Pinnipeds, including true seals, walruses and sea lions and fur seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals of the order Carnivora. There are 34 living species. They have streamlined bodies and four limbs that have evolved into flippers. Males typically mate with more than one female, and the females raise the pups, often born in the spring and summer months. Pinnipeds generally prefer colder waters and spend most of their time in the water, but come ashore to mate, give birth, molt or escape from predators such as sharks and orcas. Humans have hunted seals since at least the Stone Age, and commercial sealing had a devastating effect on some species from the introduction of firearms through the 1960s. Populations have also been reduced or displaced by accidental trapping and marine pollution. All pinniped species are now afforded some protections under international law.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1638:

Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for her participation in the Antinomian Controversy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hutchinson

1896:

Charilaos Vasilakos won the first modern marathon in preparation for the inaugural Summer Olympics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charilaos_Vasilakos

1913:

Phan Xích Long, the self-proclaimed emperor of Vietnam, was arrested for organising a revolt against the colonial rule of French Indochina, which was nevertheless carried out by his supporters the following day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_X%C3%ADch_Long

1984:

Teachers at a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, were falsely charged with the sexual abuse of schoolchildren, leading to the longest and costliest criminal trial in United States history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial

1995:

Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returned from the space station Mir aboard Soyuz TM-20 after 437 days in space, setting a record for the longest spaceflight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeri_Polyakov

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

mizzly: (Britain, chiefly dialectal) Raining in the form of mizzle (“misty rain; drizzle”); drizzly. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mizzly

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Most Americans, in their sweet innocence, think that class has to do with money. But a glance at Donald Trump and Leona Helmsley will indicate that it has very little to do with money. It has to do with taste and style, and it has to do with the development of those features by acts of character. That was one of my points: to try to separate class from mercantilism or commercialism.   --Paul Fussell https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Fussell