Katy Perry (born 1984) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She pursued a career in gospel music as a teenager, releasing her debut album in 2001, then moved to Los Angeles to venture into secular music. After signing to Capitol Records in 2007, she rose to fame in 2008 with the release of the single "I Kissed a Girl" from her second album, One of the Boys. Perry's third album, Teenage Dream (2010), became the first by a female artist to produce five number-one Billboard Hot 100 songs. Her fourth album, Prism, was released in 2013 and included the number- one singles "Roar" and "Dark Horse". Perry has received many awards and nominations, and been included in the Forbes list of "Top-Earning Women In Music" for 2011, 2012, and 2013. She has sold 11 million albums and 81 million singles worldwide, making her one of the best-selling artists of all time. She made her film debut voicing Smurfette in The Smurfs in 2011, and released a documentary film in 2012, which concentrated on her life as a touring artist and the dissolution of her brief marriage to English actor and comedian Russell Brand in the early 2010s.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1616:

The Dutch sailing ship Eendracht reached Shark Bay on the western coastline of Australia, as documented on the Hartog Plate etched by explorer Dirk Hartog. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartog_Plate

1854:

Crimean War: Lord Cardigan led his cavalry to disaster in the Battle of Balaclava. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Balaclava

1924:

The Zinoviev letter, later found to be a forgery, was published in the Daily Mail, helping to ensure the British Labour Party's defeat in the UK general election four days later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinoviev_letter

1944:

Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a nonconformist youth group that assisted army deserters and others hiding from the Nazis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edelweiss_Pirates

2001:

Windows XP, one of the most popular and widely used versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, was released. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

verily: 1. Truly, doubtlessly, in truth. 2. Confidently, certainly. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/verily

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the Gate: "To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his gods, And for the tender mother Who dandled him to rest, And for the wife who nurses His baby at her breast, And for the holy maidens Who feed the eternal flame, To save them from false Sextus That wrought the deed of shame?"   --Thomas Babington Macaulay https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Babington_Macaulay,_1st_Baron_Macaulay