Morihei Ueshiba (December 14, 1883 – April 26, 1969) was the founder
of the Japanese martial art of aikido. The son of a landowner from
Tanabe, he studied martial arts in his youth, and served in the Japanese
Army during the Russo-Japanese War. In 1907 he moved to Hokkaidō as the
head of a pioneer settlement and studied with Takeda Sōkaku, the
founder of Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu. In 1919 Ueshiba joined the Ōmoto-
kyō movement, a Shinto sect, in Ayabe, and opened his first dojo. He
accompanied the head of the group, Onisaburo Deguchi, on an expedition
to Mongolia in 1924, where they were captured by Chinese troops and
returned to Japan. Moving to Tokyo in 1926, he set up the Aikikai Hombu
Dojo. He taught at this dojo and others around Japan, including several
military academies. After World War II he retired to Iwama, and
continued training at a dojo he had set up there. He continued to
promote aikido throughout Japan and abroad until the 1960s. Many of his
students became noted martial artists in their own right, and aikido is
now practiced around the world.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morihei_Ueshiba>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
557:
A large earthquake severely damaged the city of Constantinople.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/557_Constantinople_earthquake>
1836:
The Toledo War, the mostly bloodless boundary dispute between
Ohio and the adjoining Territory of Michigan, unofficially ended with a
resolution passed by the controversial "Frostbitten Convention".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_War>
1913:
Haruna, the fourth and last ship of the Kongō-class, was
launched, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during both
World Wars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Haruna>
1981:
The Knesset extended Israeli "laws, jurisdiction and
administration" to the Golan Heights, effectively annexing the
territory.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights>
1992:
War in Abkhazia: During the Siege of Tkvarcheli, a helicopter
carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli was shot down, resulting in at least
52 deaths, which catalysed more concerted Russian military intervention
on behalf of Abkhazia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Tkvarcheli>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
retroussé:
Turned up, as in describing the nose.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/retrouss%C3%A9>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I say, life and figure are distinct attributes of one substance,
and as one and the same body may be transmuted into all kinds of
figures; and as the perfecter figure comprehends that which is more
imperfect; so one and the same body may be transmuted from one degree of
life to another more perfect, which always comprehends in it the
inferior.… the case is the same in diverse degrees of life, which have
indeed a beginning, but no end; so that the creature is always capable
of a farther and perfecter degree of life, ad infinitum, and yet can
never attain to be equal with God; for he is still infinitely more
perfect than a creature, in its highest elevation or perfection, even as
a globe is the most perfect of all other figures, unto which none can
approach.
--Anne Conway
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Conway>