The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from
February 1988 to May 1994, in the small ethnic enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority
ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia
against the Republic of Azerbaijan. As the war progressed, Armenia and
Azerbaijan, both former Soviet Republics, became enveloped in a
protracted, undeclared war in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as
Azerbaijan attempted to curb a secessionist movement in
Nagorno-Karabakh. The enclave's parliament had voted in favor of
uniting itself with Armenia and a referendum was held with the vast
majority of the Karabakh population voting in favor of independence.
The demand to unify with Armenia, which proliferated in the late 1980s,
began in a relatively peaceful manner; however, in the following
months, as the Soviet Union's disintegration neared, it gradually grew
into an increasingly violent conflict between the two ethnic groups,
resulting in claims of ethnic cleansing by all sides. Full-scale
fighting erupted in the late winter of 1992. By the end of the war in
1994, the Armenians were in full control of most of the enclave and
also held and currently control approximately 9% of Azerbaijan's
territory outside the enclave. A Russian-brokered ceasefire was signed
in May 1994 and peace talks, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, have
been held ever since by Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh_War>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
216 BC:
Second Punic War: Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal defeated a
numerically superior Roman army, near the town of Cannae in Apulia in
southeast Italy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae>
1870:
Tower Subway, one of the world's first underground tube railways,
opened beneath the River Thames in London.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Subway>
1903:
In present-day Republic of Macedonia and Greece, the Internal
Macedonian Revolutionary Organization started the Ilinden Uprising
against the Ottoman Empire .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilinden-Preobrazhenie_Uprising>
1980:
A terrorist bomb exploded at the Central Station of Bologna, Italy,
killing 85 people and wounding more than 200.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_massacre>
1989:
The Indian Peace Keeping Force began killing 64 minority Sri Lankan
Tamil civilians over a two-day period in Valvettiturai, Sri Lanka.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Valvettiturai_massacre>
1990:
Iraq invaded Kuwait, overrunning the Kuwaiti military within two days,
and eventually sparking the outbreak of the Gulf War seven months
later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Kuwait>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
akimbo (adj):
With a crook or bend; with the hand on the hip and elbow turned outward
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/akimbo>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create, among its
citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that
the safety is always necessarily an illusion. Artists are here to
disturb the peace.
--James Baldwin
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Baldwin>
Don Tallon (1916–1984) was an Australian cricketer who played 21 Test
matches as a wicket-keeper between 1946 and 1953. He was widely
regarded by his contemporaries as Australia's finest ever wicket-keeper
and one of the best in Test history, with an understated style, an
ability to anticipate the flight, length and spin of the ball and an
efficient stumping technique. Tallon toured England as part of Don
Bradman's Invincibles of 1948 and was recognised as one of the Wisden
Cricketers of the Year in 1949 for his performances during that season.
During his Test career, Tallon made 58 dismissals comprising 50
catches and 8 stumpings. His early cricket was played in Bundaberg
where he was selected to represent Queensland Country against the
England cricket team during the infamous Bodyline tour. Following the
Second World War and the retirement or unavailability of other
candidates, he was finally given an opportunity to play Test cricket,
making his debut against New Zealand in 1946 aged 30. Following the
Invincibles tour, poor health dogged Tallon, causing him to miss the
1949–50 tour of South Africa. He retired from first-class cricket in
1953 and returned to Bundaberg, assisting his brother in running a
corner store. He died in Bundaberg aged 68.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Tallon>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1774:
British scientist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen gas,
corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish
chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/oxygen>
1834:
Slavery was officially abolished in the majority of the British Empire
as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833>
1927:
In the Nanchang Uprising, the first major engagement in the Chinese
Civil War, Communist forces seized control over the entire city of
Nanchang from the Kuomintang.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanchang_Uprising>
1944:
World War II: The Polish Home Army began the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw
against the Nazi occupation of Poland, a rebellion that lasted 63 days
until it was quelled by the Germans.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprising>
1981:
The American cable television network MTV made its debut with the music
video for the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sphericon (n):
(geometry) A solid constructed by slicing a 90-degree bicone through a
plane containing both apices, rotating one half by 90 degrees, and
reconnecting the two halves
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sphericon>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each
event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but
still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from
behind the unreasoning mask.
--Herman Melville
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herman_Melville>
Forest Park is a municipal and public park in the Tualatin Mountains
west of downtown Portland, Oregon. Stretching for more than 8Â miles
(13Â km) on hillsides overlooking the Willamette River, it is one of the
largest urban forest reserves in the United States. The park, a major
component of a regional system of parks and trails, covers more than
5,100Â acres (21Â km2) of mostly second-growth forest with a few patches
of old growth. About 70Â miles (110Â km) of recreational trails,
including the Wildwood Trail segment of the city's 40 Mile Loop system,
crisscross the park. As early as the 1860s civic leaders sought to
create a natural preserve in the woods near Portland. Their efforts led
to the creation of a municipal park commission that in 1903 hired the
Olmsted Brothers landscape architectural firm to develop a plan for
Portland's parks. More than 112Â bird species and 62Â mammal species
frequent the park and its wide variety of trees and shade-loving
plants. Many small tributaries of the Willamette River flow northeast
through the woods to pipes or culverts under U.S. Route 30 at the edge
of the park. Threats to the park include overuse, urban traffic,
encroaching development, invasive plants, and lack of maintenance
money. Occasional serious crimes and more frequent minor crimes have
occurred in the park.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Park_%28Portland%2C_Oregon%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1667:
The Second Anglo-Dutch War between England and the United Provinces
ended with the signing of the Treaty of Breda in the Dutch city of
Breda.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Anglo-Dutch_War>
1703:
English writer Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for seditious libel
after publishing a pamphlet politically satirising the High Church
Tories.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Defoe>
1941:
The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring
orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to settle "the final solution of
the Jewish question".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Solution>
1999:
NASA's Lunar Prospector was deliberately crashed into the Shoemaker
crater near the moon's south pole in an unsuccessful attempt to detect
the presence of water
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Prospector>
2006:
Following intestinal surgery, Fidel Castro provisionally transferred
the duties of the Cuban presidency to his brother Raúl.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006%E2%80%932008_Cuban_transfer_of_presidenti…>
2007:
The Troubles: Operation Banner, the name for the British armed forces'
operation in Northern Ireland, ended after 38 years with a mlitary
stalemate and ceasefire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Banner>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
zilch (n):
Nothing; zero
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/zilch>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The future of humanity is uncertain, even in the most prosperous
countries, and the quality of life deteriorates; and yet I believe that
what is being discovered about the infinitely large and infinitely
small is sufficient to absolve this end of the century and millennium.
What a very few are acquiring in knowledge of the physical world will
perhaps cause this period not to be judged as a pure return of
barbarism.
--Primo Levi
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Primo_Levi>
Augusta, Lady Gregory (1852–1932) was an Irish dramatist and
folklorist. With William Butler Yeats and others, she co-founded the
Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short
works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of books of
retellings of stories taken from Irish mythology. Born into a class
that identified closely with British rule, her conversion to cultural
nationalism, as evidenced by her writings, was emblematic of many of
the changes to occur in Ireland during her lifetime. Lady Gregory is
mainly remembered for her work behind Irish Literary Revival. Her home
at Coole Park, County Galway served as an important meeting place for
leading Revival figures, and her early work as a member of the board of
the Abbey was at least as important for the theatre's development as
her creative writings. Lady Gregory's motto was taken from Aristotle:
"To think like a wise man, but to express oneself like the common
people."
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta%2C_Lady_Gregory>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1756:
Architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli presented the Catherine Palace, a Rococo
palace in Tsarskoye Selo, to Empress Elizabeth of Russia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Palace>
1825:
Malden Island , now one of Kiribati's Line Islands, was discovered.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malden_Island>
1864:
American Civil War: Union forces failed to break Confederate lines by
exploding a large mine under their trenches at the Battle of the Crater
in Petersburg, Virginia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater>
1930:
Uruguay defeated Argentina, 4–2, in front of their home crowd at
Estadio Centenario in Montevideo to win the first Football World Cup.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_FIFA_World_Cup>
1965:
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act into
law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid to provide federal health
insurance for the elderly and for low income families, respectively.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_%28United_States%29>
2006:
Lebanon War: The Israeli Air Force attacked a three-story building near
the South Lebanese village of Qana, killing at least 28 civilians,
including 16 children.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qana_airstrike>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
fecund (adj):
1. Highly fertile; able to produce offspring.
2. (figuratively) Leading to new ideas or innovation
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fecund>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I don't know you,
And you don't know me.
It is this that brings us together.
--Kate Bush
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kate_Bush>
243 Ida is an asteroid in the Koronis family of the main belt. It was
discovered on 29 September 1884 by Johann Palisa and named after a
nymph from Greek mythology. Later telescopic observations categorized
Ida as an S-type asteroid, the most populous type in the inner asteroid
belt. On 28 August 1993, Ida was visited by the spacecraft Galileo,
bound for Jupiter. It was the second asteroid to be visited by a
spacecraft and the first found to possess a satellite. Like all
main-belt asteroids, Ida's orbit lies between the planets Mars and
Jupiter. Its orbital period is 4.84 years, and its rotation period is
4.63 hours. Ida has an average diameter of 31.4Â km (19.5Â mi). It is
irregularly shaped and elongated, and apparently composed of two large
objects connected together in a shape reminiscent of a croissant. Its
surface is one of the most heavily cratered in the Solar System,
featuring a wide variety of crater sizes and ages. Ida's moon, Dactyl,
was discovered by mission member Ann Harch in images returned from
Galileo. It was named after creatures which inhabited Mount Ida in
Greek mythology. Data returned from the flyby pointed to S-type
asteroids as the source for the ordinary chondrite meteorites, the most
common type found on the Earth's surface.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/243_Ida>
_______________________________
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>
1858:
Japan reluctantly signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, an Unequal
Treaty giving the United States various commercial and diplomatic
privileges.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Amity_and_Commerce_%28United_States-…>
1947:
ENIAC , the world's first general-purpose electronic digital computer,
was turned on in its new home at the Ballistic Research Laboratory at
Aberdeen Proving Grounds, remaining in continuous operation until
October 2 1955.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC>
1958:
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and
Space Act into law, establishing a new federal non-military space
agency known as NASA.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA>
1981:
A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watched
Charles, Prince of Wales, marry Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in
London.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles%2C_Prince_of_Wales>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bistro (n):
1. A small European-style restaurant.
2. A small bar
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bistro>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of the United States
that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the
benefit of all mankind.
--NASA
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/NASA>
The hippocampus is a major component of the brains of humans and other
mammals. It belongs to the limbic system and plays important roles in
long term memory and spatial navigation. Like the cerebral cortex, with
which it is closely associated, it is a paired structure, with
mirror-image halves in the left and right sides of the brain. In humans
and other primates, the hippocampus is located inside the medial
temporal lobe, beneath the cortical surface. In rodents, the
hippocampus has been studied extensively as part of the brain system
responsible for spatial memory and navigation. Many neurons in the rat
and mouse hippocampus respond as place cells: that is, they fire bursts
of action potentials when the animal passes through a specific part of
its environment. Because of its densely packed layers of neurons, the
hippocampus has frequently been used as a model system for studying
neurophysiology. The form of neural plasticity known as long term
potentiation (LTP) was first discovered to occur in the hippocampus and
has often been studied in this structure. LTP is widely believed to be
one of the main neural mechanisms by which memory is stored in the
brain.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1809:
Peninsular War: French forces under Joseph Bonaparte suffered 7,270
casualties while Sir Arthur Wellesley's Anglo-Spanish army had 6,700 at
an inconclusive battle in Talavera, Spain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Talavera>
1942:
World War II: Intending to increase Soviet morale and patriotism,
Joseph Stalin issued Order No. 227, ordering troops "Not a step back!"
(not to retreat) without an order or be subject to a military tribunal.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_No._227>
1976:
An earthquake measuring at least 8.2 on the Richter magnitude scale,
one of the deadliest in history, flattened Tangshan, China, killing at
least 240,000 people.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Tangshan_earthquake>
1990:
Alberto Fujimori took office as President of Peru, becoming the first
person of Japanese descent to be the head of government of a Latin
American nation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Fujimori>
2005:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army announced an end to its armed
campaign to overthrow British rule in Northern Ireland to create a
United Ireland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nostrify (v):
1. To nostrificate; to grant recognition to a degree from a foreign
university.
2. To adopt, accept, or include as part of one's own culture
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nostrify>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If I could only give three words of advice, they would be, "Tell the
Truth." If I got three more words, I'd add, "All the time."
--Randy Pausch
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Randy_Pausch>
Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901) was the 23rd President of the United
States, serving one term from 1889 to 1893. Harrison was born in North
Bend, Ohio, and at age 21 moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he
became a prominent state politician. During the American Civil War
Harrison served as a Brigadier General in the XXI Corps of the Army of
the Cumberland. After the war he unsuccessfully ran for the
governorship of Indiana, but was later elected to the U.S. Senate from
that state. Harrison, a Republican, was elected to the presidency in
1888, defeating the Democratic incumbent, Grover Cleveland. He is the
only president elected from the state of Indiana. His presidential
administration is best known for its economic legislation, including
the McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Antitrust Act, and for annual
federal spending that reached one billion dollars for the first time.
Democrats attacked the "Billion Dollar Congress", and used the issue,
along with the growing unpopularity of the high tariff, to defeat the
Republicans, both in the 1890 mid-term elections and in Harrison's bid
for re-election in 1892.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Harrison>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1411:
Forces of Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles fought an army commanded
by Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar at the Battle of Harlaw near
Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Harlaw>
1567:
Mary Queen of Scots was forced to abdicate the Scottish throne and was
replaced by her one-year-old son James.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_I_of_Scotland>
1967:
During a speech in Montreal, French President Charles de Gaulle
declared "Long live free Quebec!", a statement that was interpreted as
support for Quebec independence from Canada.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vive_le_Qu%C3%A9bec_libre>
1977:
The Libyan–Egyptian War, a short border war between Libya and Egypt
over political conflicts, ended after the combatants agreed to a
ceasefire organized by Algeria.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan%E2%80%93Egyptian_War>
2001:
Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a
child, was sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, becoming one of the
first monarchs in history to regain political power through a
democratic election to a different office.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_Saxe-Coburg-Gotha>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
lahar (n):
A volcanic mudflow
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lahar>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I am content to
observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape from it,
and with this I begin and end.
--John Newton
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Newton>
Alien vs. Predator is a science fiction film released in 2004 by 20th
Century Fox. It is an adaptation of a crossover franchise between the
titular extraterrestrials from the Alien and Predator series, a concept
which originated in a 1989 comic book. Set in 2004, Alien vs. Predator
follows a group of paleontologists, archaeologists, and others
assembled by billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen) for
an expedition near the Antarctic after discovering a mysterious heat
signal. Hoping to claim the find for himself, Weyland and the group
discover a pyramid below the surface of a whaling station.
Hieroglyphics and sculptures reveal that the pyramid is a hunting
ground for Predators who kill Aliens as a rite of passage. The humans
are caught in the middle of a battle between the two species and
attempt to prevent the Aliens from reaching the surface. Released in
North America on August 13, 2004, Alien vs. Predator received mostly
negative reviews from film critics. Some praised the special effects
and set designs, while others dismissed the film for its "wooden
dialogue" and "cardboard characters". Nevertheless, Alien vs. Predator
became the most commercially successful film in the franchises,
grossing a total of $172 million. The film's success led to a sequel in
2007 titled Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_vs._Predator_%28film%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
After a siege of 18 weeks, French troops in Mainz surrendered to
Prussian forces, effectively ending the Republic of Mainz, the first
democratic state on the current German territory.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Mainz>
1881:
The International Federation of Gymnastics, the world's oldest
international sport federation, was founded in Liège, Belgium.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9d%C3%A9ration_Internationale_de_Gymnast…>
1983:
Air Canada Flight 143 crash-landed 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>
1984:
Vanessa Williams resigned as Miss America in scandal after Penthouse
magazine published nude photos of her that were taken two years prior.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_L._Williams>
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-Bopp>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
manitou (n):
A god or spirit as the object of religious awe or ritual among some
American Indians
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/manitou>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have
acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the
silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it
possible for evil to triumph.
--Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie_I_of_Ethiopia>