The Sayfo, or Assyrian genocide, was the mass slaughter and deportation of Assyrian and Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province committed by Ottoman forces and Kurdish tribes during World War I. The Assyrians lived in mountainous and remote areas and were divided into several mutually antagonistic churches. Mass killing of Assyrian civilians began in January 1915, by the Ottoman military and pro-Ottoman Kurds. Attacks on, massacres of and deportations of Christian populations continued until 1919, usually facing only sporadic armed resistance. Ottoman Assyrians living in present-day Iraq and Syria were not targeted. The Sayfo occurred concurrently with and was closely related to the Armenian genocide. Motives included a perceived lack of loyalty among some Assyrian communities to the Ottoman Empire and a desire to appropriate their land. In 1919 the Assyrians said that roughly 250,000 were killed in the genocide, about half the pre-war population.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1947:

American test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier, reaching Mach 1.06 on board the Bell X-1, an experimental rocket-powered aircraft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager

1980:

The 6th Congress of the Workers' Party concluded, having anointed North Korean president Kim Il-sung's son Kim Jong-il as his successor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Congress_of_the_Workers%27_Party_of_Korea

2011:

Michael Woodford was dismissed as the CEO of the optics manufacturer Olympus after uncovering internal financial misconduct, escalating the corporate scandal into one of the largest in Japanese business history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_scandal

2012:

Felix Baumgartner jumped from a helium balloon in the stratosphere to become the first person to break the sound barrier without vehicular power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Baumgartner

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

Ukrainian: 1. Relating to Ukraine or its people. 2. A citizen of Ukraine or a person of Ukrainian ethnicity. 3. The East Slavic language of Ukrainians, and the official language of Ukraine. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ukrainian

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Our duty today is to our country and our children and our constitution. We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion, and every American is entitled to those answers — so we can act now to protect our republic. So this afternoon, I am offering this resolution: that the committee direct the chairman to issue a subpoena for relevant documents and testimony under oath from Donald John Trump in connection with the January 6th attack on the United States Capital.   --Liz Cheney https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Liz_Cheney