The new wave of British heavy metal began in the late 1970s and achieved
international attention by the early 1980s. Encompassing diverse
mainstream and underground styles, the music often infused 1970s heavy
metal music with the intensity of punk rock to produce fast and
aggressive songs. The do-it-yourself ethic of the new metal bands led to
the spread of raw-sounding, self-produced recordings and a proliferation
of independent record labels. Song lyrics were usually about escapist
themes from mythology, fantasy, horror or the rock lifestyle. The
movement involved mostly young, white, male musicians and fans of the
heavy metal subculture, whose behavioural and visual codes were quickly
adopted by metal fans worldwide after the spread of the music to Europe,
North America and Japan. The movement spawned perhaps a thousand bands,
but only a few survived the rise of MTV and glam metal. Among them,
Motörhead and Saxon had considerable success, and Iron Maiden and Def
Leppard became international stars.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_wave_of_British_heavy_metal>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1142:
Despite having saved the Southern Song dynasty from attempts by
the northern Jin dynasty to conquer it, Chinese general Yue Fei was
executed by the Song government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_Fei>
1945:
The Soviet Red Army liberated more than 7,500 prisoners left
behind by Nazi personnel in the Auschwitz concentration camp in
Oświęcim, Poland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp>
1967:
The Apollo 1 fire killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward H.
White and Roger Chaffee at Cape Kennedy Launch Complex 34, and destroyed
the spacecraft.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1>
1996:
Mahamane Ousmane, the first democratically elected president of
Niger, was deposed by Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara in a military
coup d'état.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahamane_Ousmane>
2011:
Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution began as more than 16,000
protesters demonstrated in Sana'a to demand governmental changes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemeni_Revolution>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
sharawadgi:
(historical or obsolete) A style of landscape gardening or
architecture in which rigid lines and symmetry are avoided in favour of
an organic appearance.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sharawadgi>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
For the last two years, the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock
stayed set at three minutes before the hour, the closest it had been to
midnight since the early 1980s. In its two most recent annual
announcements on the Clock, the Science and Security Board warned: "The
probability of global catastrophe is very high, and the actions needed
to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon." In 2017, we
find the danger to be even greater, the need for action more urgent. It
is two and a half minutes to midnight, the Clock is ticking, global
danger looms. Wise public officials should act immediately, guiding
humanity away from the brink. If they do not, wise citizens must step
forward and lead the way.
--Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bulletin_of_the_Atomic_Scientists>