The Canadian Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children who were removed from their families and culture to be assimilated into Canadian culture. It was funded by the government's Department of Indian Affairs, in keeping with the Indian Act of 1876, and administered by various churches. Over more than a century about 30 percent of Indigenous children (roughly 150,000) were placed in residential schools, where at least 6,000 of them died. The schools were intentionally located far away from home communities, and parental visits were further restricted by a pass system that confined Indigenous peoples to reserves. Students often graduated unable to fit into either their home communities or Canadian society, and impacted families have suffered disproportionately from post-traumatic stress, alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide. The last federally operated residential school closed in 1996. The 2015 findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that the system amounted to cultural genocide.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1606:

The first known performance of the play King Lear, a tragedy by William Shakespeare based on the legendary King Lear of the Britons, was held. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Lear

1898:

At the French Academy of Sciences, physicists Pierre and Marie Curie announced the discovery of a new element, naming it radium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium

1900:

A relief crew arrived at the Flannan Isles Lighthouse of Scotland and discovered that the previous crew had disappeared without a trace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannan_Isles_Lighthouse

1919:

American baseball player Babe Ruth was sold by the Boston Red Sox to their rivals, the New York Yankees, starting the 84-year-long "Curse of the Bambino". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth

1996:

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions called upon its 1.2 million members to walk off the job, beginning the largest organized strike in South Korea's history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%9397_strikes_in_South_Korea

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

St. Stephen's Day: (Christianity) A Christian holiday commemorating Saint Stephen the protomartyr (first Christian martyr; died 34 C.E.), falling immediately after Christmas Day (on December 26 in the Western Church and on December 27 in the Eastern Orthodox Church). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/St._Stephen%27s_Day

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery.   --Henry Miller https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Miller