OK Computer is the third studio album by English alternative rock band
Radiohead (pictured), released on 16 June 1997 in the UK by EMI
subsidiaries Parlophone and Capitol Records. The band made a deliberate
attempt to distance themselves from the guitar-oriented, lyrically
introspective style of prior works like The Bends. OK Computer's
abstract lyrics, densely layered sound and eclectic range of influences
laid the groundwork for the more experimental style Radiohead adopted
beginning with their next album, Kid A. Although record label executives
feared the progressive album would be difficult to market, it reached
number one on the UK Albums Chart and became the band's highest album
entry on the American charts at the time, debuting at number 21 on the
Billboard 200. The album's lyrics, depicting a world fraught with
rampant consumerism, social alienation, emotional isolation and
political malaise, are often interpreted as having prescient insight
into the mood of 21st-century life.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_Computer>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
632:
The final king of the Sasanian Empire of Iran, Yazdegerd III,
took the throne at the age of eight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazdegerd_III>
1795:
French Revolutionary Wars: Off the coast of Brittany, a British
Royal Navy battle squadron commanded by William Cornwallis (pictured)
fended off a numerically superior French Navy fleet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwallis%27s_Retreat>
1911:
Computing company IBM was founded as the Computing-Tabulating-
Recording Company.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing-Tabulating-Recording_Company>
1961:
Pioneering Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected from
the Soviet Union at Paris–Le Bourget Airport with the help of French
police and a Parisian socialite friend.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Nureyev>
2013:
A multi-day cloudburst caused severe flooding in the North
Indian state of Uttarakhand, resulting in over 5,700 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_North_India_floods>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
rent-seeking:
(economics) The attempt to profit by manipulating the economic or
political environment, for example, by seeking subsidies.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rent-seeking>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to
invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.
--Joyce Carol Oates
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joyce_Carol_Oates>