Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) is an oil mural by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. Satan is depicted as a goat in moonlit silhouette who hulks over a coven of terrified witches; a young woman in black sits at far right, withdrawn from the others, perhaps in defiance. The mural is one of the fourteen Black Paintings Goya created on the plaster walls of his home, the Quinta del Sordo, around 1822. He was in his mid-70s, living alone and suffering mental and physical distress. As in some of his earlier works, Witches' Sabbath seems to explore themes of aging, death, violence and intimidation. It is generally seen by art historians as a satire on the credulity of the age and as a condemnation of superstitions, such as the witch trials of the Spanish Inquisition. Some fifty years after Goya's death, the murals were removed from the home by transferring them to canvas supports. Today the paintings are in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witches%27_Sabbath_%28The_Great_He-Goat%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1884:

Welsh physician William Price was arrested for attempting to cremate his deceased infant son; he was acquitted in the subsequent trial, which led to the legalisation of cremation in the United Kingdom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Price_%28physician%29

1943:

World War II: As part of Operation Iskra, the Soviet Red Army eased the Siege of Leningrad, opening a narrow land corridor to the city. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Iskra

1958:

African Canadian Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins played his first game in the National Hockey League, breaking the colour barrier in professional ice hockey. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_O%27Ree

1990:

In a sting operation conducted by the FBI, Marion Barry, the Mayor of Washington, D.C., was arrested for possession of crack cocaine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

banausic: 1. (formal) Of or pertaining to technical matters; mechanical. 2. (formal) Uncultured, unrefined, utilitarian. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/banausic

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Dr. Reich vastly offended many people by his sociological theory, which holds that fascism is just an exaggerated form of the basic structure of sex-negative societies and has existed under other names in every civilization based on sexual repression. In this theory, the character and muscular armor of the average citizen — a submissive and frightened attitude anchored in body reflexes — causes the average person to want a strong authority figure above them. Tyranny, in this model, is not created by tyrants alone but by neurotic masses who want tyrants.   --Robert Anton Wilson https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson