The Aylesbury duck is a large white breed of domesticated duck. Raising
white ducks became popular in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England in the
18th century owing to the demand for white feathers as a filler for
quilts. Over the 19th century selective breeding for size, shape and
colour led to the Aylesbury duck. The opening of a railway to Aylesbury
in 1839 gave access to the markets of London, making rearing Aylesbury
ducks highly profitable. By the beginning of the 20th century
competition from the Pekin duck, inbreeding and disease in the pure-bred
Aylesbury strain and the rising cost of duck food meant the Aylesbury
duck industry was in decline; the two world wars further damaged the
industry. By the 1950s only one significant flock of Aylesbury ducks
remained in Buckinghamshire, and by 1966 there were no duck breeding or
rearing businesses of any size remaining in Aylesbury itself. Although
there is only one surviving flock of pure Aylesbury ducks in the United
Kingdom and the breed is critically endangered in the United States, the
Aylesbury duck remains a symbol of the town, and appears on its coat of
arms and on the club badge of Aylesbury United.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aylesbury_duck>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1407 - During the Ming–Hồ War, the Chinese Ming armies captured Hồ
Quý Ly and his sons, thus ending the Vietnamese Ho dynasty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming%E2%80%93H%E1%BB%93_War>
1815:
Napoleonic Wars: French Marshal Michel Ney earned a strategic
victory against the Anglo-Dutch army in the Battle of Quatre Bras.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Quatre_Bras>
1883:
Over 180 out of 1,100 children died in the Victoria Hall
disaster in Sunderland, England, when they stampeded down the stairs to
collect gifts from the entertainers after the end of a variety show.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Hall_disaster>
1967:
The first widely promoted and heavily attended rock festival,
the Monterey Pop Festival, began in Monterey, California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterey_Pop_Festival>
2010:
Bhutan became the first country to institute a total ban on
tobacco.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_Control_Act_of_Bhutan_2010>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
abeyance:
1. (law) Expectancy; condition of being undetermined; undetermined
ownership.
2. Suspension; temporary suppression.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/abeyance>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Values exist in a transcendental realm, beyond space and time.
They can neither be fought for, nor destroyed.
--Enoch Powell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Enoch_Powell>