The Avery Coonley School is an independent school serving academically gifted students in Downers Grove, Illinois, U.S. Avery Coonley was founded in 1906 to promote the progressive educational theories developed by John Dewey and other turn of the 20th century philosophers, and was a nationally recognized model for progressive education well into the 1940s. From 1943 to 1965, Avery Coonley was part of the National College of Education serving as a living laboratory for teacher training and educational research. It became a regional research center in the late 1960s and a school for the gifted in the early 1970s. The campus, designed in the Prairie and Arts and Crafts styles, was landscaped by Jens Jensen, who was known as "dean of the world's landscape architects." Avery Coonley was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, citing the "long-lasting influence on schools throughout the country" of the educational program and the design of the building and grounds.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1606:

A royal decree established the Union Flag to symbolise the Union of the Crowns, merging the designs of the Flag of England and the Flag of Scotland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Flag

1861:

Confederate forces began firing at Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, starting the American Civil War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Sumter

1927:

Chinese Civil War: A large-scale purge of communists from the nationalist Kuomintang began in Shanghai. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927

1961:

Aboard Vostok 3KA-2, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to enter outer space, completing one orbit in a time of 108 minutes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin

1980:

Terry Fox dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's, Newfoundland, and began running his "Marathon of Hope" towards the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver, British Columbia, to raise funds across Canada for cancer research. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

moratorium (n): 1. An authorization to a debtor, permitting temporary suspension of payments. 2. A suspension of an ongoing activity http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moratorium

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

He that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. --Jesus http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jesus