Cricket is a team sport. The game, sometimes referred to as the
"gentleman's game," originated in its formal form in England, and is
popular mainly in the countries of the Commonwealth. In the countries
of South Asia, including India and Pakistan, cricket is by far the
most popular participatory and spectator sport. It is also the
national sport of Australia, and it is the major summer sport in New
Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The rich jargon of
cricket can often leave those unfamiliar with the game confused; the
rules are of similar complexity to those of its cousin baseball.
Cricket fosters die-hard aficionados, for whom matches provide
passionate entertainment. Occasionally, rival nations have lampooned
each other over cricket matches, provoking diplomatic outrage.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket
Today's selected anniversaries:
1356 - Despite a shortage of arrows, English forces led by Edward the
Black Prince decisively won the Battle of Poitiers and took
King Jean II of France as captive back to England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poitiers)
1692 - Giles Corey, who had refused to enter a plea, was pressed to
his death during the Salem witch trials.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials)
1893 - Women's suffrage: Women in New Zealand gained the right to
vote, as the country became the first to introduce universal
suffrage.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage)
1982 - Scott Fahlman proposed the use of the ASCII emoticons ":-)"
and ":-(".
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticon)
1995 - The Unabomber's Manifesto was published in The Washington Post
and The New York Times, almost three months after it was
submitted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Kaczynski)
Wikiquote of the day:
"The cardinal doctrine of a fanatic's creed is that his enemies are
the enemies of God." ~ Andrew Dickson White
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrew_Dickson_White)
The Tiananmen Square protests were a set of national protests in the
People's Republic of China, which occurred between 1989-04-15 and
1989-06-04, centered at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The protests
were part of a conflict between the Chinese democracy movement and
the Communist Party of China. After several weeks, a decision was
made to forcibly remove the protesters. Entry of the troops into the
city was actively opposed by the citizens of Beijing, and an estimated
2,600 people died in the ensuing conflict. The suppression of the
protest was represented for many by the famous footage and photographs
of a lone protester, taken on June 5, standing in front of a column
of advancing tanks, halting their progress. The "tank man" continued
to stand defiantly in front of the tanks for half an hour before an
onlooker came over and pulled him away. Despite efforts, to this day
no one knows who the solitary figure was; TIME dubbed him "The
Unknown Rebel" and later named him one of the "100 Most Influential
People of the 20th Century."
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989
Today's selected anniversaries:
96 - Nerva became Roman Emperor, ending the Flavian dynasty, and
the era of the Five Good Emperors began.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerva)
1850 - United States Congress passed Fugitive Slave Act
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_Slave_Law_of_1850)
1851 - New York Times began publishing.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times)
1895 - Daniel David Palmer made the first chiropractic adjustment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_David_Palmer)
1931 - The Mukden Incident: A section of a Japanese-built railroad
was allegedly destroyed by Chinese terrorists, providing an
excuse for the Japanese annexation of Manchuria.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident)
Wikiquote of the day:
"A faith is something you die for, a doctrine is something you kill
for. There is all the difference in the world." -- Tony Benn
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Benn)
In its pure form, glass is a transparent, relatively strong, hard-
wearing, essentially inert, and biologically inactive material which
can be formed with very smooth and impervious surfaces. These
desirable properties lead to the very many uses. Glass is, however,
brittle and will break into sharp shards. These properties can be
modified, or even changed entirely, with the addition of other
compounds. Glasses are uniform amorphous solid materials, usually
produced when a suitably viscous molten material cools very rapidly,
thereby not giving enough time for a regular crystal lattice to form.
Glasses can be made from many materials, although only a few
varieties are in common use. Common glass is mostly amorphous silicon
dioxide, which is the same chemical compound as quartz, or, in its
polycrystalline form, sand.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 1787 - The text of the United States Constitution was finalized in
Philadelphia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution)
* 1809 - The Treaty of Fredrikshamn concluded the Finnish War between
Russia and Sweden, and Finland became an autonomous Grand
Duchy under Czar Alexander I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Fredrikshamn)
* 1894 - Japanese and Chinese navies clashed at Battle of Yalu River,
the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yalu_River_%281894%29)
* 1976 - The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, was unveiled by NASA.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle)
* 1978 - The Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Accords_%281978%29)
Wikiquote of the day:
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a
cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live
humbly for one." -- Wilhelm Stekel
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Stekel)
Lawrence v. Texas was a 2003 case decided by the United States
Supreme Court. In the 6-3 ruling, the justices invalidated the
criminal prohibition of homosexual sodomy in Texas. The court had
previously addressed the same issue in 1986 with Bowers v. Hardwick,
but there had upheld the challenged Georgia statute, not finding a
constitutional right to homosexual sodomy. Lawrence overturned
Bowers, which it held viewed the liberty at stake too narrowly. The
Lawrence court held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part
of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the
Fourteenth Amendment. Lawrence had the effect of invalidating similar
laws throughout the United States insofar as they apply to consenting
adults acting in private. The case attracted much public attention,
and a large number of amicus curiae briefs were filed in the case.
