Muhammad II was the Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Al-
Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula from 1273 until his death in 1302.
Succeeding his father Muhammad I, he maintained Granada's independence
in the face of its larger neighbours, the Christian kingdom of Castile
and the Muslim Marinid state of Morocco. He added the Tower of the
Ladies and the Tower of the Points to his father's palace and fortress
complex, the Alhambra (pictured). To defend Granada against the
Christians, he recruited soldiers from North Africa and organized them
into the Volunteers of the Faith. He instituted the Nasrid royal
protocol and the court chancery and increased the importance of the
vizier in government. Muhammad II built a series of strongholds in
strategic positions that remained for centuries as the backbone of
Granadan border defences. He was known by the epithet al-Faqih, the
canon lawyer, reflecting his education and his support for scholars and
poets.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_II_of_Granada>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1689:
The Convention Parliament met to decide the fate of the English
throne after James II, the last Catholic monarch, had fled to France as
a result of the Glorious Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England>
1905:
Russian Revolution: Unarmed demonstrators, led by Russian
Orthodox priest Georgy Gapon, were massacred by the Imperial Guard
outside the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29>
1970:
The Boeing 747, the world's first wide-body commercial
airliner, entered service for Pan Am on the New York–London route.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747>
2006:
Evo Morales was inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming
the country's first democratically elected indigenous leader.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
skimble-skamble:
Confused, chaotic, disorderly, senseless.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/skimble-skamble>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It will not be amiss to distinguish the three kinds and, as it
were, grades of ambition in mankind. The first is of those who desire to
extend their own power in their native country, a vulgar and degenerate
kind. The second is of those who labor to extend the power and dominion
of their country among men. This certainly has more dignity, though not
less covetousness. But if a man endeavor to establish and extend the
power and dominion of the human race itself over the universe, his
ambition (if ambition it can be called) is without doubt both a more
wholesome and a more noble thing than the other two. Now the empire of
man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences. For we cannot
command nature except by obeying her.
--Francis Bacon
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon>
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