Pakistan is a country located in South Asia that overlaps with the
Greater Middle East. It has a thousand-kilometre coastline along the
Arabian Sea in the south and borders Afghanistan and Iran to the west,
India to the east and the People's Republic of China in the far
northeast. The name Pakistan means "Land of the Pure" in Urdu and
Persian and was coined in 1933 by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, who published
it in the pamphlet Now or Never. Pakistan is the sixth-most populous
country in the world and the second-most populous Muslim country.
Pakistan was established as a modern state in 1947, but the region has
a long history of settlement, including by the Indus Valley
Civilization. The region was invaded by Afghans, Greeks, Persians,
Arabs, and was incorporated into British Raj in the 19th century.
Since independence, Pakistan has seen both instability, with the loss
of East Pakistan, and significant military and economic growth.
Pakistan has the seventh-largest armed forces in the world and is a
declared nuclear weapons state.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1453:
Constantinople fell to an Ottoman army led by Sultan Mehmed II, ending
the Byzantine Empire.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople)
1660:
English Restoration: The monarchy in England was restored under King
Charles II on Oak Apple Day.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Restoration)
1919:
Observations made by Arthur Eddington during a solar eclipse confirmed
part of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stanley_Eddington)
1953:
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach
the summit of Mount Everest.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest)
1999:
Olusegun Obasanjo took office as President of Nigeria, the first
elected and civilian head of state in Nigeria after 16 years of
military rule.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olusegun_Obasanjo)
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Wikiquote of the day:
"It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith.
Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert
that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all." -- G. K.
Chesterton
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton)