William S. Sadler (1875–1969) was an American surgeon, psychiatrist
and author who helped publish The Urantia Book, a document that resulted
from his relationship with a man whom he believed to be channeling
extraterrestrials and celestial beings. Mentored by John Harvey Kellogg,
he became a doctor and practiced medicine in Chicago. Sadler and his
wife were speakers on the Chautauqua adult education circuit in 1907. He
became a highly paid, popular orator and wrote over 40 books on medical
and spiritual topics, advocating a holistic approach to health. Sometime
between 1906 and 1911, Sadler attempted to treat a patient who spoke to
him in unusual voices while sleeping. Sadler spent years observing the
sleeping man and eventually decided the man had no mental illness and
that his words were genuine. The man's communications were eventually
published in The Urantia Book, and the Urantia Foundation was created to
assist Sadler in spreading the book's message. Although it never became
the basis of an organized religion, the book attracted followers who
devoted themselves to its study, and the Urantia movement continued
after Sadler's death.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Sadler>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1814:
War of 1812: Although the Maryland Militia lost the Battle of
North Point, they were able to delay the British advance against
Baltimore, buying time for the defense of the city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_North_Point>
1910:
Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, one of the largest-scale choral
works in the classical concert repertoire, was first performed in
Munich.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._8_(Mahler)>
1933:
Hungarian-American physicist Leó Szilárd conceived of the
idea of the nuclear chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in
Bloomsbury, London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le%C3%B3_Szil%C3%A1rd>
1942:
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army began the Battle of
Edson's Ridge in an effort to retake Henderson Field on Guadalcanal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Edson%27s_Ridge>
1974:
Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia was deposed by the Derg,
a military junta.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie_I>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
vocable:
1. A word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than
its meaning.
2. A syllable or sound without specific meaning, used together with or in
place of actual words in a song.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vocable>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is something inside us which we don't like to face up to, from
which we try to protect ourselves, but which nevertheless remains, since
we don't leave Earth in a state of primal innocence. We arrive here as
we are in reality, and when the page is turned and that reality is
revealed to us — that part of our reality which we would prefer to
pass over in silence — then we don't like it any more.
--Stanisław Lem
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem>