Shepseskaf was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt who reigned in the late 26th to the mid–25th century BC. He was the sixth and probably last ruler of the fourth dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. His name means "His soul is noble". Shepseskaf might have been the son or possibly the brother of his predecessor Menkaure. During his reign of four to seven years, Shepseskaf completed the mortuary complex of the Pyramid of Menkaure, the smallest of the three main pyramids of Giza, using mudbricks. For his own tomb he abandoned the Giza necropolis and built a mastaba, a flat-roofed rectangular structure now known as the Mastabat al-Fir'aun, at South Saqqara. These decisions may have reflected his short reign, a declining economy, or a power struggle between the King and the priesthood of Ra. Alternatively, Shepseskaf may have intended his tomb to be a pyramid, but after his death it was completed as a mastaba.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1776:

American Revolutionary War: British reinforcements brought an end to the Patriot attempt to capture Fort Cumberland in Nova Scotia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Cumberland_%281776%29

1890:

The National Diet of Japan (pictured in session), a bicameral legislature modelled after both the German Reichstag and the British Westminster system, first met in Tokyo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Diet

2007:

During their trial for the 2003 Oakwood mutiny, Philippine soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes mutinied and seized a conference room in The Peninsula Manila in Makati. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Peninsula_siege

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

environ: 1. To encircle or surround (someone or something). 2. (often military) To encircle or surround (someone or something) so as to attack from all sides; to beset. 3. (heraldry, chiefly passive, obsolete) To encircle or surround (a heraldic element such as a charge or escutcheon (shield)). 4. To cover, enclose, or envelop (someone or something). 5. Followed by from: to hide or shield (someone or something). 6. (chiefly passive) Of a person: to be positioned or stationed around (someone or something) to attend to or protect them. 7. (figuratively) Of a situation or state of affairs, especially danger or trouble: to happen to and affect (someone or something). 8. (obsolete) 9. To amount to or encompass (a space). 10. To travel completely around (a place or thing); to circumnavigate. 11. (archaic except in the plural, formal, also figuratively) A surrounding area or place (especially of an urban settlement); an environment. [...] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/environ

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.   --Louisa May Alcott https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louisa_May_Alcott