Fakih Usman (1904–68) was an Indonesian Islamic leader and politician
with the Masyumi Party. Born to a merchant and his wife in Gresik, Dutch
East Indies, Fakih studied with his father and at a series of pesantren
until the 1920s. In 1925 he became involved with the modernist Islamic
organisation Muhammadiyah, rising quickly until he became the head of
the Surabaya branch in 1938. When a group of Islamic organisations
formed the Indonesian Islamic Assembly in 1937, Fakih became treasurer.
He continued to be involved in politics and Islamic groups during the
Japanese occupation and ensuing national revolution. In post-Revolution
Indonesia, Fakih twice served as the Minister of Religious Affairs:
under the Halim Cabinet in the State of the Republic of Indonesia in
1950, and in the national government during the Wilopo Cabinet from 1952
to 1953. While serving as minister of religious affairs, he oversaw
educational and institutional reform. Growing in prominence within the
Muhammadiyah, he was chosen as its chairman in late 1968, several days
before his death.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fakih_Usman>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1444:
Skanderbeg organised the League of Lezhë, an alliance of
Albanian principalities that is regarded as the first unified Albanian
state.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Lezh%C3%AB>
1877:
The U.S. Electoral Commission awarded twenty disputed electoral
votes to Rutherford B. Hayes, thus assuring his victory in the 1876 U.S.
presidential election.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes>
1939:
Italian Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected as Pope and took
the name Pius XII (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_XII>
1965:
Vietnam War: The American and South Vietnamese air forces began
Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North
Vietnam that eventually became the most intense air/ground battle waged
during the Cold War period.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Rolling_Thunder>
1978:
Aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 28, Czech Vladimír Remek
became the first person not from the Soviet Union or the United States
to go into space.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_28>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
party favor:
A small gift given to a guest at a party, as a souvenir.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/party_favor>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I define anarchist society as one where there is no legal
possibility for coercive aggression against the person or property of
any individual.
--Murray Rothbard
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard>