"Speechless" is a song by the American recording artist Michael Jackson
(pictured), included on his tenth studio album, Invincible (2001). It
was released in South Korea as the lead single from the album, and
elsewhere as a promotional single. The singer was inspired to write the
ballad after a water balloon fight with children in Germany. Jackson
collaborated on the production with musicians such as Jeremy Lubbock,
Brad Buxer, Novi Novoq, Stuart Bradley and Bruce Swedien. Andraé Crouch
and his gospel choir provided backing vocals. Executives at Jackson's
record label, Epic Records, responded positively to the track when given
a preview several months before Invincible 's release. The song
received mixed reviews from music critics; commentary focused on its
a cappellas and lyrics. A clip of Jackson singing "Speechless" was
included in the 2009 documentary-concert film Michael Jackson's This Is
It.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speechless_(Michael_Jackson_song)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1780:
American Revolutionary War: A mainly Loyalist force rejected
the Continental Army troops' surrender at the Battle of Waxhaws and
continued killing the Patriot soldiers, including men who were not
resisting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waxhaws>
1852:
Swedish operatic soprano Jenny Lind concluded a widely
successful concert tour of the US under the management of showman P. T.
Barnum.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Lind_tour_of_America,_1850%E2%80%9352>
1911:
English dramatist W. S. Gilbert of the songwriting duo Gilbert
and Sullivan died while saving a young woman from drowning in his lake.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._S._Gilbert>
1935:
The Messerschmitt Bf 109, the most produced fighter aircraft in
history, had its first flight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Bf_109>
1953:
New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary and Nepali-Indian Sherpa
mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit
of Mount Everest.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_British_Mount_Everest_expedition>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
apothegm:
A short, witty, instructive saying; an aphorism or maxim.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apothegm>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a
man should fall down. No one sees anything funny in a tree falling down.
No one sees a delicate absurdity in a stone falling down. No man stops
in the road and roars with laughter at the sight of the snow coming
down. The fall of thunderbolts is treated with some gravity. The fall of
roofs and high buildings is taken seriously. It is only when a man
tumbles down that we laugh. Why do we laugh? Because it is a grave
religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for
only man can be dignified.
--G. K. Chesterton
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton>