Ian Smith (1919–2007) was Prime Minister of Rhodesia (or Southern
Rhodesia; today Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1979. During the Second World
War, he served as a Royal Air Force fighter pilot in the Middle East and
Europe, suffering permanent facial and bodily wounds. In 1962 he helped
form the all-white, firmly conservative Rhodesian Front, which called
for independence without an immediate shift to black majority rule. He
led the predominantly white government that unilaterally declared
independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, after prolonged dispute.
During Smith's premiership, the Bush War pitted the unrecognised
administration's forces against communist-backed black nationalist
guerrilla groups. His government endured in the face of United Nations
economic sanctions with the assistance of South Africa and, until 1974,
Portugal. Smith is still venerated by some, while critics describe an
unrepentant racist whose policies and actions caused the deaths of
thousands and contributed to Zimbabwe's later crises.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Smith>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1790:
The first United States Census was conducted, with the United
States residential population enumerated to be 3,929,214.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1790_United_States_Census>
1914:
World War I: Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, and
Prime Minister Paul Eyschen surrendered to the invading German army and
the nation remained occupied for the rest of the war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_occupation_of_Luxembourg_during_World_War_I>
1932:
At the California Institute of Technology, Carl David Anderson
proved the existence of antimatter when he discovered the positron.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron>
1990:
Iraq invaded Kuwait, overrunning the Kuwaiti military within
two days, and eventually sparking the outbreak of the Gulf War seven
months later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Kuwait>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
do over:
1. (transitive) To cover with; to smear or spread on to.
2. (transitive, Britain, slang) To beat up.
3. (transitive, US) To repeat; to start over.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/do_over>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All
artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole
story, to vomit the anguish up.
--James Baldwin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Baldwin>