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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1429: Siege of Orléans: French troops led by Joan of Arc lifted the English siege and turned the tide of the Hundred Years' War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Orl%C3%A9ans)
1541: The expedition led by Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Soto_%28explorer%29)
1794: French chemist and economist Antoine Lavoisier, a former royal tax collector with the Ferme Générale, was tried, convicted, and guillotined on the same day during the Reign of Terror. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Lavoisier)
1902: The volcanic eruption of Mount Pelée destroyed the town of St. Pierre, Martinique, killing over 30,000 people. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pel%C3%A9e)
1945: Most armed forces under German control ceased active operations by 23:01 hours CET at the end of World War II in Europe, in accordance with the capitulation documents signed the day before. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/end_of_World_War_II_in_Europe)
_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:
"While in the physical sciences the investigator will be able to measure what, on the basis of a prima facie theory, he thinks important, in the social sciences often that is treated as important which happens to be accessible to measurement. This is sometimes carried to the point where it is demanded that our theories must be formulated in such terms that they refer only to measurable magnitudes." -- Friedrich Hayek (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek)