The City of Portsmouth War Memorial is a First World War memorial in the
English city of Portsmouth, Hampshire. The city suffered significant
losses during the war, and after the conflict a site close to the Town
Hall and the railway station was selected as the location for a
memorial. The architects James Gibson and Walter Gordon designed it,
with sculptural elements by Charles Jagger. The memorial consists of a
semi-circular sunken recess (an exedra) with a screen bearing bronze
panels listing the names of the dead. Balustrades lead into Guildhall
Square, terminating in sculptures of a life-size soldier and sailor with
machine guns. In the centre is a cenotaph, surmounted by an urn and
decorated on the sides with relief carvings of wartime scenes. The
memorial was unveiled on 19 October 1921, before its completion. In the
1970s another wall was created, listing the names of casualties from the
Second World War; a monument to that conflict was added in 2005. The
memorial is a Grade II* listed building.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth_War_Memorial>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1850:
The inaugural National Women's Rights Convention, presided over
by American activist Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis, began in Worcester,
Massachusetts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Women%27s_Rights_Convention>
1906:
Alberto Santos-Dumont flew his biplane 14-bis (depicted) for 50
metres (160 ft) at a height of about four metres (13 ft).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos-Dumont_14-bis>
1934:
Jeannette Piccard piloted a hot-air balloon flight that reached
57,579 feet (17,550 m), becoming the first woman to fly in the
stratosphere.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Piccard>
1956:
The Hungarian Revolution began as a peaceful student
demonstration that attracted thousands while marching through central
Budapest to the parliament building.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
wilderness:
1. (uncountable) Uncultivated and unsettled land in its natural state
inhabited by wild animals and with vegetation growing wild; (countable)
a tract of such land; a waste or wild.
2. (by extension)
3. (countable) A place other than land (for example, the air or sea)
that is uncared for, and therefore devoted to disorder or wildness.
4. (countable, horticulture) An ornamental part of a garden or park
cultivated with trees and often a maze to evoke a natural wilderness.
5. (uncountable, obsolete) Unrefinedness; wildness.
6. (countable, figuratively)
7. Chiefly followed by of: a bewildering flock or throng; a large, often
jumbled, collection of things.
8. A place or situation that is bewildering and in which one may get
lost.
9. Often preceded by in the: a situation of disfavour or lack of
recognition; (specifically, politics) of a politician, political party,
etc.: a situation of being out of office.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wilderness>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of
mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely emerges in another
form. Even if you don't believe in God, you still have to believe in
something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the
world. Such a belief is religious.
--Michael Crichton
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton>
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