Linus Pauling was an American physical chemist. Widely considered as
the most influential chemist of the 20th century and one of the most
important scientists of all time, Pauling was one of the first
quantum chemists, and in 1954 was awarded the Nobel Prize in
chemistry for his work describing the nature of chemical bonds.
Pauling received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his campaign
against above-ground nuclear testing, becoming one of only two people
to receive the Nobel Prize in more than one field, the other being
Marie Curie.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling
Today's selected anniversaries:
1854 The Suez Canal was given a royal concession by Said to
commence operation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal)
1889 Deodoro da Fonseca overthrew Emperor Pedro II to become the
first President of the Republic of Brazil.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deodoro_da_Fonseca)
1920 The first general assembly of the League of Nations was
held in Geneva, Switzerland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations)
1971 Intel released the world's first microprocessor, the 4004.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor)
2002 Hu Jintao became General Secretary of the Communist Party
of China.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Jintao)
Wikiquote of the day:
"If I want to understand something, I must observe, I must not
criticize, I must not condemn, I must not pursue it as pleasure or
avoid it as non-pleasure. There must merely be the silent
observation of a fact." ~ J. Krishnamurti
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._Krishnamurti)
Jonathan Swift's first major work, A Tale of a Tub, was composed
between 1694 and 1697 and published in 1704. It is probably his most
difficult satire, and possibly his most masterful. The Tale is a
prose parody which is divided up into sections of "digression" and
"tale". The "tale" presents a consistent satire of religious excess,
while the digressions are a series of parodies of contemporary
writing in literature, politics, theology, Biblical exegesis, and
medicine. The overarching parody is of enthusiasm, pride, and
credulity. From its opening (once past the prolegomena, which
comprises the first three sections), the book is constructed like a
layer cake, with Digression and Tale alternating. However, the
digressions overwhelm the narrative, both in terms of the
forcefulness and imaginativeness of writing and in terms of volume.
Furthermore, after Chapter X (the commonly anthologized "Digression
on Madness"), the labels for the sections are incorrect. Sections
then called "Tale" are Digressions, and those called "Digression" are
also Digressions.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_a_Tub
Today's selected anniversaries:
1851 Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick was first published.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick)
1940 World War II: Coventry was destroyed by 500 German
Luftwaffe bombers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry)
1971 Mariner 9 reached Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to
orbit another planet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_9)
1990 The Federal Republic of Germany amended its constitution to
confirm the Polish border at the Oder-Neisse line.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oder%2dNeisse_line)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Anyone who believes in God and the Last Day should not harm his
neighbor. Anyone who believes in God and the Last Day should
entertain his guest generously. And anyone who believes in God and
the Last Day should say what is good or keep quiet." ~ Muhammad
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Muhammad)
The Economy of Africa is comprised of more than 800 million people in
fifty-four different nations. Africa's economy is emerging from the
after-effects of colonialism and it struggles with difficult
democratic, welfare and quality of life issues. Africa is by far the
world's poorest continent, and more saliently it is on average poorer
than it was twenty-five years ago. While rapid growth in China and
now India, and moderate growth in South America, has lifted millions
beyond subsistence living, Africa has stagnated, even going backwards
in terms of foreign trade, investment, and per capita income. This
poverty has widespread effects, including low life expectancy,
violence, and instability—factors that further increase the
continent's poverty. Over the decades a number of solutions have been
proposed and many attempted, but no improvement scheme has shown much
success.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Africa
Today's selected anniversaries:
1887 Bloody Sunday clashes in Trafalgar Square
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_1887)
1970 A 100-mph tropical cyclone hit the densely populated Ganges
Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an
estimated 500,000 people (this is regarded as the 20th
century's worst cyclone disaster).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh)
1982 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington
D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War
veterans.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_Veterans_Memorial)
1985 The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted, causing a lahar
(volcanic mudslide) that buried Armero, Colombia, killing
approximately 23,000 people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevado_del_Ruiz)
1990 The first known web page was written.
http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/Link.htm
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence
that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as
Time." ~ Thomas Carlyle
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle)
Baseball is a team sport that is popular in the Americas and East
Asia. In the United States, baseball has often been called the
national pastime, and the total attendance for Major League games is
more than that of all other American professional sports combined. In
Japan, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, South Korea, and several other
countries, baseball is the most popular sport by any measurement.
Among American television viewers, however, it has been surpassed in
popularity by American football and, in the South, car racing.
Although the three most popular team sports in North America are ball
games (baseball, basketball and American football), baseball's
popularity was once so great that the word "ballgame" in the United
States specifically refers to a game of baseball, and "ballfield" or
"ballpark" to a baseball diamond. Baseball is played between two
teams of nine players each on a baseball field, usually under the
authority of one or more officials, called umpires. The game is
played in nine innings in which each team gets one turn to and try to
score runs while the other pitches and defends in the field,
attempting to get three players of the batting team out.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball
Today's selected anniversaries:
1936 In California, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened
to traffic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco%2dOakland_Bay_Bridge)
1970 The Oregon Highway Division attempted to destroy a rotting
beached Grey whale with explosives, leading to the
exploding whale incident.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_whale)
1991 Indonesian forces opened fire on student demonstrators in
the Dili Massacre.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dili_Massacre)
1992 Absolutely Fabulous aired its first episode on BBC1.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolutely_Fabulous)
2001 Taliban forces abandoned Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan,
ahead of advancing Northern Alliance troops.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabul)
Wikiquote of the day:
"All the people of all the nations which had fought in the First
World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh
hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh
month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen,
that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one
another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during
that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the
sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some
men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind." ~ Kurt
Vonnegut
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut)
Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It is considered one of the most important cities in the Balkans and
has had a long and rich history ever since it was founded by the
Ottomans in 1461. It was the site of the assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand which sparked World War I; more recently Sarajevo has
hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics and experienced the longest siege in
the history of modern warfare. Sarajevo is part of Canton Sarajevo,
one of the ten Cantons of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is
located close to the geometric center of the triangularly-shaped
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and covers some 142 km2 (88.2 square miles)
of land. Sarajevo has a continental climate, lying between the
climate zones of central Europe to the north and the Mediterranean to
the south. The city has warm summers, with temperatures of
35°C (95°F) not being uncommon; Sarajevo also has cold winters with
much snow due to the city's high altitude.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarajevo
Today's selected anniversaries:
1675 Gottfried Leibniz demonstrated integral calculus for the
first time to find the area under the y = x function.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Leibniz)
1880 Australian bank robber and bushranger Edward "Ned" Kelly
was hanged in Melbourne.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly)
1930 A patent was awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd
for their invention, the Einstein Refrigerator.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_Refrigerator)
1965 Ian Smith, Premier of the British Crown Colony of Southern
Rhodesia, issued the Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Smith)
Wikiquote of the day:
"When war is declared, truth is the first casualty." ~ Arthur
Ponsonby
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Ponsonby)
There are three types of Japanese toilets. The oldest type is a
simple Asian squat toilet, which is still common in public restrooms.
After World War II, modern Western-type flush toilets and urinals
became common. Current state of the art is a high-tech bidet toilet,
known as a Washlet, which as of 2004 is installed in over half of
all Japanese households. These high-tech toilets include a built-in
bidet for both the anus and vulva, where a water jet cleans the
private regions of the user. Many additional features are also often
included, such as a blow dryer, seat heating, massage options and
other adjustments for the water jet of the bidet, automatic opening
of the lid and flushing after use, a wireless toilet control panel,
heating and air conditioning for the toilet room, etc.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_toilet
Today's selected anniversaries:
1871 "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?": Henry Morton Stanley located
missing missionary and explorer, David Livingstone in
Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika in presentday Tanzania.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morton_Stanley)
1928 Hirohito was crowned the 124th Emperor of Japan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito)
1969 Sesame Street debuted on National Educational Television.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_Street)
1975 The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution
3379, which equated Zionism with racism.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_General_Assembly_Resolution_3379)
1995 Playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa along
with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the
Ogoni People were executed by the Nigerian military
government.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro%2dWiwa)
Wikiquote of the day:
"The time has come", the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax -
Of cabbages - and Kings -
And why the Sea is boiling hot -
And whether pigs have wings."
~ Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Through_the_Looking%2dGlass)
The Shrine of Remembrance, located in St Kilda Road, Melbourne, is
one of the largest war memorials in Australia. It was built as a
memorial to the the 114,000 men and women of Victoria who served in
World War I, but soon came to be seen as Australia's major memorial
to all the 60,000 Australians who died in that war. It now serves as
a memorial for all Australians who served in war, and is the site of
annual observances of ANZAC Day (25 April) and Remembrance Day (11
November). Around the Sanctuary walls is a frieze of 12 carved panels
depicting the armed services at work and in action during World War
I. The Sanctuary is surrounded by a narrow walkway called the
Ambulatory. Along the Ambulatory are 42 bronze caskets containing
hand-written, illuminated Books of Remembrance with the names of
every Victorian who enlisted for active service with the Australian
Imperial Force (AIF) or Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary
Force in World War I or died in camp prior to embarkation.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrine_of_Remembrance
Today's selected anniversaries:
1799 The 18 Brumaire coup led by Emmanuel Joseph Siey�s and
Napol�on Bonaparte deposed the government of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18_Brumaire)
1872 The Great Boston Fire of 1872 began, eventually destroying
over 700 buildings in Boston, Massachusetts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Boston_Fire_of_1872)
1965 In the Northeast Blackout of 1965 several U.S. states and
parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up
to 13 1/2 hours.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_1965)
1989 The Berlin Wall fell, marking the beginning of the collapse
of the Soviet Union and communism in Europe
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall)
Wikiquote of the day:
"It took a couple of hundred million years to develop a thinking
ape and you want a smart one in a lousy few hundred thousand?" ~
Spider Robinson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Spider_Robinson)
The Lord Chancellor is one of the most senior and important
functionaries in the government of the United Kingdom. He is a Great
Officer of State, and is appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of
the Prime Minister and is, by convention, always a peer, although
there is no legal impediment to the appointment of a commoner. The
Lord Chancellor's responsibilities are wide-ranging; they include
presiding over the House of Lords, participating in the Cabinet,
acting as the custodian of the Great Seal and heading the judiciary.
Concerns over these wide-ranging powers have led to a proposal to
abolish the office from Tony Blair's ministry. A bill to achieve the
desired effect has been proposed, but has not been passed into law.
Since 2003, Lord Falconer of Thoroton has served as Lord Chancellor.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Chancellor
Today's selected anniversaries:
1688 Glorious Revolution: Protestant Prince William of Orange
landed at Brixham in Devon, on his way to depose his
father-in-law King James II, the last Catholic monarch in
England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution)
1838 The United States of Central America began to disintegrate
when Honduras separated from the federation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Central_America)
1872 Suffragette Susan B. Anthony voted in the U.S. presidential
election for the first time. She was later fined $100 for
this.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony)
1917 St. Tikhon of Moscow was elected the Patriarch of Moscow
and of the Russian Orthodox Church.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikhon_of_Moscow)
1935 Parker Brothers released the board game Monopoly.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_%28game%29)
Wikiquote of the day:
"ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US." ~ CATS of Zero Wing
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zero_Wing)