Sennacherib was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705 BC to his
death in 681 BC. He is one of the most famous Assyrian kings for his
role in the Old Testament of the Bible, which describes his campaign in
the Levant. The Levantine War of 701 BC broke out after several
Assyrian vassals in the region rebelled, including the Kingdom of Judah
under King Hezekiah. The Assyrians invaded Judea, and Hezekiah
submitted. Sennacherib faced considerable difficulty in controlling
Babylonia and destroyed the city of Babylon in 689 BC. He transferred
the capital of Assyria to Nineveh, launching one of the most ambitious
building projects in ancient history. He expanded the city and
constructed great city walls, numerous temples and a royal garden.
Sennacherib was murdered by his eldest son, who had been disinherited
and hoped to seize power for himself. A younger son, Esarhaddon, raised
an army, seized Nineveh, and installed himself as king as intended by
Sennacherib.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sennacherib>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1899:
Philippine–American War: American forces defeated troops
commanded by Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo at the Battle of
Marilao River.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marilao_River>
1941:
World War II: Encouraged by the British Special Operations
Executive, a group of pro-Western Serbian-nationalist officers of the
Royal Yugoslav Army Air Force carried out a coup d'état after
Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
1981:
The Solidarity movement in Poland staged a warning strike, the
largest in the history of the Eastern Bloc, in which at least
12 million Poles walked off their jobs for four hours.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_warning_strike_in_Poland>
2002:
A suicide bomber killed about 30 Israeli civilians and injured
about 140 others at the Park Hotel in Netanya, triggering Operation
Defensive Shield, a large-scale counter-terrorist military incursion
into the West Bank, two days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_massacre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
wagon:
1. A four-wheeled cart for hauling loads.
2. A four-wheeled child's riding toy, pulled or steered by a long handle
attached to the front.
3. An enclosed vehicle for carrying goods or people; (by extension) a
lorry, a truck.
4. An enclosed vehicle used as a movable dwelling; a caravan.
5. Short for dinner wagon (“set of light shelves mounted on castors so
that it can be pushed around a dining room and used for serving”).
6. (slang) Short for paddy wagon (“police van for transporting
prisoners”).
7. (rail transport) A freight car on a railway.
8. (chiefly Australia, US, slang) Short for station wagon (“type of car
in which the roof extends rearward to produce an enclosed area in the
position of and serving the function of the boot (trunk)”); (by
extension) a sport utility vehicle (SUV); any car.
9. (Ireland, slang, derogatory, dated) A woman of loose morals, a
promiscuous woman, a slapper; (by extension) a woman regarded as
obnoxious; a bitch, a cow.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wagon>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
A modern theory of knowledge which takes account of the
relational as distinct from the merely relative character of all
historical knowledge must start with the assumption that there are
spheres of thought in which it is impossible to conceive of absolute
truth existing independently of the values and position of the subject
and unrelated to the social context. Even a god could not formulate a
proposition on historical subjects like 2 x 2 = 4, for what is
intelligible in history can be formulated only with reference to
problems and conceptual constructions which themselves arise in the flux
of historical experience.
--Karl Mannheim
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Mannheim>
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