William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the United States Army during the American Civil War (1861–65), receiving both recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy, and criticism for the harshness of his "scorched earth" policies while conducting total war against the enemy. Military historian Basil Liddell Hart famously declared that Sherman was "the first modern general." In 1864, Sherman became the Union commander in the western theater of the war. He proceeded to lead his troops to the capture of Atlanta. His subsequent march through Georgia and the Carolinas further undermined the Confederacy's ability to continue fighting. He accepted the surrender of all the Confederate armies in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida in April 1865. After the Civil War, Sherman became Commanding General of the U.S. Army (1869–83). As such, he was responsible for the conduct of the Indian Wars in the western United States. In 1875, he published his Memoirs, one of the best-known firsthand accounts of the Civil War.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1679: Le Griffon, a brigantine by René-Robert de LaSalle, became the first sailing ship to navigate the Great Lakes.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9-Robert_Cavelier%2C_Sieur_de_La_Salle)

1782: The Badge of Military Merit, the original Purple Heart, was established as a military decoration in the Continental Army. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Heart)

1947: An expedition led by Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific Ocean in 101 days on his raft, Kon-Tiki. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)

1965: Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman of the Federation of Malaysia demanded that Singapore withdraw from the federation, choosing to "sever ties with a State Government that showed no measure of loyalty to its Central Government." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunku_Abdul_Rahman)

1998: The bombing of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya killed over 200 people and injured over 4,500. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_United_States_embassy_bombings)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

vivacious: Lively and animated; full of life and energy. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vivacious)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

Wikipedia is first and foremost an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language. Asking whether the community comes before or after this goal is really asking the wrong question: the entire purpose of the community is precisely this goal. -- Jimmy Wales (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales)