The Accurate News and Information Act was a statute passed by the
Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada, in 1937, at the instigation of
William Aberhart's Social Credit government. Aberhart and the Social
Credit League had been in a stormy relationship with the press since
before the 1935 election, in which they were elected to government.
Virtually all of Alberta's newspapers—especially the Calgary
Herald—were critical of Social Credit, as were a number of publications
from elsewhere in Canada. Even the American media had greeted
Aberhart's election with derision. The act would have required
newspapers to print "clarifications" of stories that a committee of
Social Credit legislators deemed inaccurate. It would also have
required them to reveal their sources on demand. Though the act won
easy passage through the Social Credit-dominated legislature,
Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta John C. Bowen reserved royal assent
until the Supreme Court of Canada evaluated the act's legality. In
1938's Reference re Alberta Statutes, the court found that it was
unconstitutional, and it was never signed into law.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accurate_News_and_Information_Act>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1500:
Spanish navigator, explorer, and conquistador Vicente Yáñez Pinzón
reached the north coast of what today is Brazil.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicente_Y%C3%A1%C3%B1ez_Pinz%C3%B3n>
1788:
Captain Arthur Phillip and the British First Fleet landed at Sydney
Cove on the shore of Port Jackson in present-day Sydney, establishing
the first permanent European settlement in Australia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Phillip>
1808:
Governor of New South Wales William Bligh was deposed by the New South
Wales Corps in the only successful armed takeover of government in
Australia's recorded history.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum_Rebellion>
1905:
The Cullinan Diamond, the largest rough gem-quality diamond ever found
at 3,106.75 carats (621.35 g), was discovered at the Premier Mine in
Cullinan, Gauteng, South Africa.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cullinan_Diamond>
1950:
Indian independence movement: India officially became a republic under
a new constitution, with Rajendra Prasad as its first president.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajendra_Prasad>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
furcate (v):
To fork or branch out
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/furcate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I do believe that man is a rope between animal and superman. But the
superman I'm thinking of isn't Nietzsche's. The real superhuman, man or
woman, is the person who's rid himself of all prejudices, neuroses, and
psychoses, who realizes his full potential as a human being, who acts
naturally on the basis of gentleness, compassion, and love, who thinks
for himself and refuses to follow the herd. That's the genuine
dyed-in-the-wool superman.
--Philip José Farmer
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer>