The Paleocene is a geological epoch that started 66 million years ago
with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and
75 percent of all species. The Paleocene was marked by the recovery of
the biosphere, with dense forests worldwide, while small mammals and
birds rapidly evolved to take advantage of the mass extinction. In the
seas, ray-finned fish rose to dominance. The supercontinents Laurasia
and Gondwana were still separating, the Rocky Mountains were being
uplifted, the Americas were divided, the Indian Plate was colliding with
Asia, and the North Atlantic Igneous Province was forming. Like the
preceding Mesozoic, the Paleocene had a greenhouse climate, with an
average global temperature of 24–25 °C (75–77 °F), compared to
14 °C (57 °F) today. It ended 56 million years ago with a sharp
rise in temperature in the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleocene>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1790:
George Washington delivered the first State of the Union
address in New York City, then the provisional capital of the United
States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_Union>
1889:
American statistician Herman Hollerith received a patent for
his electromechanical tabulating machine for punched-card data.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith>
1972:
Following the country's defeat by India in the previous year's
war, new Pakistani president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto released Bangladeshi
politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from prison in response to
international pressure.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Mujibur_Rahman>
2010:
Gunmen from an offshoot of the Front for the Liberation of the
Enclave of Cabinda attacked the bus transporting the Togo national
football team to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, killing three
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togo_national_football_team_attack>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
mind-boggling:
That causes the mind to boggle; that is beyond one's ability to
understand or figure out.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mind-boggling>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Don't live by generalities, unless it be to act virtuously, and
don't ask desire to follow precise laws, for you will have to drink
tomorrow from the water you scorn today.
--Baltasar Gracián
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Baltasar_Graci%C3%A1n>