The Great Auk was a large, flightless alcid that became extinct in the
mid-19th century. It lived in the North Atlantic, and bred on rocky,
isolated islands with easy access to both the ocean and a plentiful food
supply, a rarity in nature that provided only a few breeding sites for
it. The Great Auk was 75 to 85 centimetres (30 to 33 in) tall and
weighed around 5 kilograms (11 lb), making it the largest alcid. It had
a black back and a white belly. The black beak was heavy and hooked with
grooves on its surface. During summer, the Great Auk had a white patch
over each eye. During winter, the auk lost this patch, instead
developing a white band stretching between the eyes. The auk was a
powerful swimmer, a trait that it used in hunting. Humans had hunted the
Great Auk for more than 100,000 years, and by the 19th century, its
growing rarity increased interest from European museums and private
collectors in obtaining skins and eggs of the bird. The last two
confirmed specimens were killed off the coast of Iceland on July 3,
1844. The last credible observation is from 1852.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Auk>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
987:
Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, becoming the first
monarch of the Capetian dynasty, which ruled France continuously until
overthrown during the French Revolution in 1792.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Capet>
1608:
French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City>
1778:
American Revolutionary War: Loyalists and Iroquois killed over
300 Patriots at the Battle of Wyoming in Pennsylvania.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wyoming>
1940:
Second World War: The British Navy attacked the French fleet
(French destroyer Mogador pictured), fearing that the ships would fall
into German hands after the armistice between those two nations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Mers-el-K%C3%A9bir>
1988:
United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air
Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Panglossian:
1. (pejorative) Naively or unreasonably optimistic.
2. (pejorative) Of or relating to the view that this is the best of all
possible worlds.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Panglossian>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
An artist is the magician put among men to gratify — capriciously —
their urge for immortality. The temples are built and brought down
around him, continuously and contiguously, from Troy to the fields of
Flanders. If there is any meaning in any of it, it is in what survives
as art, yes even in the celebration of tyrants, yes even in the
celebration of nonentities. What now of the Trojan War if it had been
passed over by the artist's touch? Dust. A forgotten expedition prompted
by Greek merchants looking for new markets. A minor redistribution of
broken pots. But it is we who stand enriched, by a tale of heroes, of a
golden apple, a wooden horse, a face that launched a thousand ships —
and above all, of Ulysses, the wanderer, the most human, the most
complete of all heroes — husband, father, son, lover, farmer, soldier,
pacifist, politician, inventor and adventurer.
--Tom Stoppard
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Stoppard>