The Victoria Cross is a military decoration of Canada modelled on the original British Victoria Cross (pictured) – instituted in 1856 by Queen Victoria  – in both intent and appearance, though with several small changes. Created in 1993, it and the original are the highest honours in the Canadian honours system, taking precedence over all other orders, decorations, and medals. It is awarded by either the Canadian monarch or his or her viceregal representative, the Governor General of Canada, to any member of the Canadian Forces or allies serving under or with Canadian military command for extraordinary valour and devotion to duty while facing a hostile force. Recipients are entitled to use the post-nominal letters VC (for both English and French), and also to an annual annuity of C$3,000. The Victoria Cross can be awarded more than once, but no one has received the Canadian medal since its inception.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Cross_%28Canada%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1810:

The Primera Junta, the first independent government in Argentina, was established in an open cabildo in Buenos Aires , marking the end of the May Revolution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Revolution

1926:

Anarchist Sholom Schwartzbard assassinated Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-based government-in-exile of the Ukrainian People's Republic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symon_Petliura

1946:

Abdullah bin Husayn, Emir of the Emirate of Transjordan, was proclaimed King of the renamed "Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan

1961:

During a speech to a joint session of the United States Congress, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo space program, with "the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program

2009:

North Korea conducted a nuclear test and several other missile tests that were widely condemned by the international community and led to sanctions from the United Nations Security Council. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_North_Korean_nuclear_test

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

abjectly (adv): With great shame, desperately; in an abject fashion http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/abjectly

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

You will hear every day the maxims of a low prudence. You will hear, that the first duty is to get land and money, place and name. "What is this Truth you seek? What is this Beauty?" men will ask, with derision. If, nevertheless, God have called any of you to explore truth and beauty, be bold, be firm, be true. When you shall say, "As others do, so will I. I renounce, I am sorry for it, my early visions; I must eat the good of the land, and let learning and romantic expectations go, until a more convenient season." — then dies the man in you; then once more perish the buds of art, and poetry, and science, as they have died already in a thousand thousand men. The hour of that choice is the crisis of your history; and see that you hold yourself fast by the intellect. ... Bend to the persuasion which is flowing to you from every object in Nature, to be its tongue to the heart of man, and to show the besotted world how passing fair is wisdom. --Ralph Waldo Emerson http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson