Golding Bird (1814–1854) was a British medical doctor and a Fellow of
the Royal College of Physicians. He lectured at Guy's Hospital, and
published a popular textbook on science for medical students. He
developed an interest in chemistry as a child, and through self-study
was advanced enough to deliver lectures to his fellow pupils at
school. He later applied this knowledge to medicine and became a great
authority on urinary deposits. He was the first to describe oxaluria,
a condition which leads to a particular kind of kidney stone. Bird was
innovative in the medical use of electricity, designing much of his
own equipment. He was instrumental in rescuing medical electrotherapy
from quackery and bringing it into the mainstream. He was quick to
adopt new instruments of all kinds; he invented the single-cell
Daniell cell and made important discoveries in electrometallurgy with
it. In 1840 he designed a flexible tube stethoscope, and published the
first description of such an instrument.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golding_Bird>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1194:
King Richard I of England gave the city of Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth>
1559:
Scottish clergyman John Knox (pictured) returned to Scotland from
exile to lead the Scottish Reformation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Knox>
1757:
Konbaung forces captured the city of Bago, Burma, to end the
Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konbaung%E2%80%93Hanthawaddy_War>
1982:
Falklands War: HMS Conqueror launched three torpedoes and sank ARA
General Belgrano, the only ship ever to have been sunk by a nuclear
submarine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_General_Belgrano>
1986:
Henri Toivonen was killed in an accident while leading the Tour de
Corse rally, resulting in FISA, the sport governing body for motor
racing events, banning the powerful and popular Group B rally cars for
the following season.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Toivonen>
2011:
Osama bin Laden was shot and killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in a private
residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Osama_bin_Laden>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
cucumiform:
Shaped like a cucumber; having the form of a cylinder tapered and
rounded at the ends, and possibly curved.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cucumiform>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
True anarchy is the generative element of religion. Out of the
annihilation of every positive element she lifts her gloriously
radiant countenance as the founder of a new world…
--Novalis
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Novalis>
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