Indian Standard Time is the time observed throughout India, with a
time offset of UTC+5:30. India does not observe daylight saving time
(DST) or other seasonal adjustments, although DST was used briefly
during the Sino–Indian War of 1962, and the Indo–Pakistani Wars of
1965 and of 1971. In military and aviation time, IST is designated E*
= Echo*. Indian Standard Time is calculated on the basis of 82.5 °E
longitude which is just west of the town of Mirzapur, near Allahabad
in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The longitude difference between
Mirzapur and the United Kingdom's Royal Observatory at Greenwich
translates to an exact time difference of 5 hours and 30 minutes.
Local time is calculated from a clock tower at the Allahabad
Observatory though the official time-keeping devices are entrusted to
the National Physical Laboratory, located in New Delhi.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Standard_Time
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1879:
Zulu forces of King Cetshwayo routed British forces at the Battle of
Isandlwana.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana)
1901:
After holding the title Prince of Wales for six decades, King Edward
VII became the second oldest man to ascend to the throne in British
history.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII_of_the_United_Kingdom)
1905:
Russian Revolution: Peaceful demonstrators led by Father Gapon were
massacred outside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg on Bloody
Sunday.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905))
1973:
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered its landmark legal decision in Roe v.
Wade, striking down laws restricting abortion during the first six to
seven months of pregnancy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade)
1980:
Andrei Sakharov, a key architect of the Soviet hydrogen bomb and
winner of the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize, was arrested in Moscow following
his public protests against the Soviet war in Afghanistan and exiled
to Gorky.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Sakharov)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a
citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from
other lands, but a continent that joins to them. -- Francis Bacon
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon)
The music of the Lesser Antilles encompasses the musics of Martinique,
Guadeloupe, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba and the Netherlands
Antilles, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla, Antigua and
Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Virgin Islands, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts
and Nevis and Montserrat. The Lesser Antilles' musical cultures are
largely based on the music of African slaves brought by European
traders and colonizers. The African musical elements are a hybrid of
instruments and styles from numerous West African tribes, while the
European slaveholders added their own musics into the mix, as did
immigrants from India. In many ways, the Lesser Antilles can be
musically divided based on which nation colonized them. The ex-British
colonies include Trinidad and Tobago, whose calypso style is an
especially potent part of the music of the other former British
colonies, which also share traditions like the Big Drum dance. The
French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe share the popular zouk
style, and have also had extensive musical contact with the music of
Haiti, itself once a French colony though not part of the Lesser
Antilles. The Dutch colonies share the combined rhythm popular style.
The islands also share a passion for kaseko, a genre of Surinamese
music; Suriname and its neighbors Guyana and French Guiana share folk
and popular styles that are connected enough to the Antilles and other
Caribbean islands that both countries are studied in the broader
context of Antillean or Caribbean music.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_Lesser_Antilles
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
304:
Thirteen-year-old Saint Agnes, the patron saint of young girls, was
executed for refusing a marriage proposal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Agnes)
1525:
The first Anabaptists in Switzerland re-baptized each other.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabaptist)
1793:
French Revolution: After being found guilty of treason by the National
Convention, King Louis XVI was guillotined in front of a cheering
crowd.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XVI_of_France)
1968:
Vietnam War: The People's Army of Vietnam attacked Khe Sanh Combat
Base, a U.S. Marines outpost, starting the Battle of Khe Sanh.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khe_Sanh)
1976:
The Concorde supersonic transports began commercial flights to London,
Paris, Bahrain, and Rio de Janeiro.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
A revelation, that may be supposed to be really of the institution of
God, must also be supposed to be perfectly consistent or uniform, and
to be able to stand the test of truth... Reason therefore must be the
standard by which we determine the respective claims of revelation;
for otherwise we may as well subscribe to the divinity of the one as
of the other, or to the whole of them, or to none at all. -- Ethan
Allen
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ethan_Allen)
Bacteria are unicellular microorganisms. They are typically a few
micrometres long and have many different shapes including spheres,
rods and spirals. The study of bacteria is bacteriology, a branch of
microbiology. Bacteria are ubiquitous, living in every possible
habitat on the planet including soil, underwater, deep in the earth's
crust and even such environments as acidic hot springs and radioactive
waste. In all, there are around five nonillion (5 × 10<sup>30</sup>)
bacteria in the world. There are 10 times more bacterial cells than
human cells in the human body, with large numbers of bacteria on the
skin and in the digestive tract. Although the vast majority of these
bacteria are harmless or beneficial, a few pathogenic bacteria cause
infectious diseases, including cholera, syphilis, anthrax, leprosy and
bubonic plague. The most common bacterial disease is tuberculosis,
which kills about 2 million people a year, mostly in sub-Saharan
Africa. Bacteria are prokaryotes and, unlike animals and other
eukaryotes, bacterial cells do not contain a nucleus or other
membrane-bound organelles. Although the term bacteria has
traditionally been generally applied to all prokaryotes, the
scientific nomenclature changed after the discovery that prokaryotic
life consists of two very different groups of organisms that evolved
independently from an ancient common ancestor.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteria
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1265:
Summoned by Simon de Montfort, the first English parliament held its
first meeting in the Palace of Westminster.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster)
1320:
After reuniting Poland, Władysław the Short was crowned king in
Kraków.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piast_Poland)
1885:
LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the roller coaster.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/roller_coaster)
1892:
The first official basketball game was played at the YMCA in
Springfield, Massachusetts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/basketball)
1942:
Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decided the "final solution
to the Jewish question", leading eventually to the Holocaust.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_conference)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a
physical reality and a metaphysical one.... It’s this in-between that
I’m calling a province, this frontier country between the tangible
world and the intangible one — which is really the realm of the
artist. -- Federico Fellini
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Federico_Fellini)
El Greco was a prominent painter, sculptor and architect of the
Spanish Renaissance. El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that
time part of the Republic of Venice, and at 26 travelled to Venice to
study. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and
executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco
enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian
Renaissance. In 1577 he emigrated to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and
worked until his death. In Toledo El Greco received several major
commissions and produced his best known paintings. El Greco's dramatic
and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his
contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is
regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his
personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and
writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has
been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that
he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously
elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical
pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western
civilization.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Greco
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1839:
The Royal Marines landed at Aden to stop pirates from attacking
British shipping to and from India. Aden remained under British
control until 1967.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aden)
1917:
World War I: The Zimmermann Telegram was dispatched.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram)
1935:
Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs, a new style of men's
undergarment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briefs)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undergarment)
1977:
Iva Toguri, allegedly a Tokyo Rose, was granted a full pardon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Toguri_D'Aquino)
1983:
Apple Computer introduced the Apple Lisa, their first commercial
personal computer with a graphical user interface and a computer
mouse. It had 1 MB of RAM, and was priced at US $9,995.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lisa)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only
time we've got. -- Art Buchwald
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Art_Buchwald)
Restoration literature is the literature written in English during the
period commonly referred to as the English Restoration, corresponding
with the last years of the direct Stuart reign in England, Scotland,
Wales, and Ireland. In general, the term is used to denote roughly
homogeneous styles of literature that centre on a celebration of or
reaction to the restored court of Charles II. It is a literature that
includes extremes, for it encloses both Paradise Lost and the Earl of
Rochester's Sodom, the high-spirited sexual comedy of The Country Wife
and the moral wisdom of Pilgrim's Progress. It saw Locke's Treatises
on Government, the founding of the Royal Society, the experiments and
holy meditations of Robert Boyle, the hysterical attacks on theatres
from Jeremy Collier, and the pioneering of literary criticism from
John Dryden and John Dennis. It saw news become a commodity, the essay
develop into a periodical artform, the beginnings of textual
criticism, and the emergence of the stock market.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_literature
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1778:
Captain James Cook discovered the Sandwich Islands, now known as
Hawaii.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hawaii)
1871:
King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed the first Kaiser of the
German Empire, a newly unified nation state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_I_of_Germany)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Empire)
1958:
Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins played his first game in the
National Hockey League, breaking the color barrier in professional ice
hockey.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_O'Ree)
1977:
The mysterious Legionnaires' disease was found to be caused by a novel
bacterium now known as Legionella.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis)
2003:
The Canberra Firestorm: Bushfires burning out of control began blazing
through residential areas of Canberra, Australia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canberra_bushfires_of_2003)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
It's important to abolish the unconscious dogmatism that makes people
think their way of looking at reality is the only sane way of viewing
the world. My goal is to try to get people into a state of
generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but
agnosticism about everything. -- Robert Anton Wilson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson)
Sheffield Wednesday F.C. is one of the oldest football clubs in
England; this season they play in the Football League. Based in
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, Sheffield Wednesday's chief
rivals are Sheffield United F.C. with whom they play in the Steel City
Derby. As of 2006, The Owls have won four league titles, three FA Cups
and one League Cup, but their League Cup triumph (secured in 1991) is
their only major trophy since World War II. They did reach both
domestic cup finals in 1993, but lost 2-1 to Arsenal each time.
Sheffield Wednesday currently play in the Football League
Championship. Home games are played at Hillsborough stadium in
Sheffield, which had staged numerous FA Cup semi-finals prior to the
1989 Hillsborough disaster which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool
fans.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_Wednesday_F.C.
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1893:
The Citizens' Committee of Public Safety led by Lorrin A. Thurston
overthrew the government of Queen Liliʻuokalani of the Kingdom of
Hawaii.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liliuokalani)
1929:
Popeye the Sailor, a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, first
appeared in newspaper comic strips.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeye)
1946:
The United Nations Security Council held its first meeting at Church
House in London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council)
1977:
Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was executed by a firing squad in
Utah, ending a four-year moratorium on the death penalty in the United
States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States)
1995:
The Great Hanshin Earthquake struck near Kobe, Japan, killing over
6,000 people and causing over ten trillion yen in damage.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hanshin_earthquake)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little
Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -- Benjamin
Franklin
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film set in the
fictional Midwest town of Haddonfield, Illinois, on Halloween. The
film was directed by John Carpenter and stars Donald Pleasence as Dr.
Sam Loomis, Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, and Nick Castle as
Michael Myers. The film centers on Michael Myers' escape from a
psychiatric hospital, his murdering of teenagers, and Sam Loomis's
attempts to track and stop Myers. Halloween was produced on a budget
of only $325,000 and grossed $47 million at the box office in the
United States, making it the most successful independent film in
American movie history. Many critics credit this film as the first in
a long line of slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
(1960). The movie originated many of the clichés seen in low-budget
horror films of the 1980s and 1990s, although first-time viewers of
Halloween may be surprised by the fact that the film contains little
actual graphic violence or gore.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_%28film%29
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
27 BC:
Gaius Octavius was given the title Augustus by the Roman Senate.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus)
929:
Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III of Cordoba declared himself caliph, thereby
establishing the Caliph of Córdoba.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd-ar-Rahman_III)
1547:
Ivan the Terrible was crowned Tsar of Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_IV_of_Russia)
1909:
The expedition led by Ernest Shackleton located the Magnetic South
Pole.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton)
2006:
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was sworn in as President of Liberia, becoming
Africa's first female elected head of state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Johnson-Sirleaf)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
To me, literature is a calling, even a kind of salvation. It connects
me with an enterprise that is over 2,000 years old. What do we have
from the past? Art and thought. That's what lasts. That's what
continues to feed people and give them an idea of something better. A
better state of one's feelings or simply the idea of a silence in
one's self that allows one to think or to feel. Which to me is the
same. -- Susan Sontag
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susan_Sontag)
Alcibiades was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general.
The last famous member of an aristocratic family that fell from
prominence after the Peloponnesian War, he played a major role in the
second half of that conflict as a strategic advisor, military
commander, and politician. During the course of the Peloponnesian War,
Alcibiades changed his allegiance on several occasions. In his native
Athens in the early 410s BC, he advocated for an aggressive foreign
policy, and was a prominent proponent of the Sicilian Expedition, but
fled to Sparta after his political enemies brought charges of
sacrilege against him. In the years that he served Sparta, Alcibiades
played a crucial role in Athens' undoing; the capture of Decelea and
the revolts of several critical Athenian subjects occurred either at
his suggestion or under his supervision. Once restored to his native
city, however, he played a crucial role in a string of Athenian
victories that eventually brought Sparta to seek a peace with Athens.
He favored unconventional tactics, frequently winning cities over by
treachery or negotiation rather than by siege. Alcibiades' military
and political talents frequently proved valuable to whichever state
currently held his allegiance, but his capacity for making powerful
enemies ensured that he never remained in one place for long, and, by
the end of the war that he had helped rekindle in the early 410s, his
days of political relevance were a bygone memory.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcibiades
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1301:
The Árpád dynasty in Hungary ended with the death of King Andrew III.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Árpád_dynasty)
1639:
The Fundamental Orders, the first written constitution that created a
government, was adopted in Connecticut.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Orders_of_Connecticut)
1900:
Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in
Rome.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosca)
1972:
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark ascended to the throne under a new act
of succession.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margrethe_II_of_Denmark)
2004:
The national flag of Georgia, the so-called Five Cross Flag, was
restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Georgia_(country))
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
I still feel that sincerity and realism are avant-garde, or can be,
just as I did when I started out. -- Edmund White
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_White)
Richard III is a 1955 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's
historical play Richard III. The film also contains elements of
Shakespeare's Henry VI, part 3. It was directed by Laurence Olivier,
who also played Richard. The cast includes many noted Shakespearean
actors of the time, including a quartet of acting knights. The film
depicts Richard plotting and conspiring to grasp the throne from his
brother, King Edward, played by Cedric Hardwicke. In the process, many
are killed and betrayed, with Richard's evil leading to his own
downfall. The prologue of the film states that history without its
legends would be "a dry matter indeed", thus the film admits that it
is not portraying the actual events of the time, but rather the
legend. Many critics now consider Olivier's Richard III his best
screen version of Shakespeare. As well, the British Film Institute has
called Olivier's rendition of the play "definitive" and that it has
done more to popularize Shakespeare than any other single piece of
work.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_%281955_film%29
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1838:
In order to avoid anti-Mormon persecution, Joseph Smith, Jr.
and his followers fled Ohio for Missouri.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith%2C_Jr.)
1967:
James Bedford became the first person to be cryonically frozen with
intent of future resuscitation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics)
1969:
British rock band Led Zeppelin released their first record album, Led
Zeppelin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin)
1970:
The self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra in southeastern Nigeria
capitulated, ending the Nigerian Civil War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra)
1971:
The American situation comedy All in the Family, starring Carroll
O'Connor, was first broadcast on the CBS television network. It became
the first show to depict controversial issues previously deemed
unsuitable for network television comedy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_in_the_Family)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Society is indeed a contract... it is not a partnership in things
subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and
perishable nature. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership
in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As
the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations,
it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but
between those who are to be born. -- Edmund Burke
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke)
Half-Life 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game
and the sequel to Half-Life. It was developed by the Valve Software
Corporation and was released on November 16 2004 following a
protracted five-year development cycle during which the game's source
code was leaked to the Internet. The game garnered near unanimous
positive reviews and received critical acclaim, winning over 35 Game
of the Year awards for 2005. Originally available only for
Windows-based personal computers, the game has since been ported onto
the Xbox console, and is due to be released additionally for the Xbox
360 and PlayStation 3 in 2007. Taking place in and around the
fictional City 17 sometime in the near future, Half-Life 2 follows the
scientist Gordon Freeman. Dr. Freeman is thrust into a dystopian
environment in which the aftermath of the Black Mesa Incident has come
to bear fully upon human society. The game uses the Source game
engine, which includes a heavily modified version of the Havok physics
engine. Overall, the Half-Life franchise, including Counter-Strike and
Day of Defeat, has seen over 15 million sales.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1787:
William Herschel discovered the Uranian moons Titania and Oberon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titania_(moon))
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon_(moon))
1879:
The Anglo-Zulu War broke out.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Zulu_War)
1922:
Insulin was first administered to a human patient with diabetes in
Toronto, Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin)
1923:
Troops from France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr Area to force the
German Weimar Republic to pay its reparation payments in the aftermath
of World War I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Ruhr)
1964:
In a landmark report, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry
issued the warning that smoking may be hazardous for one's health.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Leonidas_Terry)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Has it been found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or
greater disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this has
been inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct of mankind; and
the inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation
has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be
divided among a number than when it is to fall singly upon one. A
spirit of faction, which is apt to mingle its poison in the
deliberations of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of
whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, for which they
would blush in a private capacity. -- Alexander Hamilton
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton)