The 1910 London to Manchester air race took place between two aviators,
Claude Grahame-White (pictured) and Louis Paulhan, who each attempted
to win a £10,000 prize for flying from London to Manchester in under
24 hours. Grahame-White was the first to make the attempt, on 23 April
1910, but engine trouble forced him to land near Lichfield, where he
had to give up because of inclement weather. Several days later Paulhan
began his flight, with Graham-White, his aeroplane only just repaired,
following several hours behind. Despite Graham-White's best efforts,
Paulhan arrived in Manchester on 28 April, and won the prize. The event
marked the first long-distance aeroplane race in England, the first
take-off by a heavier-than-air machine at night, and the first powered
flight into Manchester from outside the city.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1910_London_to_Manchester_air_race>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
The Wealth of Nations by Scottish political economist Adam Smith was
first published, becoming the first modern work in the field of
economics.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations>
1925:
The British Royal Air Force began Pink's War, an air-to-ground
bombardment against the mountain strongholds of Mahsud tribesmen in
South Waziristan, British Raj, without the support of the British Army.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink%27s_War>
1932:
Éamon de Valera, one of the dominant political figures in twentieth
century Ireland, became President of the Executive Council of the Irish
Free State.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89amon_de_Valera>
1945:
World War II: A bomb raid on Tokyo by American B-29 heavy bombers
started a firestorm, killing over 100,000 people.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo>
1977:
Twelve gunmen seized three buildings in Washington, D.C., and took 149
hostages in a 39-hour standoff that ended in only two deaths.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Hanafi_Siege>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
win-win (adj):
Of a situation or outcome that benefits two parties, or that has two
distinct benefits
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/win-win>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How
else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? for the
moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone.
That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the
changes of his mind on the hop. Growth is exciting; growth is dynamic
and alarming. Growth of the soul, growth of the mind; how the
observation of last year seems childish, superficial; how this year —
even this week — even with this new phrase — it seems to us that we
have grown to a new maturity. It may be a fallacious persuasion, but at
least it is stimulating, and so long as it persists, one does not
stagnate.
--Vita Sackville-West
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vita_Sackville-West>
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