Nadezhda Stasova (1822–1895) was an educator and one of the earliest leaders of the Russian women's movement. She was born into a noble and wealthy family; Tsar Alexander I of Russia was her godfather, and she received extensive private tutoring as a child. In adulthood, she dedicated herself to women's empowerment. Along with Anna Filosofova and Maria Trubnikova, she founded and led several organizations designed to promote women's cultural and economic independence, including a publishing cooperative. In a decades-long effort, they successfully pushed government officials to allow higher education for women, although continual opposition sometimes limited or even reversed their successes. Stasova eventually became the lead organizer of the Bestuzhev Courses for women in 1878, but a decade later was forced to resign under political pressure. She continued her work on women's issues right up until her death in 1895, mentoring and inspiring younger feminists.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1896:

In the shortest recorded war in history, the Sultanate of Zanzibar surrendered to the United Kingdom after less than an hour of conflict. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Zanzibar_War

1955:

The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records was published. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_World_Records

1964:

South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Khánh entered into a triumvirate power-sharing arrangement with rival generals Trần Thiện Khiêm and Dương Văn Minh, both of whom had been involved in plots to unseat Khánh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C6%B0%C6%A1ng_V%C4%83n_Minh

2003:

The planet Mars made its closest approach to Earth in almost 60,000 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

torch: 1. A stick of wood or plant fibres twisted together, with one end soaked in a flammable substance such as resin or tallow and set on fire, which is held in the hand, put into a wall bracket, or stuck into the ground, and used chiefly as a light source. 2. (by extension) A similarly shaped implement with a replaceable supply of flammable material; specifically, a pole with a lamp at one end. 3. (by extension, Commonwealth) In full electric torch: synonym of flashlight (“a battery-powered hand-held light source”) 4. (by extension, botany) 5. A flower which is red or red-orange in colour like a flame. 6. A spike (“kind of inflorescence”) made up of spikelets. 7. (chiefly in the plural) The common mullein, great mullein, or torchwort (Verbascum thapsus). 8. (obsolete) A cactus with a very elongated body; a ceroid cactus; a torch cactus or torch-thistle. 9. (figurative) 10. A source of enlightenment or guidance. 11. In carry, hand on, or pass on the torch: a precious cause, principle, tradition, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others. 12. (science fiction) Short for torch drive (“a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”). 13. (chiefly Canada, US) Short for blowtorch (“a tool which projects a controlled stream of a highly flammable gas over a spark in order to produce a controlled flame”). 14. (US, slang) An arsonist. 15. (transitive) 16. To illuminate or provide (a place) with torches (noun sense 1). 17. (originally and chiefly US, slang) To set fire to (something), especially by use of a torch; specifically, to intentionally destroy (something) by setting on fire to try and claim compensation on a fire insurance. 18. (figurative) To make damaging claims about (someone or something); to ruin the reputation of (someone or something); to disparage, to insult. 19. (intransitive) 20. Of a fire: to burn. 21. (science fiction) To travel in a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (“an engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”). 22. (UK, dialectal, figurative) To (appear to) flare up like a torch. 23. (US, fishing) To catch fish or other aquatic animals by torchlight; to go torch-fishing. [...] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/torch

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

What is it in man that for a long while lies unknown and unseen only one day to emerge and push him into a new land of the eye, a new region of the mind, a place he has never dreamed of? Maybe it's like the force in spores lying quietly under asphalt until the day they push a soft, bulbous mushroom head right through the pavement. There's nothing you can do to stop it.   --William Least Heat-Moon https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Least_Heat-Moon