Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) was a Russian composer, a member
of a group of prominent composers known as The Five, who worked together
in Saint Petersburg in the mid-19th century. Considered a master of
orchestration, his best-known compositions, which include Capriccio
Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite
Scheherazade, are considered staples of the classical music repertoire,
along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas. Scheherazade
is an example of Rimsky-Korsakov's frequent use of fairy tale and folk
subjects; he also left a considerable body of original Russian
nationalist compositions. His preparation of works by The Five for
performance brought them into the active classical repertoire, although
his editing of the music of Modest Mussorgsky created controversy. As a
shaper of a generation of younger composers and musicians during his
decades as an educator, he is considered the main architect of what the
classical music public considers the Russian style of composition.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Rimsky-Korsakov>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1831:
Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, leading
to the formation of his law of induction.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday%27s_law_of_induction>
1842:
The Treaty of Nanking, an unequal treaty ending the First Opium
War, was signed, forcing the Chinese Qing dynasty to give control of the
island that is now the site of Hong Kong, and other concessions to the
British.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong>
1903:
The Russian battleship Slava, the last of the five Borodino-
class battleships, was launched.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Slava>
1930:
The last 36 residents of St Kilda, Scotland, now a UNESCO World
Heritage Site for its natural and cultural qualities, voluntarily
evacuated to Morvern.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Kilda,_Scotland>
2007:
Six nuclear warheads were alleged to have been mistakenly
loaded onto a United States Air Force heavy bomber that flew from Minot
Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_United_States_Air_Force_nuclear_weapons_incident>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Skynet:
1. A family of United Kingdom military communications satellites.
2. (science fiction) A distributed artificial intelligence system that is
aware of the physical world and acts autonomously through cyborgs and
computer control systems.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Skynet>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Like most people of my age, I feel a longing for what is lost and
cannot be restored. But if the happy pursuits and casual beauty of youth
prove ephemeral, something better can endure, and endure until our last
moment on earth. And that is the honor we earn and the love we give if
at a moment in our lives we sacrifice for something greater than self-
interest. We cannot choose the moments. They arrive unbidden by us. We
can choose to let the moments pass, and avoid the difficulties they
entail. But the loss we would incur by that choice is much dearer than
the tribute we once paid to vanity and pleasure.
--John McCain
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_McCain>