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>
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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>
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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>
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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>