The Rus' Khaganate was a polity that flourished during a poorly documented period in the history of Eastern Europe (roughly the late 8th and early to mid-9th centuries AD). A predecessor to the Rurik Dynasty and the Kievan Rus', the Rus' Khaganate was a state (or a cluster of city-states) set up by a people called Rus', who might have been Norsemen (Vikings, Varangians), in what is today northern Russia. The region's population at that time was composed of Baltic, Slavic, Finnic, Turkic and Norse peoples. The region was also a place of operations for Varangians, eastern Scandinavian adventurers, merchants and pirates. According to contemporaneous sources, the population centers of the region, which may have included the proto-towns of Holmgard (Novgorod), Aldeigja (Ladoga), Lyubsha, Alaborg, Sarskoye Gorodishche, and Timerevo, were under the rule of a monarch or monarchs using the Old Turkic title Khagan. The Rus' Khaganate period marked the genesis of a distinct Rus' ethnos, and its successor states would include Kievan Rus' and later states from which modern Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine evolved.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rus%27_Khaganate
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1612:
The "Samlesbury witches", three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, were accused of practising witchcraft in one of the most famous witch trials in English history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samlesbury_witches
1812:
War of 1812: American Navy frigate USS Constitution defeated British Royal Navy frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, earning her nickname "Old Ironsides". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution_vs_HMS_Guerriere
1929:
The highly influential American radio comedy show Amos 'n' Andy (stars Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll pictured) made its debut. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_%27n%27_Andy
1942:
Second World War: Allied forces suffered over 3,000 casualties when they unsuccessfully raided the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieppe_Raid
2003:
A Hamas suicide bomber killed 23 people and wounded over 130 others on a crowded public bus in the Shmuel HaNavi quarter in Jerusalem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmuel_HaNavi_bus_bombing
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
clemency: 1. The gentle or kind exercise of power; leniency, mercy; compassion in judging or punishing. 2. (now rare) Mildness of weather. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/clemency
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I'm not smart. I try to observe. Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the one who asked why. --Bernard Baruch https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bernard_Baruch