The history of Buddhism spans from the 6th century BCE to the
present, starting with the birth of the Buddha Siddharta Gautama.
This makes it one of the oldest religions practiced today. Throughout
this period, the religion evolved as it encountered various countries
and cultures, adding to its original Indian foundation Hellenistic as
well as Central Asian, East Asian and Southeast Asian cultural
elements. In the process, its geographical extent became considerable
so as to affect at one time or another most of the Asian continent.
The history of Buddhism is also characterized by the development of
numerous movements and schisms, foremost among them the Theravada,
Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, punctuated by contrasting periods
of expansion and retreat.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Buddhism
Today's selected anniversaries:
1642 Abel Tasman led the first European expedition to reach
Tasmania.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmania)
1859 The Origin of Species by British naturalist Charles Darwin
was first published, and it immediately sold out its
initial print run.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origin_of_Species)
1904 The first successful caterpillar track was made.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_track)
1963 Alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was mortally wounded
when Jack Ruby shot him in Dallas, Texas on live national
television.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ruby)
1998 America Online announced it would acquire Netscape
Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth
US$4.2 billion.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Communications)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the
conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty
that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." ~
Václav Havel
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Havel)