Stanford Memorial Church is located at the center of the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California. It was built during the American Renaissance by Jane Stanford as a memorial to her husband Leland. Designed by architect Charles A. Coolidge, a protegé of Henry Hobson Richardson, the church has been called "the University's architectural crown jewel". The building is Romanesque in form and Byzantine in its details, inspired by churches in the region of Venice and, especially, Ravenna. Its stained glass windows and extensive mosaics are based on religious paintings the Stanfords admired in Europe. The church has four pipe organs, which allow musicians to produce many styles of organ music. Stanford Memorial Church has withstood two major earthquakes, in 1906 and 1989, and was extensively renovated after each. Stanford Memorial Church was the earliest and has been "among the most prominent" non-denominational churches on the West Coast of the United States. Since its dedication in 1903, the church's goal has been to serve the spiritual needs of the university in a non-sectarian way.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Memorial_Church

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1701:

Prince James Francis Edward Stuart , more commonly referred to as the "Old Pretender", became the Jacobite claimant of the thrones of England and Scotland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Francis_Edward_Stuart

1776:

American Revolutionary War: Infuriated by British troops sounding their bugle horns like it was a fox hunt, the Americans held their ground en route to a victory at the Battle of Harlem Heights in present-day New York City. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Harlem_Heights

1963:

Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (present-day Sabah), and Sarawak merged to form Malaysia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia

1982:

A Lebanese militia under the direct command of Elie Hobeika carried out a massacre in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila, killing at least 700 civilians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre

1987:

The Montreal Protocol, an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of a number of substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion, opened for signature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

ductile (adj): 1. Capable of being pulled or stretched into thin wire by mechanical force without breaking. 2. Molded easily into a new form. 3. (rare) Led easily; prone to follow http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ductile

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

It is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who makes a real and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths. --Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_St_John%2C_1st_Viscount_Bolingbroke