The quagga is an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra that lived in
South Africa. Its name is derived from its call, which sounded like
"kwa-ha-ha". The quagga is believed to have been around 257 cm (8 ft
5 in) long and 125–135 cm (4 ft 1 in–4 ft 5 in) tall at the
shoulder. It could be distinguished from other zebras by its limited
patterning of primarily brown and white stripes, mainly on the front
part of the body. Little is known about its behaviour but it may have
gathered in herds of 30–50 individuals. They were once found in great
numbers in the Karoo of Cape Province and the southern part of the
Orange Free State in South Africa. After Dutch settlement of South
Africa began, the quagga was heavily hunted, and it competed with
domesticated animals for forage. Some specimens were taken to European
zoos (one pictured in London Zoo, 1870), but breeding programmes were
not successful. It was extinct in the wild by 1878, and the last quagga
died in Amsterdam on 12 August 1883. The quagga was the first extinct
animal to have its DNA analysed, and the Quagga Project is trying to
recreate its pelage characteristics by selectively breeding Burchell's
zebras.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quagga>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1323:
Sweden and the Novgorod Republic signed the Treaty of Nöteborg
to temporarily end the Swedish–Novgorodian Wars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_N%C3%B6teborg>
1624:
Cardinal Richelieu became the chief minister to King
Louis XIII, and under his supervision, France's feudal political
structure transformed into one with a powerful central government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu>
1877:
American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Deimos, the smaller
of the two moons of Mars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deimos_(moon)>
1944:
After a week of indiscriminate killing of civilians in Wola,
Warsaw, Poland, SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski ordered that any
remaining Poles be sent to labour or concentration camps.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wola_massacre>
1981:
The IBM Personal Computer (pictured), the original version and
progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform, was introduced.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
repechage:
(sports) A heat (as in rowing or fencing) in which the best competitors
who have lost in a previous round compete for a place or places yet left
in the next round.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/repechage>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
 Comedy can be a cathartic way to deal with personal trauma.
 Although I think that life may be the result of an
accident, I do not think that of consciousness. Consciousness cannot be
accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely
fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.
--Erwin Schrödinger
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger>