The Names of the Greeks have shifted throughout history. The soldiers that fell at Thermopylae did so as Hellenes, while centuries later when Jesus preached his beliefs any person of non-Jewish faith was a Hellene. Instead, by the time Constantine the Great became Emperor they were known as Romans, and all the while their neighbours in the West would call them Greeks, while those in the East would call them Yunans. The onset of every historical era was accompanied by a new name, either completely new or old and forgotten, extracted from tradition or borrowed from foreigners. Every single one of them was significant in its own time and all can be used interchangeably, which is perhaps why the Greeks are such a polyonymous people.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Greeks

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1795: The United States and Spain signed the Treaty of Friendship, Limits, and Navigation, which established the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the U.S. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinckney%27s_Treaty)

1904: The first section of the New York City Subway opened, running between City Hall and the Bronx. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Subway)

1958: General Ayub Khan deposed Iskander Mirza in a bloodless coup d'état to become the second President of Pakistan, less than 3 weeks after Mirza had appointed him the enforcer of martial law. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayub_Khan)

1961: NASA launched the first Saturn I rocket. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_I)

1998: Gerhard Schröder became the Chancellor of Germany. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt)