Salih ibn Mirdas (died 1029) was the founder of the Mirdasid dynasty and
emir of Aleppo from 1025 until his death. His sons and grandsons ruled
Aleppo for most of the next five decades. In 1008 he seized the
Euphrates river fortress of al-Rahba. He was imprisoned and tortured in
1012 by the emir of Aleppo, Mansur ibn Lu'lu', before escaping two years
later and capturing Mansur in battle. With his Bedouin warriors, Salih
captured a string of fortresses along the Euphrates, including Manbij
and Raqqa, by 1022. He later allied with the Banu Kalb and Banu Tayy
tribes in their rebellion against the Fatimids of Egypt, who ruled
Aleppo. He annexed the central Syrian towns of Homs, Baalbek and Sidon
before conquering Aleppo in 1025 and establishing a well-organized
administration. He paid formal allegiance to the Fatimids, but his
alliance with the Banu Tayy drew him into conflict with the Fatimid
general, Anushtakin al-Dizbari, whose forces killed Salih in battle near
the Sea of Galilee.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salih_ibn_Mirdas>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1845:
John L. O'Sullivan, in his newspaper the New York Morning News,
argued that the United States had the right to claim the entire Oregon
Country "by the right of our manifest destiny", popularizing the term's
use.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny>
1904:
The stage play Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, by
Scottish author and dramatist J. M. Barrie, premiered in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_Wendy>
1966:
A group of three men made the first descent into the Cave of
Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, in Aquismón,
Mexico.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Swallows>
2002:
The company Clonaid claimed that a cloned human baby had been
born, although it has yet to present any verifiable evidence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonaid>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
golden touch:
(idiomatic) Synonym of Midas touch (“the ability to achieve financial
reward (or, more generally, success) easily and consistently”)
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/golden_touch>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The Greeks understood the mysterious power of the hidden side of
things. They bequeathed to us one of the most beautiful words in our
language — the word "enthusiasm" — en theos [Εν Θεος] — a
god within. The grandeur of human actions is measured by the inspiration
from which they spring. Happy is he who bears a god within and obeys it.
--Louis Pasteur
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur>