The Ninety-five Theses are a list of propositions written by Martin
Luther that started the Protestant Reformation, a schism in the Catholic
Church. Luther, a professor of moral theology at the University of
Wittenberg, Germany, enclosed them in a letter to the Archbishop of
Mainz on 31 October 1517, a date now commemorated annually as
Reformation Day. They advance Luther's positions against the selling of
plenary indulgences, certificates that were said to reduce the
punishment for sins in purgatory. Luther claimed that his positions
accorded with those of the pope, but the Theses contradict a 14th-
century papal bull. Luther's ecclesiastical superiors had him tried for
heresy, which culminated in his excommunication in 1521. Though the
Theses mark the start of the Reformation, Luther did not consider
indulgences to be as important as other theological matters which would
divide the church, such as justification by faith and the bondage of the
will. His breakthrough on these issues would come later, and he did not
see the writing of the Theses as the point at which his beliefs diverged
from those of Rome.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-five_Theses>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1913:
Public transportation workers in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.,
went on strike, shutting down mass transit in the city and sparking
riots when strikebreakers attempted to restart services.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_streetcar_strike_of_1913>
1917:
World War I: Allied forces defeated Turkish troops in Beersheba
in Southern Palestine at the Battle of Beersheba, often reported as "the
last successful cavalry charge in history".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Beersheba_(1917)>
1973:
Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped from
Mountjoy Prison in Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter which landed in
the prison's exercise yard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountjoy_Prison_helicopter_escape>
1984:
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of
her own Sikh bodyguards, sparking anti-Sikh riots throughout the
country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Indira_Gandhi>
1999:
All 217 people on board EgyptAir Flight 990 were killed when
the aircraft suddenly plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of
Nantucket, Massachusetts, U.S.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Lutheran:
(Christianity) Of or pertaining to the theology of Martin Luther
(1483–1546) or his followers, or the Lutheran church.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lutheran>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the
pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy.
Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something
entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any
rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and
great.
--Willa Cather
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Willa_Cather>