Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746–1817) was a military leader who became a
national hero in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and the United States. He
graduated from the Corps of Cadets in Warsaw, Poland, before studying in
France. In 1776, he moved to North America, where he took part in the
American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army. An
accomplished military architect, he designed and oversaw the
construction of state-of-the-art fortifications, including those at West
Point, New York. He returned to Poland, and was commissioned a major
general in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Army in 1789. Two years
after the Polish–Russian War of 1792 had resulted in the Second
Partition of Poland, he led an uprising against Russia in March 1794.
Russian forces captured him at the Battle of Maciejowice, and the defeat
of the uprising led to the Third Partition in 1795, which ended Poland's
independent existence for 123 years. He was pardoned by Tsar Paul I in
1796 and emigrated to the United States. A close friend of Thomas
Jefferson, Kościuszko wrote a will in 1798 dedicating his American
assets to the education and freedom of U.S. slaves.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Ko%C5%9Bciuszko>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1843:
New Zealand Wars: An armed posse of Europeans set out from
Nelson to arrest Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha and clashed with Māori,
resulting in 26 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wairau_Affray>
1876:
Great Sioux War: A band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne attacked a
United States Army expedition and its Crow and Shoshone allies in the
Battle of the Rosebud.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Rosebud>
1900:
Boxer Rebellion: Allied naval forces captured the Taku Forts
after a brief but bloody battle.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dagu_Forts_(1900)>
1963:
Around 2,000 people rioted in South Vietnam, despite the
signing of the Joint Communique to resolve the ongoing Buddhist crisis
one day earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Communique>
1994:
Following a police chase along Los Angeles freeways and a
failed suicide attempt, actor and former American football player O. J.
Simpson was arrested for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson
and her friend Ronald Goldman.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._J._Simpson>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
postilion:
A rider mounted on the near, leading horse pulling a carriage who guides
the team.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/postilion>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We must abandon the unworkable notion that it is morally
reprehensible for some countries to pursue weapons of mass destruction,
yet morally acceptable for others to rely on them for security — and
indeed to continue to refine their capacities and postulate plans for
their use.
--Mohamed ElBaradei
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mohamed_ElBaradei>