Ernest Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) led three British expeditions to the Antarctic during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. He and three companions established a new record Farthest South latitude, 112 miles (180 km) from the South Pole, as part of the Nimrod Expedition of 1907–1909, and Shackleton was knighted on his return home. He planned the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 but his ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and then sank on 21 November 1915. The crew escaped and used the lifeboats to reach Elephant Island and ultimately the island of South Georgia in a stormy ocean voyage of more than 700 nautical miles (800 mi; 1,300 km), Shackleton's most famous exploit. He returned to the Antarctic in 1921 with the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition, but died of a heart attack on South Georgia; at his wife's request, he was buried there. In the latter part of the 20th century, Shackleton became a role model for leadership in extreme circumstances.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1763:

Prussia, Saxony and the Habsburg monarchy signed the Treaty of Hubertusburg, ending the Third Silesian War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Silesian_War

1949:

Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux began excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves in the West Bank, the location of the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qumran_Caves

1979:

Don Dunstan resigned as Premier of South Australia, ending a decade of sweeping social liberalisation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Dunstan

1999:

Abdullah Öcalan, one of the founding members of the militant organization the Kurdistan Workers' Party, was arrested by Turkish security forces in Nairobi, Kenya. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_%C3%96calan

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

at daggers drawn: (idiomatic, chiefly Britain) In a state of open hostility. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/at_daggers_drawn

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

So far as the mere imparting of information is concerned, no university has had any justification for existence since the popularization of printing in the fifteenth century. Yet the chief impetus to the foundation of universities came after that date, and in more recent times has even increased. The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning.   --Alfred North Whitehead https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead