Al-Walid I (c. 674 – 715) was the sixth Umayyad caliph, ruling from October 705 until his death. The eldest son of Caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705), he continued his father's efforts to centralize government, impose a more Arabic and Islamic character on the state, and expand its borders. He heavily depended on al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, his father's powerful viceroy over the eastern half of the caliphate. During his reign, armies commissioned by al-Hajjaj conquered Sind and Transoxiana in the east, while the troops of Musa ibn Nusayr, the governor of Ifriqiya, conquered the Maghreb and Hispania in the west, bringing the caliphate to its largest territorial extent. Al-Walid financed impressive public works, including the Great Mosque of Damascus, the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. He was the first caliph to institute programs for social welfare, and his reign was marked by domestic peace and prosperity.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Walid_I
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1843:
SS Great Britain, the first ocean-going ship with both an iron hull and a screw propeller, was launched in Bristol, England. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Britain
1845:
A fire in Manhattan, New York, destroyed 345 buildings, killed 30 people, and caused at least $5 million in damage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_New_York_City_Fire_of_1845
1903:
French cyclist Maurice Garin won the first edition of the Tour de France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1903_Tour_de_France
2014:
Gunmen perpetrated an armed assault against an Egyptian military checkpoint in the Libyan Desert, killing 22 soldiers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Farafra_ambush
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
blare: 1. (transitive) 2. Often followed by out: of a device such as a loudspeaker or a radio: to produce (music, a sound, etc.) loudly and piercingly. 3. (figuratively) To express (ideas, words, etc.) loudly; to proclaim. 4. (intransitive) 5. To make a loud sound, especially like a trumpet. 6. (archaic except Britain, dialectal) To make a lengthy sound, as of a person crying or an animal bellowing or roaring. 7. A loud sound. 8. (figuratively) Of colour, light, or some other quality: dazzling, often garish, brilliance. 9. (obsolete except Britain, dialectal) A lengthy sound, as of a person crying or an animal bellowing or roaring. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blare
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is frequently insufficient to identify the motives that guide our conduct, or that shape our attitudes and our thinking, just by observing vaguely that there are various things we want. That often leaves out too much. In numerous contexts, it is both more precise and more fully explanatory to say that there is something we care about. --Harry Frankfurt https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Frankfurt