Charles Ives was an American composer of classical music. He is widely
regarded as one of the first American classical composers of
international significance. Ives's music was largely ignored during
his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over
time, Ives would come to be regarded as one of the "American
Originals". He was a composer working in a uniquely American style,
with American folk tunes woven through his music, and a reaching sense
of the possible in music. Ives, who died in 1954 in New York City,
left behind material for an unfinished "Universe Symphony". Although
there have been several attempts at completion, none has found its way
into general performance.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ives
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1670:
A Royal Charter granted the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly in the fur
trade in Rupert's Land.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson%27s_Bay_Company)
1933:
The first modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster was reported.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness_Monster)
1945:
World War II: General Helmuth Weidling, defence commandant of Berlin,
surrendered the city to Soviet forces, ending the Battle of Berlin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin)
1982:
Falklands War: The HMS Conqueror sank the ARA General Belgrano.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_General_Belgrano)
1999:
Mireya Moscoso became the first woman to be elected President of
Panama.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mireya_Moscoso)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"You know more than you think you do." -- Benjamin Spock
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock)
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms at right angles to
either the right or left. It is traditionally oriented so that a main
line is horizontal, though is occasionally found at a 45-degree angle
to this, with the Hindu version typically featuring a dot in each
quadrant. The history of the swastika goes back to the origins of the
Eurasian continent. The swastika is an important symbol in Hinduism
and Buddhism, among others, and was also used in Native American and
Jewish faiths prior to World War II. By the early twentieth century it
was regarded worldwide as symbol of good luck and auspiciousness.
Since the rise of the Nazi Party, the swastika has been associated
with fascism, the Second World War and the Holocaust in much of the
world. The swastika remains a core symbol of Neo-Nazi groups. Since
the end of the Second World War, there have been failed attempts by
individuals and groups to convince Westerners to look past the
swastika's recent association with the Nazis to its prehistoric
origins.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
The Order of the Illuminati, a secret society, was founded in Bavaria,
Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati)
1840:
The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, was issued
in the United Kingdom.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black)
1893:
The World Columbian Exposition, a World's Fair to celebrate the 400th
anniversary of the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus,
opened in Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Columbian_Exposition)
1941:
Citizen Kane, a widely acclaimed film by Orson Welles, premiered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Kane)
1960:
In India, the state of Bombay was partitioned into Gujarat and
Maharashtra along linguistic lines.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarat)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
* "DON'T PANIC" -- Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The
Galaxy --
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams)
Article One of the United States Constitution establishes the
legislative branch of government, Congress, which includes the House
of Representatives and the Senate. The Article establishes the manner
of election and qualifications of members of each House. In addition,
it outlines legislative procedure and indicates the powers of the
legislative branch. Finally, it establishes limits on federal and
state legislative power. Article One is the longest of the seven
Articles forming the original United States Constitution. Amendments
to Article One, unlike amendments to other articles, are restricted by
the Constitution. No amendment made prior to 1808 could affect the
first and fourth clauses of Section Nine. The former clause concerns
prevented Congress from prohibiting the slave trade until 1808; the
latter required direct taxes to be apportioned among the states
according to their populations. Furthermore, the Constitution
precludes Congress from depriving a state of equal representation in
the Senate without its consent.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_One_of_the_United_States_Constitution
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
711:
Umayyad troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad landed at Gibraltar, beginning
the Moorish invasion of Iberia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar)
1789:
George Washington took office as the first President of the United
States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington)
1948:
The Organization of American States was established in Bogotá,
Colombia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_American_States)
1975:
Liberation Day in Vietnam: North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon,
ending the Vietnam War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reunification_Day)
1993:
CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to everyone.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the
act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. When I have
clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away from it, in order
to go into darkness again." -- Carl Friedrich Gauss
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Friedrich_Gauss)
Kylie Minogue is an Australian singer and actress. She rose to
prominence in the late 1980s as a result of her role in the Australian
television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing her career as a
pop singer and recording artist. Signed to a contract by British
songwriters and record producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman, Minogue
achieved a string of hit records throughout the world, but her
popularity began to decline by the early 1990s, leading her to part
company from them in 1992. For several years she attempted to
establish herself as an independent performer and songwriter,
distancing herself from her earlier work. Her projects were widely
publicised, but despite a couple of hit singles, her albums failed to
attract a substantial audience, resulting in the lowest sales of her
career. In 2000, she returned to popularity as a dance/pop music
artist and became well-known for her provocative music videos and
expensively mounted stage shows. Minogue has established one of the
longest and most successful careers as a performer in contemporary pop
music, and in Europe and Australia has become one of her generation's
most recognisable celebrities and sex symbols.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylie_Minogue
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1521:
Explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan by
Filipino natives led by Lapu-Lapu.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mactan)
1667:
The blind and impoverished John Milton sold the copyright of Paradise
Lost for £10.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton)
1865:
An explosion destroyed the steamboat Sultana, killing 1,700 passengers
on the Mississippi River.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_%28steamboat%29)
1967:
The Expo 67 World's Fair opened in Montreal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_67)
1994:
Freedom day: The African National Congress was victorious in the first
non-racial elections in the history of South Africa.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Day_%28South_Africa%29)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life,
the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by
contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath." --
Mary Wollstonecraft
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft)
The 1896 Summer Olympics were the first celebration of the modern
Olympic Games, after the Ancient Olympic Games had been cancelled by
Roman emperor Theodosius in AD 393. At a 1894 congress organized by
Pierre de Coubertin in Paris, the International Olympic Committee was
established, and the Greek capital of Athens was appointed as the host
city of the first modern Olympics. The Greeks had little experience
with organizing sports events, and initially had financial troubles as
well, but managed to have everything ready in time. Although the
number of participating athletes was low by today's standards, it had
the largest international participation for any sports event to that
date. The athletic highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory
by their compatriot Spiridon Louis. The most successful competitor in
terms of victories was German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann.
Barring the so-called Intercalated Games of 1906, the Olympics did not
return to Greece until the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Summer_Olympics
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1478:
The Pazzi Conspiracy: Giuliano di Piero and Lorenzo de' Medici were
attacked in Florence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazzi)
1865:
Boston Corbett shot and killed John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of U.S.
President Abraham Lincoln.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Corbett)
1933:
The Gestapo, the official secret police force in Nazi Germany, was
established.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestapo)
1937:
Spanish Civil War: The bombing of Guernica in Spain by the Legión
Cóndor resulted in a devastating firestorm.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bombing_of_Guernica)
1986:
Chernobyl accident: A nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, Ukraine suffered a
steam explosion, resulting in a fire and a nuclear meltdown.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_accident)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent
would ever get done." -- Ludwig Wittgenstein
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein)
Hydrochloric acid is the aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride (HCl)
gas. It is a strong acid, facilitating wide use. As a highly corrosive
liquid, hydrochloric acid should be handled only with appropriate
safety precautions. Hydrochloric acid has been an important and
frequently-used chemical from early history, and was discovered by the
Islamic alchemist Jabir around 800. It was used throughout the Middle
Ages by alchemists in the quest for the philosopher's stone, and later
by several European scientists including Glauber, Priestley, and Davy.
During the Industrial Revolution, it became an important industrial
chemical for many applications. Applications include large scale
production of organic compounds such as vinyl chloride for PVC and
MDI/TDI for PUR.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrochloric_acid
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1719:
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe was first published.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe)
1792:
The guillotine was first used to carry out capital punishment in
France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/guillotine)
1898:
Spanish-American War: The U.S. Congress retroactively declared war on
Spain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish-American_War)
1953:
A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid by James Watson and Francis
Crick was published in Nature.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA)
1983:
Cold War: Soviet leader Yuri Andropov invited American schoolgirl
Samantha Smith to visit Moscow, Leningrad and the Artek Young Pioneer
camp.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate
prejudices— just recognize them." -- Edward R. Murrow
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_R._Murrow)
Diego Velázquez was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court
of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the
contemporary baroque period, important as a portrait artist. His two
visits to Italy while part of the Spanish court are well-documented.
In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and
cultural significance, he created scores of portraits of the Spanish
royal family, other notable European figures, and commoners,
culminating in the production of his masterpiece, Las Meninas.
Starting in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Velázquez's
artwork proved a model for the realist and impressionist painters, in
particular Édouard Manet. Since that time, more modern artists,
including Spain's Pablo Picasso and Salvador DalÃ, have paid tribute
to Velázquez by recreating several of his most famous works.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Vel%E1zquez
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1792:
La Marseillaise, the national anthem of France, was composed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Marseillaise)
1913:
The opening ceremony of the Woolworth Building was held in New York
City.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolworth_Building)
1916:
Easter Rising: The Irish Republican Brotherhood started a rebellion in
Ireland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Rising)
1967:
The Soyuz 1 spacecraft crashed in Siberia, killing cosmonaut Vladimir
Komarov.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_1)
1990:
The space shuttle Discovery lifted off with the Hubble Space Telescope
aboard.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Everything seems an echo of something else." -- Robert Penn Warren
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Penn_Warren)
The Canadian Pacific Railway is a Canadian Class I railway operated by
Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. Its rail network stretches from
Vancouver to Montreal, and also serves major cities in the United
States, such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York City. Its
headquarters are in Calgary, Alberta. The railway was originally built
between eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885,
fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered
Confederation in 1871. It was Canada's first transcontinental railway.
Now primarily a freight railway, the CPR was for many decades the only
practical means of long distance passenger transportation in many
regions of Canada, and was instrumental in the settlement and
development of western Canada. Its primary passenger services were
eliminated in 1978 after being assumed by VIA Rail Canada. The
railway's logo, a beaver, was chosen because it is one of the national
symbols of Canada and represents the hardworking character of the
company. The object of both praise and damnation for over 120 years,
the CPR remains an indisputable icon of Canadian nationalism.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Pacific_Railway
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1014:
Irish forces defeated Viking invaders in the Battle of Clontarf.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Clontarf)
1597:
The Merry Wives of Windsor, a comedy by William Shakespeare, was first
performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merry_Wives_of_Windsor)
1827:
Irish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton
presented his Theory of systems of rays.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rowan_Hamilton)
1954:
Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hit the first of his 755 home runs
in Major League Baseball.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Aaron)
1982:
The Conch Republic "declared" independence from the United States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch_Republic)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is
rounded with a sleep." -- "Prospero" in The Tempest by William
Shakespeare
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Tempest)