The decision was celebrated by gay rights activists, hoping that
further legal advances may result as a consequence; the decision was
lamented by social conservatives for the same reasons
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v._Texas
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 1597 - Twelve ships of the Korean navy led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin
sank 31 of 133 enemy ships and prevented a Japanese invasion.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_Sun-sin)
* 1701 - Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, more commonly referred
to as the "Old Pretender", became the Jacobite claimant of
the thrones of England and Scotland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Francis_Edward_Stuart)
* 1941 - Reza Pahlavi the Shah of Persia was forced to resign in
favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Pahlavi)
* 1963 - Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak merged to form
Malaysia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia)
* 1982 - The Phalange, a Lebanese militia, carried out a massacre in
the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_Massacre)
* 1992 - Black Wednesday: The British Pound Sterling was forced out
of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and suffered a major
devaluation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wednesday)
Wikiquote of the day:
"The humbleness of a warrior is not the humbleness of the beggar.
The warrior lowers his head to no one, but at the same time, he
doesn't permit anyone to lower his head to him. The beggar, on the
other hand, falls to his knees at the drop of a hat and scrapes
the floor to anyone he deems to be higher; but at the same time, he
demands that someone lower than him scrape the floor for him."
~ Carlos Castaneda
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carlos_Castaneda)
DNA repair is a constantly operating process in the cell essential
to survival because it protects the genome from damage. In human
cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors
(such as UV rays) can cause DNA damage, resulting in as much as
500,000 individual molecular lesions per cell per day. These lesions
cause structural damage to the DNA molecule, and can dramatically
alter the cell's way of reading the information encoded in its genes.
Consequently, the DNA repair process must be constantly operating,
to rapidly correct any damage in the DNA structure.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_repair
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 1821 - Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador
proclaimed independence from Spain
* 1916 - Tanks, the "secret weapons" of the British Army during World
War I, were first used in combat at the Battle of the Somme.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme_%281916%29)
* 1935 - Nazi Germany adopted the Nuremberg Laws, which deprived
German Jews of citizenship, and a new national flag with the
Swastika.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws)
* 1950 - Incheon Landing: United States forces landed at Incheon, Korea
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_war#Inchon_Landing)
* 1952 - United Nations gave Eritrea to Ethiopia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea)
* 1963 - A bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church, an
African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing several
children.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing)
Wikiquote of the day:
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are." ~ Anaïs Nin
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ana%C3%AFs_Nin)
The Holy Prepuce (or Holy Foreskin) is one of the various relics
purported to be associated with Jesus Christ. Orthodox Christian
belief has it that Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven at the end of
his earthly life. This would mean that Jesus's foreskin (removed at
his circumcision) would be one of the few physical remainders of
Jesus left behind on Earth. At various points in history, a number
of churches in Europe have claimed to possess it, sometimes
concurrently. Various miraculous powers have been ascribed to it.
The abbey of Charroux claimed to possess the Holy Foreskin during
the Middle Ages. It was said to have been presented to the monks by
none other than Charlemagne, who in turn is said to have claimed (per
the legend) that it had been brought to him by an angel. Other
claimants at various points in time have included (at least) the
Cathedral of Le Puy en Velay, Santiago de Compostela, the city of
Antwerp, and churches in Besançon, Metz, Hildesheim, and Calcata.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Prepuce
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 786 - Harun al-Rashid became the Abbasid caliph upon the death of
his brother al-Hadi.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harun_al-Rashid)
* 1752 - The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, skipping
eleven days (September 2 was followed directly by September
14 this year).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar)
* 1812 - The Russian army set Moscow on fire to prevent Napoleon from
capturing the city.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow)
* 1901 - Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt)
* 1959 - The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashed onto and became the first
man-made object to reach the Moon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_2)
* 1960 - The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
was founded by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPEC)
Wikiquote of the day:
"He, who will not reason, is a bigot; he, who cannot, is a fool; and
he, who dares not, is a slave." ~ William Drummond
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Drummond)
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was the most significant
volcanic eruption to occur in the lower 48 states of the United
States in recorded history. The eruption was preceded by a two-month
long series of earthquakes and steam venting episodes that created a
huge bulge and a fracture system on Mount St. Helens' north slope.
An earthquake on 1980-05-18 caused the entire weakened north face to
slide away, suddenly exposing the partly molten, gas and steam-rich
rock in the volcano to lower pressure. The rock responded by
exploding into a super-heated mix of pulverized lava and older rock
that sped toward Spirit Lake so fast that it quickly passed the
avalanching north face. By the time the ash settled and the lahars
stopped advancing, 57 people were dead, many thousands of animals
were killed, hundreds of square miles (km²) were reduced to a
wasteland, and over a billion U.S. dollars in damage was done.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 533 - Belisarius' legions defeated Gelimer and the Vandals at the
Battle of Ad Decimum, beginning the "Reconquest of the West"
under Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ad_Decimum)
* 1759 - General James Wolfe was fatally wounded, but he died happy,
knowing that his British forces had defeated the French at
the Battle of the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City, New
France, a decisive battle in the French and Indian War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Plains_of_Abraham)
* 1814 - The battle for Fort McHenry outside Baltimore inspired
Francis Scott Key to pen The Star-Spangled Banner.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_McHenry)
* 1987 - Goiânia accident: A radioactive object was stolen from an
abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating many
people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%E2nia_accident)
* 1993 - After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo
Peace Accords were formally signed by PLO leader Yasser
Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at a public
ceremony in Washington D.C.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords)
Wikiquote of the day:
"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
ambition." ~ Carl Sagan
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan)
Anatoly Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World
Champion. He is considered one of the greatest players in chess
history, especially in tournament play: he is the most successful
tournament player in history, with over 140 first-places to his
credit. His overall record is 1,118 wins, 287 losses, and 1,480 draws
in 3,163 games, and his peak Elo rating is 2780. Karpov's "boa
constrictor" playing style is solidly positional, taking no risks but
reacting mercilessly to any tiny errors made by his opponents. As a
result, he is often compared to his idol, the famous Jose Raul
Capablanca, the third World Champion.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoly_Karpov
Today's selected anniversaries:
1683 - Several European armies joined forces to defeat the Ottoman
Empire at the Battle of Vienna
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna)
1933 - Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on
Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceived of the idea of the
nuclear chain reaction
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le%F3_Szil%E1rd)
1942 - The Laconia incident: RMS Laconia, carrying some 80
civilians and 268 British soldiers, and about 1800 Italian
POWs with 160 Polish soldiers on guard, was hit by a
torpedo from a U-boat off the coast of West Africa and sank.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_incident)
1974 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, the Rastafarian
'Messiah', was deposed following a military coup
by the Derg.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derg)
1990 - The Two Plus Four Agreement was signed, paving the way for
German re-unification.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Final_Settlement_With_Respect_to…)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Only tragedy allows the release of love and grief never normally
seen." ~ Kate Bush
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kate_Bush)
Nineteen Eighty-Four was a British television adaptation of the novel
of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC
Television in the winter of 1954. Orwell's novel was adapted for
television by Nigel Kneale, one of the most successful television
scriptwriters of the era. Although all went off well technically and
artistically, the production proved to be hugely controversial. There
were complaints both about the "horrific" content (particularly the
infamous Room 101 scene where Winston Smith is threatened with
torture by rats) and the "subversive" nature of the play. Most were
worried by the depiction of a totalitarian governmental regime
controlling the population's freedom of thought.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty%2dFour_%28TV_programme%29
Today's selected anniversaries:
1297 - Scots under William Wallace defeated English troops in the
Battle of Stirling Bridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stirling_Bridge)
1973 - A military coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet
toppled the elected Socialist government of President
Salvador Allende.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_coup_of_1973)
1922 - The British Mandate of Palestine began.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_of_Palestine)
1992 - Hurricane Iniki hit the the U.S state of Hawaii, killing
six.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Iniki)
2001 - The September 11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center
in New York City, part of The Pentagon in Washington, D.C.,
and downed a passenger airliner in Pennsylvania. In total,
almost 3,000 were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks)
Wikiquote of the day:
"He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he
knows, nor judge all he sees." ~ Benjamin Franklin
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin)
A mains power plug is a mechanical connector that fits into a power
point or electrical socket. It has male features, usually brass and
often tin or nickel plated, that interface mechanically and
electrically to the mains. Such plugs have live, neutral and an
optional earth contact. Large appliances with higher voltages use
three-phase current and have phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, neutral and
an optional earth contact. The reason why we now have over a dozen
different styles of plugs and wall outlets is because many countries
preferred to develop plug designs of their own, instead of adopting
a common standard. In many countries, there is no single standard,
with multiple plug designs in use, creating extra complexity and
potential safety problems for users.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_power_plug
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 1813 - The Battle of Lake Erie is fought between the United States
and Great Britain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_Erie)
* 1960 - Mickey Mantle hit what is thought to be the Major League's
longest home run an estimated 643 feet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mantle)
* 1974 - Guinea-Bissau's independence from Portugal is officially
recognized.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea-Bissau)
* 2003 - Anna Lindh, the foreign minister of Sweden was stabbed and
died of the wounds on September 11.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Lindh)
Wikiquote of the day:
"The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first; Be not
discouraged— keep on— there are divine things, well envelop'd;
I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words
can tell." -- Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman)