Nadezhda Alliluyeva (1901–1932), also known as Nadya or Nadia, was the second wife of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. She was born in Baku to a friend of Stalin, a fellow revolutionary, and was raised in Saint Petersburg. Alliluyeva was exposed to revolutionary activity throughout her youth. Having known Stalin from a young age, she married him when she was 18, and they had two children. Alliluyeva worked as a secretary for Bolshevik leaders, including Vladimir Lenin and Stalin, and also as an assistant in the Department of Agitation and Propaganda, before enrolling at the Industrial Academy in Moscow to study synthetic fibres and become an engineer. She had health issues, which had an adverse impact on her relationship with Stalin. She also suspected he was unfaithful, which led to frequent arguments with him. On several occasions, Alliluyeva reportedly contemplated leaving Stalin. After an argument she shot herself early in the morning of 9 November 1932.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadezhda_Alliluyeva
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1892:
The English association football club Newcastle United was founded by the merger of Newcastle East End and West End. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_United_F.C.
1917:
First World War: Hussein al-Husayni, the Ottoman mayor of Jerusalem, surrendered the city to British forces (pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jerusalem
2016:
Park Geun-hye, the president of South Korea, was impeached, marking the culmination of the country's political scandal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Park_Geun-hye
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
sophisticate: 1. (transitive) 2. To make (something) less innocent or natural; to artificialize. 3. To make (something) more sophisticated (“complex, developed, or refined”); to develop, to refine. 4. (also reflexive) To make (oneself or someone) more sophisticated (“experienced in the ways of the world, that is, cosmopolitan or worldly-wise”); to cosmopolitanize. 5. (also figuratively) To alter and make impure (something) by mixing it with some foreign or inferior substance, especially with an intention to deceive; to adulterate; (generally) to corrupt or deceive (someone, their thinking, etc.). 6. To change the meaning of (something) in a deceptive or misleading way. 7. (archaic) To apply an artificial technique to (something). 8. (intransitive) To practise sophistry (“the (deliberate) making of arguments that seem plausible but are fallacious or misleading”). [...] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sophisticate
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Ideas, and even the detection of errors, require more than care and caution. --Ernest Gellner https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Gellner