The Nyon Conference was a diplomatic conference held in Nyon, Switzerland, in September 1937 to address attacks on international shipping in the Mediterranean Sea during the Spanish Civil War. The conference was convened in part because Italy had been carrying out unrestricted submarine warfare, although the final conference agreement did not accuse Italy directly; instead, the attacks were referred to as "piracy" by an unidentified body. Italy was not officially at war, nor did any submarine identify itself. The conference was designed to strengthen non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War. The United Kingdom and France led the conference, which was also attended by Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Romania, Turkey, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. The first agreement, signed on 14 September, included plans to counterattack aggressive submarines. Naval patrols were established; the United Kingdom and France were to patrol most of the western Mediterranean and parts of the east, and the other signatories were to patrol their own waters. Italy was to be allowed to join the agreement and patrol the Tyrrhenian Sea if it wished. A second agreement followed three days later, applying similar provisions to surface ships. Italy and Nazi Germany did not attend, although the former did take up naval patrols in November. In marked contrast to the Non-Intervention Committee and the League of Nations, this conference did succeed in preventing attacks by submarines. (more...)

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1632:

Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, in which he advocated Copernican heliocentrism, was delivered to his patron, Grand Duke Ferdinando. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogue_Concerning_the_Two_Chief_World_Systems

1876:

The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland , named after philanthropist Johns Hopkins, who gave the largest philanthropic bequest in U.S. history for its foundation, opened. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Hopkins_University

1958:

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Syrian President Shukri al-Quwatli signed a union pact to form the United Arab Republic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Republic

1983:

The play Moose Murders opened and closed on the same night at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City, becoming the standard of "awfulness" against which all Broadway theatre failures are judged. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_Murders

2006:

At least six men staged Britain's biggest cash robbery ever, stealing £53,116,760 in bank notes from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securitas_depot_robbery

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

rheum (n): (physiology) A watery or thin discharge of serum or mucus, especially from the eyes or nose http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rheum

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

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The world stands out on either side No wider than the heart is wide;

Above the world is stretched the sky, — No higher than the soul is high.

The heart can push the sea and land Farther away on either hand; The soul can split the sky in two,

And let the face of God shine through. But East and West will pinch the heart

That can not keep them pushed apart; And he whose soul is flat — the sky

Will cave in on him by and by. --Edna St. Vincent Millay http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edna_St._Vincent_Millay