Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, Brahmo philosopher, visual artist, playwright, composer, and novelist whose avant-garde works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A celebrated cultural icon of Bengal, he became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. His home schooling, life in Shelidah, and extensive travels made Tagore an iconoclastic pragmatist; however, growing disillusionment with the British Raj caused the internationalist Tagore to back the Indian Independence Movement and befriend Mahatma Gandhi. Despite the loss of virtually his entire family and his regrets regarding Bengal's decline, his life's work — Visva-Bharati University — endured. Tagore's major works included Gitanjali and Ghare-Baire, while his verse, short stories, and novels — many defined by rhythmic lyricism, colloquial language, meditative naturalism, and philosophical contemplation — received worldwide acclaim.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1763: Indian Wars: Chief Pontiac led an attempt to seize Fort Detroit and drive out the British settlers, beginning Pontiac's Rebellion. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Detroit)

1824: Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor premiered in Vienna. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_%28Beethoven%29)

1915: World War I: The ocean liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine Unterseeboot 20, killing 1,198 on board. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania)

1920: Kiev Offensive: Polish-Ukrainian troops led by Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły captured Kiev during the Polish-Soviet War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev_Offensive)

1945: End of World War II in Europe: On behalf of Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz, General Alfred Jodl signed and submitted the capitulation documents to the Allies in Reims, France. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Jodl)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"The meaning of the living words that come out of the experiences of great hearts can never be exhausted by any one system of logical interpretation. They have to be endlessly explained by the commentaries of individual lives, and they gain an added mystery in each new revelation." -- Rabindranath Tagore (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore)