The Knights Templar were among the most famous of the Christian military orders. The organization existed for approximately two centuries in the Middle Ages. It was created in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096, to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims who flowed toward Jerusalem after its conquest. Officially endorsed by the church in 1129, the Order became a favored charity across Europe. It grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar knights, easily recognizable in their white mantle with a distinct red cross, made some of the best equipped, trained, and disciplined fighting units of the Crusades. Non-warrior members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating many financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building numerous fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land. The Templars' success was tied closely to the success of the Crusades. When the Holy Land was lost and the Templars suffered crushing defeats, support for the Order's existence faded. Rumors about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, began pressuring Pope Clement V to take action. On Friday, October 13 1307, King Philip had many of the Order's members, including the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, arrested, tortured into "confessions", and burned at the stake. In 1312, Pope Clement, under continuing pressure from King Philip, forcibly disbanded the entire Order.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

54: Claudius was fatally poisoned by his wife Agrippina the Younger, making her 17-year-old son Nero the next Roman Emperor. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero)

1773: French astronomer Charles Messier discovered the Whirlpool Galaxy, an interacting, grand-design spiral galaxy located at a distance of approximately 23 million light-years in the constellation Canes Venatici. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy)

1843: The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, the oldest continually-operating Jewish service organization in the world, was founded in New York City. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27nai_B%27rith)

1917: An estimated 100,000 people in the Cova da Iria fields near Fátima, Portugal witnessed "The Miracle of the Sun." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miracle_of_the_Sun)

1943: World War II: With a new government led by General Pietro Badoglio, parts of Italy switched sides to the Allies and declared war on the Axis Powers. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Badoglio)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

profligate: (archaic) To drive away; to overcome. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/profligate)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

I'm always astounded at the way we automatically look at what divides and separates us. We never look at what people have in common. If you see it, black and white people, both sides look to see the differences, they don't look at what they have together. Men and women, and old and young, and so on. And this is a disease of the mind, the way I see it. -- Doris Lessing (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Doris_Lessing)