Nirvana was a popular American rock band from Aberdeen, Washington. With the lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from their 1991 album Nevermind, Nirvana exploded into the mainstream, bringing along with it an offshoot of punk and alternative rock referred to as grunge. As Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain found himself referred to in the media as the "spokesman of a generation", with Nirvana the "flagship band" of "Generation X". Cobain was uncomfortable with the attention, and placed his focus on the band's music, challenging the band's audience with their third studio album In Utero. While Nirvana's mainstream popularity waned in the months following its release, their core audience cherished the band's dark interior, particularly after their 1993 performance on MTV Unplugged. Nirvana's brief run ended with the death of Cobain in 1994, but the band's popularity expanded in the years that followed. Since their debut, the band has sold more than fifty million albums worldwide, including more than ten million copies of Nevermind in the US alone.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_%28band%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

202 BC: Proconsul Scipio Africanus of the Roman Republic defeated Hannibal and the Carthaginians in the Battle of Zama, concluding the Second Punic War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Zama)

1469: Ferdinand II of Aragon wedded Isabella of Castile, a marriage that paved the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_II_of_Aragon) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_of_Castile)

1781: American Revolutionary War: British forces led by Lord Charles Cornwallis officially surrendered to Franco-American forces under George Washington, ending the Siege of Yorktown. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown)

1943: Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, was first isolated by researchers at Rutgers University. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptomycin)

1987: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 22% on Black Monday, the largest one-day decline in history. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_(1987))

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

There is surely a piece of divinity within us, something that was before the elements, and owes no homage unto the sun. -- Thomas Browne (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne)