The new wave of British heavy metal began in the late 1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Encompassing diverse mainstream and underground styles, the music often infused 1970s heavy metal music with the intensity of punk rock to produce fast and aggressive songs. The do-it-yourself ethic of the new metal bands led to the spread of raw-sounding, self-produced recordings and a proliferation of independent record labels. Song lyrics were usually about escapist themes from mythology, fantasy, horror or the rock lifestyle. The movement involved mostly young, white, male musicians and fans of the heavy metal subculture, whose behavioural and visual codes were quickly adopted by metal fans worldwide after the spread of the music globally. The movement spawned perhaps a thousand bands, but only a few survived the rise of MTV and glam metal. Among them, Motörhead (singer pictured) and Saxon had considerable success, and Iron Maiden and Def Leppard became international stars.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1725:

Privateer Amaro Pargo was declared a hidalgo, a member of the Spanish nobility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaro_Pargo

1765 – Port Egmont, the first British colony in the Falkland Islands, was founded. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Egmont

1890:

American journalist Nellie Bly completed a circumnavigation of the globe by land and sea in a then-record-breaking 72 days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly

1998:

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam detonated a truck bomb at the sacred Buddhist Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, killing 17 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Temple_of_the_Tooth_attack

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

tartan: 1. (uncountable) Woven woollen fabric with a distinctive pattern of coloured stripes intersecting at right angles originally associated with Scottish Highlanders, now with different clans (though this only dates from the late 18th century) and some Scottish families and institutions having their own patterns; (countable) a particular type of such fabric. 2. (countable) A pattern used on such fabric. 3. (uncountable) Clothing made from this fabric. 4. (figurative) 5. (countable) An individual who wears tartan (sense 1.2); specifically, a Scottish Highlander, or a Scottish person (chiefly a Scotsman) in general. 6. (countable, fishing) A type of fly used in fly fishing, often to catch salmon. 7. (countable, UK) A young person who is a member of a Protestant gang in Northern Ireland. 8. (uncountable) Preceded by the: a group of people customarily wearing tartan; Scottish Highlanders or Scottish people collectively; also, the soldiers of a Scottish Highland regiment collectively. 9. (uncountable, chiefly attributive) Originally a trade name in the form Tartan: a synthetic resin used for surfacing ramps, running tracks, etc. 10. (uncountable, Scotland) Short for tartan-purry (“a porridge made from cabbage mixed with oatmeal”). 11. Made of tartan (noun sense 1), or having a distinctive pattern of coloured stripes intersecting at right angles like a that of a tartan. 12. (figurative, sometimes humorous) Of or relating to Scotland, its culture, or people; Scottish. 13. To clothe (someone) in tartan (noun sense 1.2). 14. To apply a tartan pattern to (something). 15. (figurative) To make (something) Scottish, or more Scottish; to tartanize. [...] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tartan

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

No passion is stronger in the breast of man than the desire to make others believe as he believes. Nothing so cuts at the root of his happiness and fills him with rage as the sense that another rates low what he prizes high. Whigs and Tories, Liberal party and Labour party — for what do they battle except their own prestige? It is not the love of truth, but desire to prevail that sets quarter against quarter and makes parish desire the downfall of parish. Each seeks peace of mind and subserviency rather than the triumph of truth and exaltation of virtue — But these moralities belong, and should be left to the historian, since they are as dull as ditch water.   --Orlando: A Biography https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orlando:_A_Biography