The Poitevin is a French breed of draft horse. Named for the former
province of Poitou in west-central France, now a part of Nouvelle-
Aquitaine, it originated in the seventeenth century when horses of
Flemish or Dutch origin, brought to the area by engineers working to
drain the Poitevin Marsh, interbred with local horses. It may be of any
solid coat color, and is sometimes striped dun, a color not seen in
other French draft horses. Although it has the size and conformation of
a draft horse, the Poitevin has not generally performed draft work. Its
principal traditional use was the production of Poitevin mules, by
breeding with large Baudet du Poitou donkeys; the mules were once in
worldwide demand for agricultural and other work. In the early twentieth
century there were some 50,000 brood mares, producing between 18,000 and
20,000 mules per year, but the Poitevin is today an endangered breed.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poitevin_horse>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1763:
King George III of the United Kingdom issued a royal
proclamation closing most of New France to the residents of the Thirteen
Colonies and reserving it for indigenous peoples.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Proclamation_of_1763>
1913:
The Highland Park Ford Plant in the Detroit area of Michigan
became the world's first car factory to implement a moving assembly
line, eventually reducing Ford Model T production time from 12 hours to
93 minutes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Park_Ford_Plant>
1944:
The Holocaust: When Sonderkommando (work unit) members in
Auschwitz learned that they were due to be murdered, they staged a
revolt before being massacred themselves.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando>
2006:
Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and human rights
activist, was assassinated in the elevator of her apartment block in
central Moscow.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Anna_Politkovskaya>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
machicolation:
1. (architecture) An opening between corbels that support a projecting
parapet, or in the floor of a gallery or the roof of a portal, of a
fortified building from which missiles can be shot or heated items
dropped upon assailants attacking the base of the walls.
2. (architecture) A projecting parapet with a series of such openings.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/machicolation>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen
the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a
mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate
your neutrality.
--Desmond Tutu
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu>