Jovan Vladimir (died 1016) was ruler of Duklja, the most powerful
Serbian principality of the time, from around 1000 to 1016. He ruled
during the protracted war between the Byzantine Empire and the First
Bulgarian Empire. His close relationship with Byzantium did not save
Duklja from the expansionist Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria, who conquered the
principality in around 1010 and took Jovan Vladimir prisoner. A medieval
chronicle asserts that Samuel's daughter, Theodora Kosara, fell in love
with Vladimir and begged her father for his hand. The tsar allowed the
marriage and returned Duklja to Vladimir, who ruled as his vassal.
Vladimir was acknowledged as a pious, just, and peaceful ruler. He took
no part in his father-in-law's war efforts. The warfare culminated with
Samuel's defeat by the Byzantines in 1014; the tsar died soon afterward.
In 1016 Vladimir fell victim to a plot by Ivan Vladislav, the last ruler
of the First Bulgarian Empire. He was beheaded in front of a church in
Prespa, the empire's capital, and was buried there. He was soon
recognized as a martyr and saint; his feast day is celebrated on 22 May.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovan_Vladimir>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1014:
Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: Forces of the Byzantine Empire
defeated troops of the Bulgarian Empire at the Battle of Kleidion in the
Belasica Mountains near present-day Klyuch, Bulgaria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kleidion>
1836:
The Arc de Triomphe in Paris, commemorating those who fought
and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars,
was formally inaugurated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe>
1947:
ENIAC (pictured), the world's first general-purpose electronic
digital computer, was turned on in its new home at the Ballistic
Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Grounds.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC>
1950:
Korean War: U.S. Army 7th Cavalry Regiment troops concluded
four days of shootings of civilians, sparked by fears that columns of
refugees might contain North Korean spies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Gun_Ri_Massacre>
1981:
A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people
watched the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana Spencer at St
Paul's Cathedral in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_of_Charles,_Prince_of_Wales,_and_Lady_Diana_Spencer>
2010:
An overloaded passenger ferry capsized on the Kasai River in
Bandundu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, resulting in at
least 80 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasai_River_disaster>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
shipwrecky:
1. Characteristic of a shipwreck.
2. (figuratively) Weak, feeble; shaky.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shipwrecky>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The isness of things is well worth studying; but it is their whyness
that makes life worth living.
--William Beebe
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Beebe>