The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. At the orders of Talaat Pasha, an estimated 800,000 to 1,200,000 Armenian women, children, and elderly or infirm people were sent on death marches to the Syrian Desert in 1915 and 1916. Driven forward by paramilitary escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to robberies, rapes, and massacres. In the desert, the survivors were dispersed into concentration camps. In 1916 another wave of massacres was ordered, leaving about 200,000 deportees alive by the end of 1916. Around 100,000 to 200,000 Armenian women and children were forcibly converted to Islam and integrated into Muslim households. The Turkish nationalist movement carried out massacres and ethnic cleansing of survivors during the Turkish War of Independence after World War I. The Armenian genocide destroyed more than two millennia of Armenian civilization in eastern Anatolia.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_genocide

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1866:

German composer Max Bruch conducted the premiere of his first violin concerto, which later became his most famous work. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_Concerto_No._1_%28Bruch%29

1922:

The first portion of the Imperial Wireless Chain, a strategic international wireless telegraphy communications network created to link the countries of the British Empire, opened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Wireless_Chain

1932:

An estimated 400 ramblers committed a wilful mass trespass of Kinder Scout in the Peak District to highlight the denial of access to areas of open country in England. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_trespass_of_Kinder_Scout

1965:

Cold War: The Dominican Civil War broke out due to tensions following a military coup against the democratically elected government of President Juan Bosch two years earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Civil_War

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

loath: 1. Averse, disinclined; reluctant, unwilling. 2. (obsolete) Angry, hostile. 3. (obsolete) Loathsome, unpleasant. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loath

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!   --Gospel of Matthew https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Matthew