Richard Nixon (1913–1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. He graduated from Whittier College in 1934 and Duke University School of Law in 1937, returning to California to practice law. He served in the United States Navy during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. He served for eight years as vice president, from 1953 to 1961, and waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy. In 1968, Nixon ran again for president and was elected. He initially escalated the Vietnam War, but ended US involvement in 1973. Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China in 1972 opened diplomatic relations between the two nations. Though he presided over Apollo 11, he scaled back manned space exploration. He was re-elected by a landslide in 1972. A series of revelations in the Watergate scandal cost Nixon much of his political support in his second term, and on August 9, 1974, he resigned as president. In retirement, Nixon's work as an elder statesman, authoring several books and undertaking many foreign trips, helped to rehabilitate his public image.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1816:

Inventor Humphry Davy first tested his Davy lamp (examples pictured), a safety lamp containing a candle for use in coal mines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_lamp

1857:

A 7.9 Mw earthquake ruptured part of the San Andreas fault in California and was felt as far east as Las Vegas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1857_Fort_Tejon_earthquake

1981:

U.S. Representative Raymond F. Lederer was convicted of bribery and conspiracy for his role in the Abscam scandal, but continued to serve his term for three more months. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_F._Lederer

1991:

Representatives from the United States and Iraq met at the Geneva Peace Conference to try to find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Peace_Conference

2004:

Twenty-eight illegal Albanian emigrants died when their inflatable boat stalled near the Karaburun Peninsula while on the way to Brindisi, Italy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaburun_tragedy

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

carpe diem: Seize the day, make the most of today, enjoy the present. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/carpe_diem

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Science condemns itself to failure when, yielding to the infatuation of the serious, it aspires to attain being, to contain it, and to possess it; but it finds its truth if it considers itself as a free engagement of thought in the given, aiming, at each discovery, not at fusion with the thing, but at the possibility of new discoveries; what the mind then projects is the concrete accomplishment of its freedom. --Simone de Beauvoir https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir