it closed in
1842, it housed men under court martial for crimes at sea, including
"unnatural crimes", political figures and intellectuals accused of
sedition or other inappropriate behaviour, and—most famously—London's
debtors, the length of their stay determined largely by the whim of
their creditors. Run privately for profit, as were all prisons in
England until the 19th century, the Marshalsea looked like an Oxbridge
college and functioned largely as an extortion racket. For prisoners
who could afford the fees, it came with access to a bar, shop, and
restaurant, and the crucial privilege of being allowed to leave the
prison during the day, which meant debtors could earn money to pay off
their creditors. Everyone else was crammed into one of nine small rooms
with dozens of others, possibly for decades for the most modest of
debts, which increased as unpaid prison fees accumulated. The prison
became known around the world during the 19th century through the
writings of the English novelist Charles Dickens, whose father was sent
there in 1824 for a debt of £40 and 10 shillings. Much of it was
demolished in the winter of 1849, though some of its buildings were
used into the 20th century. "It is gone now," Dickens wrote, "and the
world is none the worse without it."
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshalsea>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1488:
Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias landed in Mossel Bay, having sailed
around the Cape of Good Hope and the southern tip of Africa.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossel_Bay>
1509:
Turkish–Portuguese War: Portugal defeated a joint fleet of Mamlûk Burji
Sultanate of Egypt, Ottoman Empire, the Zamorin of Calicut and the
Sultan of Gujarat at the Battle of Diu off the coast of Diu, India.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Diu_%281509%29>
1787:
Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising in central and western
Massachusetts, was crushed, an event that energized calls in the United
States for a stronger government than what was established by the
Articles of Confederation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays%27_Rebellion>
1959:
American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P.
"The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed when their plane crashed
shortly after taking off from Mason City Municipal Airport in Iowa.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died>
1966:
The Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 became the first space probe to land on
the Moon and transmit pictures from the lunar surface to Earth.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_9>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
imprecation (n):
1. The act of imprecating, or invoking evil upon someone; a prayer that
a curse or calamity may befall someone.
2. A curse
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/imprecation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The whole duty of man consists in being reasonable and just ... I am
reasonable because I know the difference between understanding and not
understanding and I am just because I have no opinion about things I
don’t understand.
--Gertrude Stein
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein>
"Bale Out" is a satirical dance remix by American composer Lucian
Piane, also known as RevoLucian, released on February 2, 2009, to
YouTube and MySpace. The piece utilizes audio from a July 2008 rant
made by actor Christian Bale on the set of Terminator Salvation.
Various other elements are used in the remix, including pulsating dance
track beats and clips of Barbra Streisand from a 2006 exchange with a
supporter of then-President George W. Bush, creating the impression of
Streisand arguing with Bale. The day after its release, the YouTube
page for the song had been viewed over 200,000 times, and over a
million times by February 5, 2009. The Associated Press called it a
"hypnotic dance track", and United Press International noted it was
"catchy", characterizing it as a "YouTube sensation". Gil Kaufman of
MTV.com described the piece as "a techno-ripping, demonic dance party".
TIME magazine's website called the track "hilarious", and Nine News
characterized it as a "raging online success". The director of
Terminator Salvation McG liked the remix and put a copy of it on his
iPod, and Bale said he had heard the remix and thought "they did a good
job".
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bale_Out>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1536:
An expedition to the New World led by Spanish conquistador Pedro de
Mendoza founded what is now Buenos Aires, Argentina.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires>
1848:
The Mexican–American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave 1.36 million km² (525,000 square miles)
of Mexican territory known as the Mexican Cession to the United States
in exchange for US$15 million.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Guadalupe_Hidalgo>
1922:
The novel Ulysses was first published in its entirety after this
material by author James Joyce first appeared in serialized parts in
the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December
1920, becoming one of the most important works of Modernist literature.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_%28novel%29>
1943:
World War II: The Soviet Red Army captured 91,000 tired and starving
German soldiers, ending the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest
battles in human history.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad>
1982:
The Syrian army bombarded the town of Hama in order to quell a revolt
by the Muslim Brotherhood, killing about 7,000–25,000 people.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hama_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
yomp (v):
To make a strenuous long-distance march
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yomp>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have
exhausted all other alternatives.
--Abba Eban
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abba_Eban>
Richard Gavin Reid (1879–1980) was a Canadian politician who served as
the sixth Premier of Alberta from 1934 to 1935. He was the last member
of the United Farmers of Alberta to hold the office, and that party's
defeat at the hands of the upstart Social Credit League in the 1935
election made him the shortest-serving Premier in Alberta history. When
Reid took office, Alberta was experiencing the Great Depression. Reid
took measures to ease Albertans' suffering, but believed that inducing
a full economic recovery was beyond the capacity of the provincial
government. In this climate, Alberta voters were attracted to the
economic theories of evangelical preacher William Aberhart, who
advocated a version of social credit. Despite Reid's claims that
Aberhart's proposals were economically and constitutionally unfeasible,
Social Credit routed the UFA in the 1935 election; Reid's party did not
retain a single seat.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gavin_Reid>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1790:
The Supreme Court of the United States first convened at the Merchants'
Exchange Building in New York City.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States>
1884:
The first fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary, a 352-page volume
that covered words from A to Ant, was published.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary>
1896:
Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème premiered at the Teatro Regio in
Turin, Italy, eventually becoming part of the standard Italian opera
repertory and one of the most frequently performed operas
internationally.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_boh%C3%A8me>
1946:
As a result of a compromise between the major powers within the United
Nations, Norwegian politician Trygve Lie was elected as the first UN
Secretary-General.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trygve_Lie>
1957:
Invented by German mechanical engineer Felix Wankel, the first working
prototype of the Wankel rotary engine ran for the first time at the
research and development department of German manufacturer NSU
Motorenwerke AG.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wankel_engine>
2003:
The NASA Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during reentry
into the Earth's atmosphere on its 28th and final mission, killing all
seven crew members.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
contemptuously (adv):
In a disrespectful or discourteous manner; condescendingly
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/contemptuously>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
--Langston Hughes
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes>
Fantastic Universe was a U.S. science fiction magazine which began
publishing in the 1950s. It ran for 69 issues, from June 1953 to March
1960, under two different publishers. It was part of the explosion of
science fiction magazine publishing in the 1950s in the United States,
and was moderately successful, outlasting almost all the other
magazines of the period. The main editors were Leo Margulies
(1954–1956) and Hans Stefan Santesson (1956–1960); under Santesson's
tenure the quality declined somewhat, and the magazine became known for
printing much UFO-related material. A collection of stories from the
magazine, edited by Santesson, appeared in 1960 from Prentice-Hall,
titled The Fantastic Universe Omnibus.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Universe>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1747:
The London Lock Hospital, the first clinic specialising in the
treatment of venereal diseases, opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Lock_Hospital>
1862:
American telescope-maker and astronomer Alvan Graham Clark first
observed the faint white dwarf companion of Sirius , the brightest star
in the night sky.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius>
1961:
Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, Ham the Chimp became the first
hominid launched into outer space.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_the_Chimp>
1968:
Vietnam War: Forces of the Viet Cong and the Vietnam People's Army
launched the Tet Offensive to strike military and civilian command and
control centers throughout South Vietnam.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive>
2007:
Suspects were arrested in Birmingham, UK, accused of plotting to
kidnap, and eventually behead, a Muslim British soldier serving in
Iraq.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Plot_to_behead_a_British_Muslim_soldier>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sedition (n):
1. The organized incitement of rebellion or civil disorder against
authority or the state.
2. Insurrection or rebellion
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sedition>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A full-spectrum approach to human consciousness and behavior means that
men and women have available to them a spectrum of knowing — a spectrum
that includes, at the very least, the eye of flesh, the eye of mind,
and the eye of spirit.
--Ken Wilber
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber>