A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus
passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the
solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small
black disk moving slowly across the face of the Sun. A transit is
similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon, but while the diameter of Venus
is more than three times that of the Moon it is much further from Earth
and so appears smaller and generally takes longer (up to eight hours) to
travel across the solar disk. Transits of Venus are among the rarest of
predictable astronomical phenomena—they occur in a pattern that
repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart
separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. The next transit
of Venus occurs on 5 and 6 June 2012, and will be the last Venus transit
this century. Historically, Venus transits were of great scientific
importance as they were used to gain the first realistic estimates of
the size of the solar system. A transit of Venus can be safely observed
by taking the same precautions used when observing the partial phases of
a solar eclipse.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1832:
The June Rebellion, an anti-monarchist uprising of students,
broke out in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Rebellion>
1849:
A new constitution was introduced in Denmark, establishing a
constitutional monarchy and the Rigsdag, a bicameral parliament
consisting of the Landsting and the Folketing.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark>
1941:
Second Sino-Japanese War: During one sortie in a five-year
bombing campaign on Chongqing, 4,000 people died of asphyxiation when
the tunnel they were hiding in became blocked.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Chongqing>
1981:
The Centers for Disease Control recorded a cluster of
Pneumocystis pneumonia cases among homosexual men in Los Angeles, the
first reported cases of AIDS.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS>
2001:
Tropical Storm Allison made landfall in southeast Texas,
causing $5.5 billion in damage to make it the costliest tropical storm
in US history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Allison>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
vulgarian:
A vulgar individual, especially one who emphasizes or is oblivious to
their vulgar qualities.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vulgarian>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on
the unthinking.
--John Maynard Keynes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes>
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