Jerusalem is Israel's capital, seat of government, and largest city,
both in terms of population and area, with 732,100 residents in an
area of 126 sq. km (49 sq. mi.). Located in the Judean Mountains
between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea, the city has a history
that goes back as far as the 4th millennium BCE. The walled area of
Jerusalem, which constituted the entire city until the 1860s, is now
called the Old City, and was added to the list of UNESCO World
Heritage Sites in 1982. The Old City is home to several sites of key
religious importance: the Temple Mount and its Western Wall for Jews,
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians, and the Dome of the
Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims. Modern Jerusalem has grown up
around the Old City, with its civic and cultural hub extending
westward toward the country's urban center in Gush Dan. Today,
Jerusalem remains a bone of contention in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict: Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem (captured in the 1967
Six-Day War) has been particularly controversial, as there are
Palestinians who view this part of the city as the capital of a future
Palestinian state. Thus, the status of a united Jerusalem as Israel's
"eternal capital" has not been recognized by the United Nations and
much of the international community.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1430:
Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc was captured at the Siege of
Compiègne.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Compiègne)
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 Eighty Years' War broke out when Dutch rebels led by Louis of
Nassau invaded Friesland in the Battle of Heiligerlee.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighty_Years'_War)
1873:
The North West Mounted Police was established to bring law and order
to and assert Canadian sovereignty over in the Northwest Territories.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Mounted_Police)
1934:
American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed by police and
killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_and_Clyde)
1945:
End of World War II in Europe: Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz was
captured and his Flensburg government was dissolved.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Dönitz)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
What I mean by the Muse is that unimpeded clearness of the intuitive
powers, which a perfectly truthful adherence to every admonition of
the higher instincts would bring to a finely organized human being. It
may appear as prophecy or as poesy. ... should these faculties have
free play, I believe they will open new, deeper and purer sources of
joyous inspiration than have as yet refreshed the earth. -- Margaret
Fuller
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Fuller)
Mayan languages are a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and
northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6
million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize.
The Mayan language family is one of the best documented and most
studied in the Americas. Modern Mayan languages descend from
Proto-Mayan, a language thought to have been spoken at least 5000
years ago; it has been partially reconstructed using the comparative
method. Mayan languages form part of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area,
an area of linguistic convergence developed throughout millennia of
interaction between the peoples of Mesoamerica. All Mayan languages
display the basic diagnostic traits of this linguistic area. During
the pre-Columbian era of Mesoamerican history, some Mayan languages
were written in the Maya hieroglyphic script. Its use was particularly
widespread during the Classic period of Maya civilization. The
surviving corpus of over 10,000 known individual Maya inscriptions on
buildings, monuments, pottery and bark-paper codices, combined with
the rich postcolonial literature in Mayan languages written in the
Latin alphabet, provides a basis for the modern understanding of
pre-Columbian history unparalleled in the Americas.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayan_languages
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1674:
John III Sobieski, elected by the szlachta, became the King of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_III_Sobieski)
1879:
War of the Pacific: Two Peruvian ironclads attempted to lift the
blockade of Iquique by Chilean battleships in the Battle of Iquique.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iquique)
1894:
The Manchester Ship Canal was officially opened, linking the city of
Manchester to the Irish Sea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Ship_Canal)
1927:
Aboard the Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindbergh completed the first
solo non-stop transatlantic flight.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh)
1998:
Indonesian President Suharto resigned, ending a 32-year reign.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suharto)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Life — a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an
indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a
touch of divinity to matter. -- Charles Lindbergh
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh)
Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in
Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and
Central Ohio residents as a non-sectarian institution, and is a member
of the Ohio Five — a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges.
Wesleyan has always admitted students irrespective of religion or race
and maintained that the university "is forever to be conducted on the
most liberal principles." In this capacity, Wesleyan has espoused
internationalism and community activism. The 200-acre site is 20 miles
(45 km) north of Columbus, Ohio. It includes the main academic and
residential campus, the Perkins Observatory, and the Kraus Wilderness
Preserve. In 2005, Wesleyan had the ninth highest percentage of
international students among liberal arts colleges for the twelfth
straight year. U.S. News & World Report ranked Wesleyan 95th among
U.S. liberal arts colleges in its 2007 edition. Notable alumni include
former U.S. Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks and Nobel Laureate
Frank Sherwood Rowland.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Wesleyan_University
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1268:
Baibars and his Mamluk forces captured Antioch, capital of the
crusader state, the Principality of Antioch.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baibars)
1896:
"Separate but equal": The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark
case Plessy v. Ferguson, upholding the legality of racial segregation
in public transportation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v._Ferguson)
1944:
World War II: Polish forces under Lieutenant General Władysław Anders
captured Monte Cassino and broke the Winter Line, a German defensive
line in Italy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Monte_Cassino)
1958:
The F-104 Starfighter, a supersonic interceptor aircraft, set a world
speed record of 1,404.19 mph (2,259.82 km/h).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-104_Starfighter)
1980:
Mount St. Helens erupted, killing 57 people in southern Washington
State and causing over a billion U.S. dollars in damages.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
The opposition of instinct and reason is mainly illusory. Instinct,
intuition, or insight is what first leads to the beliefs which
subsequent reason confirms or confutes; but the confirmation, where it
is possible, consists, in the last analysis, of agreement with other
beliefs no less instinctive. Reason is a harmonising, controlling
force rather than a creative one. Even in the most purely logical
realms, it is insight that first arrives at what is new. -- Bertrand
Russell
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell)
35 mm film is the basic film gauge most commonly used for both still
photography and motion pictures, and remains relatively unchanged
since its introduction in 1892 by William Dickson and Thomas Edison,
using film stock supplied by George Eastman. The photographic film is
cut into strips 1 3/8 inches or 35 mm wide — hence the name. The
standard negative pulldown is four perforations per frame along both
edges, which makes for exactly 16 frames per foot. A wide variety of
largely proprietary gauges were used by the numerous different camera
and projection systems independently invented around the late 19th
century and early 20th century, ranging from 13 mm to 75 mm. 35 mm was
eventually recognized as the international standard gauge in 1909, and
has by far remained the dominant film gauge for both image origination
and projection. Despite threats both from smaller and larger gauges,
and novel formats, its longevity is largely because its size allows
for a relatively good tradeoff between the cost of the film stock and
the quality of the images captured. Since the beginning of the 21st
century, the manufacturing of 35 mm motion picture film has been a
duopoly between Eastman Kodak and Fujifilm.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35_mm_film
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1590:
Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen of Scotland in the abbey church at
Holyrood Palace.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Denmark)
1792:
The New York Stock Exchange was formed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Stock_Exchange)
1865:
The International Telecommunication Union, the world's oldest
international organization, was founded as the International Telegraph
Union in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Telecommunication_Union)
1900:
Second Boer War: The Siege of Mafeking was lifted after 217 days.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Mafeking)
1943:
World War II: RAF Dam Busters successfully deployed bouncing bombs on
German dams in Operation Chastise.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._617_Squadron_RAF)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chastise)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
We are all, always, the desire not to die. This desire is as
immeasurable and varied as life's complexity, but at bottom this is
what it is: To continue to be, to be more and more, to develop and to
endure. All the force we have, all our energy and clearness of mind
serve to intensify themselves in one way or another. We intensify
ourselves with new impressions, new sensations, new ideas. We
endeavour to take what we do not have and to add it to ourselves.
Humanity is the desire for novelty founded upon the fear of death.
That is what it is. -- Henri Barbusse
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henri_Barbusse)
The cell nucleus is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in most
eukaryotic cells. It contains most of the cell's genetic material,
organized as multiple long linear DNA molecules in complex with a
large variety of proteins such as histones to form chromosomes. The
genes within these chromosomes make up the cell's nuclear genome. The
function of the nucleus is to maintain the integrity of these genes
and to control the activities of the cell by regulating gene
expression. The main structural elements of the nucleus are the
nuclear envelope, a double membrane that encloses the entire organelle
and keeps its contents separated from the cellular cytoplasm, and the
nuclear lamina, a meshwork within the nucleus that adds mechanical
support much like the cytoskeleton supports the cell as a whole.
Because the nuclear membrane is impermeable to most molecules, nuclear
pores are required to allow movement of molecules across the envelope.
Although the interior of the nucleus does not contain any
membrane-delineated bodies, its contents are not uniform, and a number
of subnuclear bodies exist, made up of unique proteins, RNA molecules,
and DNA conglomerates. The best known of these is the nucleolus, which
is mainly involved in assembly of ribosomes. After being produced in
the nucleolus, ribosomes are exported to the cytoplasm where they
translate mRNA. The nucleus was the first organelle to be discovered,
and was first described by Franz Bauer in 1802. It was later described
in more detail by Scottish botanist Robert Brown in 1831.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_nucleus
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1264:
King Henry III was captured in the Battle of Lewes, making Simon de
Montfort the de facto ruler of England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_III_of_England)
1607:
An expedition led by Christopher Newport established the Jamestown
Settlement in Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in
North America.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown_Settlement)
1796:
Edward Jenner began testing cowpox as a vaccine for protection against
smallpox.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner)
1948:
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Declaration of
Independence in Tel Aviv.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Independence_(Israel))
1973:
The NASA space station Skylab was launched from Cape Canaveral.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
I would like to be remembered as a man who had a wonderful time living
his life, and who had good friends, a fine family. I don't think I
could ask for anything more than that, actually. -- Frank Sinatra
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra)
Minnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It
is the 12th largest state in the U.S., and the
21st most populous, with just over five million residents
as of 2006. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the
Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the 32nd
state on May 11, 1858. While the state's residents are primarily white
and Northern European, substantial influxes of African, Asian, and
Hispanic immigrants have joined the descendants of European immigrants
and of the original Native American inhabitants. Nearly 60% of
Minnesota's residents live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan
area known as the Twin Cities, the center of transportation, business,
and industry, and home to an internationally known arts community. The
remainder of the state, often referred to as Greater Minnesota,
consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture;
eastern deciduous forests, also heavily farmed and settled; and the
less-populated northern boreal forest. The state, known as the "Land
of 10,000 Lakes," is known for its moderate-to-progressive politics
and social policies, its civic involvement, and high voter turnout.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1792:
Merchant sea-captain Robert Gray first entered the Columbia River, the
largest river flowing into the Pacific Ocean from North America.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_River)
1812:
British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated by John
Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Perceval)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bellingham)
1918:
The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus was established,
with Tapa Tchermoeff as the first prime minister.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapa_Tchermoeff)
1949:
Siam was officially renamed Thailand.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Thailand)
1960:
Mossad agents captured Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi leader and fugitive war
criminal hiding in Argentina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eichmann)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
The poet in a golden clime was born,
With golden stars above;
Dower'd with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn,
The love of love.
-- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Tennyson)
Campbell's Soup Cans is the title of a work of art produced in 1962 by
Andy Warhol (pictured). It consists of thirty-two canvases, each
measuring 20 inches in height x 16 inches in width (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
and each consisting of a painting of a Campbell's Soup can—one of each
of the canned soup varieties the company offered at the time. The
individual paintings were produced with a semi-mechanised silkscreen
process, using a non-painterly style. Campbell's Soup Cans' reliance
on themes from popular culture helped to usher in pop art as a major
art movement. For Warhol, a commercial illustrator who became a
successful author, painter and film director, the work was his first
one-man gallery exhibition as a fine artist. This exhibition marked
the West Coast debut of pop art. The combination of the
semi-mechanized process, the non-painterly style, and the commercial
subject initially caused offense, as the work's blatantly mundane
commercialism represented a direct affront to the technique and
philosophy of abstract expressionism. The public commotion helped
transition Warhol from being an accomplished 1950s commercial
illustrator to a notable fine artist, and it helped distinguish him
from other rising pop artists.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%27s_Soup_Cans
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1503:
Christopher Columbus and his crew became the first Europeans to visit
the Cayman Islands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayman_Islands)
1857:
The Sepoy Rebellion broke out in colonial India, threatening the rule
of the British East India Company.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rebellion_of_1857)
1869:
The First Transcontinental Railroad of North America was completed
with a golden spike ceremony.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Railroad)
1924:
J. Edgar Hoover became director of the U.S. Bureau of Investigation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover)
1940:
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of the United Kingdom resigned and
formally recommended Winston Churchill as his successor.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Chamberlain)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who
think. -- Jean de La Bruyère
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_de_La_Bruy%C3%A8re)