Kyriakos Pittakis (1798–1863) was a Greek archaeologist. The first
Greek to serve as the head of the country's archaeological service, he
carried out the conservation and restoration of monuments on the
Acropolis of Athens. Largely self-taught as an archaeologist, he was one
of the few native Greeks active in the field during the late Ottoman
period and the early years of the Kingdom of Greece, playing an
influential role in the early years of the archaeological service. A
founding member of the Archaeological Society of Athens, he was prolific
both as an excavator and as a writer, publishing by his own estimation
more than 4,000 inscriptions. He has been praised for his extensive
efforts to uncover and protect Greece's classical heritage, particularly
in Athens and the adjacent islands, but criticised for his unsystematic
and incautious approach. His reconstructions of ancient monuments often
prioritised aesthetics over fidelity to the original, and were largely
reverted after his death.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyriakos_Pittakis>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1888:
George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance
Committee in London, received the "From Hell" letter, allegedly from
Jack the Ripper.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Hell_letter>
1965:
Vietnam War protests: At an anti-war rally in New York City,
David J. Miller burned his draft card (example pictured), the first such
act to result in arrest under a new amendment to the Selective Service
Act.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft-card_burning>
1979:
President Carlos Humberto Romero of El Salvador was overthrown
and exiled in a military coup d'état.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Salvadoran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
dictionaryese:
(informal) The style of language used in dictionary definitions,
characterized by dry, straightforward, and occasionally awkward
phrasing.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dictionaryese>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Few things in life can be so appalling as the difference between
a dry antiseptic statement of a principle by a well spoken man in a
quiet office, and what happens to people when that principle is put into
practice.
--John Kenneth Galbraith
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith>
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