The Paleocene is a geological epoch that started 66 million years ago with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and 75 percent of all species. The Paleocene was marked by the recovery of the biosphere, with dense forests worldwide, while small mammals and birds rapidly evolved to take advantage of the mass extinction. In the seas, ray-finned fish rose to dominance. The supercontinents Laurasia and Gondwana were still separating, the Rocky Mountains were being uplifted, the Americas were divided, the Indian Plate was colliding with Asia, and the North Atlantic Igneous Province was forming. Like the preceding Mesozoic, the Paleocene had a greenhouse climate, with an average global temperature of 24–25 °C (75–77 °F), compared to 14 °C (57 °F) today. It ended 56 million years ago with a sharp rise in temperature in the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1790:

George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address in New York City, then the provisional capital of the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_Union

1889:

American statistician Herman Hollerith received a patent for his electromechanical tabulating machine for punched-card data. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith

1972:

Following the country's defeat by India in the previous year's war, new Pakistani president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto released Bangladeshi politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from prison in response to international pressure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Mujibur_Rahman

2010:

Gunmen from an offshoot of the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attacked the bus transporting the Togo national football team to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, killing three people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togo_national_football_team_attack

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

mind-boggling: That causes the mind to boggle; that is beyond one's ability to understand or figure out. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mind-boggling

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Don't live by generalities, unless it be to act virtuously, and don't ask desire to follow precise laws, for you will have to drink tomorrow from the water you scorn today.   --Baltasar Gracián https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Baltasar_Graci%C3%A1n