The Palace of Westminster is the location at which the two Houses of
the Parliament of the United Kingdom (the House of Lords and the House
of Commons) conduct their sittings. The Palace lies on the west bank
of the River Thames in the London borough of the City of Westminster.
The oldest extant part of the Palace, Westminster Hall, dates to 1097.
The Palace originally served as a royal residence; however, no monarch
has lived in it since the sixteenth century. One of the Palace's most
famous features is the Clock Tower, a notable London tourist
attraction that houses Big Ben and is often erroneously referred to by
this name. The Palace includes over one thousand rooms, and is the
site of important state ceremonies, most notably the State Opening of
Parliament. The Palace is very closely associated with the two Houses,
as evidenced by the use of "Westminster" as a metonym for
"Parliament."
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1409:
Western Schism: The Catholic church is led into a double schism as
Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of
Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in
Avignon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Schism)
1940:
Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union gave Romania an
ultimatum requiring it to cede territory.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov-Ribbentrop_Pact)
1945:
The United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco, California.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Charter)
1959:
The Saint Lawrence Seaway, a system of canals connecting the Great
Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, was officially opened.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lawrence_Seaway)
1963:
John F. Kennedy uttered "Ich bin ein Berliner."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"The sons of torture victims make good terrorists." -- André Malraux
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Malraux)
Libertarianism is a political philosophy that holds that individuals
should be allowed complete freedom of action as long as they do not
infringe on the freedom of others. This is usually taken by
libertarians to mean that no one may initiate coercion, which they
define as the use of physical force, the threat of such, or the use of
fraud to prevent individuals from having wilful use of their person or
property. In the economic realm, they generally oppose taxation and
government regulation of business activities, and aim to reduce the
size and scope of government. To the extent that libertarians advocate
any government at all, its functions tend to be limited to protecting
civil liberties and economic liberties (by protecting private property
and a free market) through a police force, a military (with no
conscription), and the courts.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1876:
Colonel George Armstrong Custer is killed at the Battle of the Little
Big Horn.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Big_Horn)
1950:
The Korean War, between the United Nations and North Korean forces,
began.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War)
1991:
Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia)
1993:
Kim Campbell was chosen as leader of the Progressive Conservative
Party and became the first female Prime Minister of Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Campbell)
1996:
The Khobar Towers bombing in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, left 19 U.S.
servicemen dead.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khobar_Towers_bombing)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Political language— and with variations this is true of all
political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists— is designed to
make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an
appearance of solidity to pure wind." -- George Orwell
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell)
Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals, was a long-lived series of
comedy short films about a troupe of poor neighborhood children and
the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal
Roach, Our Gang was produced at the Roach studio starting in 1922 as a
silent short subject series. Roach changed distributors from Pathé to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1927, went to sound in 1929, and continued
production until 1938, when he sold the series to MGM, which continued
producing the comedies until 1944. A total of 220 shorts and one
feature film, General Spanky, were eventually produced, featuring over
forty-one child actors. The series, one of the best-known and most
successful in cinema history, is noted for its showcase of natural,
convincing child talent, in contrast to a number of previous,
contemporary, and future child actors.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Gang
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1128:
Alfonso I of Portugal fought the Battle of São Mamede, the first step
toward Portuguese independence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_S%E3o_Mamede)
1314:
Scotland regained independence as forces led by Robert the Bruce
defeated Edward II of England in the Battle of Bannockburn.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bannockburn)
1441:
Eton College in Berkshire, England, was founded by King Henry VI to
provide free education to poor students who would then go on to King's
College, Cambridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_College)
1535:
The Anabaptist state of Münster was conquered and subsequently
disbanded.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%FCnster_Rebellion)
1597:
The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reached Bantam on Java.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28island%29)
1947:
First known sighting of UFOs: Kenneth Arnold saw nine luminous disks
in the form of saucers flying above the U.S. state of Washington.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/unidentified_flying_object)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Conservative, n. A statesman enamored of existing evils, as opposed to
a Liberal, who wants to replace them with new ones. -- Ambrose Bierce
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce)
The Treaty of Devol was an agreement made in 1108 between Bohemund I
of Antioch and Byzantine Emperor Alexius I, in the wake of the First
Crusade. Although it was not initially enforced, it was intended to
make the Principality of Antioch a vassal state of the Byzantine
Empire. It is a typical example of the Byzantine tendency to settle
disputes through diplomacy rather than warfare, and was both a result
of and a cause for the distrust between the Byzantines and their
Western European neighbors. The question of the status of Antioch and
the adjacent Cilician cities troubled the Empire for many years
afterwards. The Treaty of Devol seems to have been considered void
after Bohemund's death, but Alexius' son John attempted to impose his
authority in Antioch. It was not until 1158, during the reign of
Manuel I Comnenus, that Antioch truly became a vassal of the empire,
after Manuel forced Prince Raynald of Chatillon to swear fealty to him
in punishment for Raynald's attack on Byzantine Cyprus.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Devol
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1713:
After Queen Anne's War, French residents of Acadia were given one year
to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadia)
1887:
Canada's first national park, Banff, was created.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banff_National_Park)
1894:
The International Olympic Committee was founded at the Sorbonne in
Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Olympic_Committee)
1941:
June independence: Members of Lithuanian Activist Front declared
independence from the Soviet Union and formed an underground
government in Lithuania.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_independence)
1947:
President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act was
overridden by the Congress of the United States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft-Hartley_Act)
1985:
Air India Flight 182 blew-up 31,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean,
south of Ireland, killing all 329 on board.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_182)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary
condition." -- Alan Turing
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Turing)
A Korean name consists of a family name and a given name, both of
which are generally composed of Hanja. In Korean, a given name follows
a family name. In non-East Asian language contexts, especially Western
languages, some Koreans keep the original order and others reverse
their names to match the European or North American naming order,
which is the given name followed by the family name, as is done by
members of many other East Asian socities in these contexts. Each
family name is divided into one or more clans, identified by the city
that the clan office is located in. The most populous clan is Gimhae
(Kimhae) Kim; that is, the Kim clan based in the city of Gimhae (near
Busan). Every 30 years, each clan publishes a comprehensive genealogy.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_name
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1854:
The British Parliament abolished feudalism and the seigneurial system
in British North America.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/seigneurial_system)
1937:
Camille Chautemps became Prime Minister of France in the second
Popular Front ministry.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Chautemps)
1941:
Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barbarossa)
1986:
Argentine footballer Diego Maradona scored both the Hand of God goal
and the Goal of the Century against England during the quarter-final
match of the FIFA World Cup in Mexico City.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_of_God_goal)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too
impatient... Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches.
Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a
beach— waiting for a gift from the sea." -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Morrow_Lindbergh)
Anne became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702.
Anne's life was marked by many crises relating to succession to the
Crown. Her Roman Catholic father, James II, had been forcefully
deposed in 1688; her sister and brother-in-law then became Queen and
King as Mary II and William III. The failure of Anne and of her sister
to produce a child who could survive into adulthood precipitated a
succession crisis, which ultimately produced the Act of Union 1707.
When, on 1 May 1707, England and Scotland combined into a single
Kingdom, Anne became the first Sovereign of Great Britain. Anne was
the last British monarch of the House of Stuart; she was succeeded by
a distant cousin, George I, of the House of Hanover. Anne's reign was
also marked by the development of the two-party system. Anne
personally preferred the Tory Party, but endured the Whigs. Her
closest friend, and perhaps her most influential advisor, was Sarah
Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, whose husband, John Churchill, 1st
Duke of Marlborough, led the English armies in the War of the Spanish
Succession.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Great_Britain
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1734:
A black slave known as Marie-Joseph Angélique was tortured and then
hanged in New France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Joseph_Ang%E9lique)
1788:
New Hampshire ratified the U.S. Constitution and was admitted as the
9th U.S. state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire)
1813:
Laura Secord set out to warn British forces of an impending American
attack at Queenston, Ontario.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Secord)
1864:
Maori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ended.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauranga_Campaign)
1985:
Greenland officially adopted its own flag, adding support to its
independence movement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Greenland)
2000:
The anti-gay amendment known as Section 28 was repealed in Scotland
with a 99 to 17 vote.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Life has no meaning a priori... It is up to you to give it a meaning,
and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose." -- Jean-Paul
Sartre
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre)
Myxobolus cerebralis is a myxosporean parasite of salmonids (salmon,
trout, and their allies) that causes whirling disease, an important
condition in both salmon and trout farming and wild fish populations.
It was first described from rainbow trout in Germany a century ago,
but its range has spread, and it has now been reported from most of
Europe (including Russia), the United States, South Africa and other
countries. In the 1980s, it was discovered that M. cerebralis needs to
infect a tubificid oligochaete (a kind of segmented worm) to complete
its life-cycle. The parasite infects its hosts by injecting them with
some of its cells after piercing them with polar filaments ejected
from nematocyst-like capsules. Though not transmissible to humans, it
is one of the most economically important myxozoans in fish as well as
one of the most pathogenic. It was the first myxosporean whose
pathology and symptoms were described scientifically.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxobolus_cerebralis
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1756:
A British garrison was imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hole_of_Calcutta)
1789:
577 Deputies of the French Third Estate (commoners) took the Tennis
Court Oath, starting the French Revolution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_Court_Oath)
1837:
Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_of_the_United_Kingdom)
1947:
A Mafia hitman murdered gangster Bugsy Siegel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugsy_Siegel)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions."
-- Lillian Hellman
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lillian_Hellman)
Link is the name of the fictional protagonist from Nintendo's Legend
of Zelda video game series. Link was created by Shigeru Miyamoto, and
first appeared in the 1987 game The Legend of Zelda, as a generic
sword-fighting hero, typical of fantasy adventure games though later
games revealed significantly more details about him. The game's
success — over 6.5m copies sold worldwide and that of its numerous
sequels made Link one of Nintendo's most well-known characters. An
important singularity of the character is that are several different
incarnations of Link throughout the whole Legend of Zelda series,
although they share a number of distinctive characteristics. The
existence of multiple Links is made obvious on many occasions in the
games, where games explicitly mention an ancient, legendary champion,
identical in appearance to Link.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_%28Legend_of_Zelda%29
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1846:
The first baseball game (using modern rules) was played in Hoboken,
New Jersey.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_baseball_in_the_United_States)
1865:
The Emancipation Proclamation reached Galveston, Texas, beginning the
tradition of Juneteenth celebrations.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth)
1867:
Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire was executed by firing squad in
Querétaro.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_I_of_Mexico)
1953:
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed as Soviet spies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_and_Julius_Rosenberg)
1961:
Kuwait declared her independence from the United Kingdom.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait)
1978:
The comic strip Garfield first appeared.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"True eloquence makes light of eloquence, true morality makes light of
morality... To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher."
-- Blaise Pascal
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal)
Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden,
part of Finland, and on the autonomous Åland islands, by a total of
over 9 million speakers. Standard Swedish is the national language
that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and
was well-established by the first decades of the 20th century. While
distinct regional varieties still exist, influenced by the older rural
dialects, the spoken and written language is uniform and standardized,
with a 99% literacy rate among adults. Some of the genuine dialects
differ considerably from the standard language in grammar and
vocabulary and are not always mutually intelligible with Standard
Swedish. These dialects are confined to rural areas and spoken by a
rather limited group of people of low education and social mobility.
Swedish is distinguished by its prosody, which differs considerably
between varieties. It includes both lexical stress and some tonal
qualities. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless dorso-palatal
velar fricative, a sound found in many dialects, including the more
prestigious forms of the standard language.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_language
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1812:
The United States declared war against Great Britain, beginning the
War of 1812.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812)
1815:
Napoléon Bonaparte fought and lost his final battle, the Battle of
Waterloo.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo)
1858:
Charles Darwin received a manuscript by Alfred Russel Wallace on
evolution, which prompted him to publish his theory.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace)
1873:
Woman suffrage activist Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting
to vote in the 1872 presidential election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony)
1979:
The SALT II treaty was signed by the United States and the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SALT_II)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." -- Paul
McCartney
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney)
The Warren County Canal was a branch of the Miami and Erie Canal in
southwestern Ohio about 20 miles (30 km) in length that connected the
Warren County seat of Lebanon to the main canal at Middletown. Lebanon
was at the crossroads of two major roads, the highway from Cincinnati
to Columbus (later U.S. Route 42) and the road from Chillicothe to the
College Township (Oxford), but Lebanon businessmen and civic leaders
wanted better transportation facilities and successfully lobbied for
their own canal, part of the canal fever of the first third of the
19th Century. Because of the low volume of traffic, the Warren County
Canal was never successful, operating less than a decade before the
state abandoned it.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_County_Canal
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1775:
American Revolutionary War: British forces took Bunker Hill outside of
Boston.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bunker_Hill)
1789:
French Revolution: The Third Estate of France declared itself the
National Assembly.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Assembly_%28French_Revolution%29)
1961:
Canada's New Democratic Party was founded with the merger of the CCF
and organized labour.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democratic_Party)
1972:
Watergate scandal: Five men were arrested for burglarizing the offices
of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal)
1994:
O. J. Simpson was chased down and arrested on suspicion of murdering
his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._J._Simpson)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"I observed, 'Love is the fulfilling of the law, the end of the
commandment.' It is not only 'the first and great' command, but all
the commandments in one. 'Whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,' they
are all comprised in this one word, love. -- John Wesley
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wesley)