Li Rui (1917–2019) was a politician, historian, and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dissident. Joining the CCP in the 1930s, he became vice- minister of the Ministry of Water Resources by 1958. His vocal opposition to the proposed Three Gorges Dam brought him to the attention of Mao Zedong, Chairman of the CCP. Li impressed Mao, who made him his personal secretary for industrial affairs. However, Li defied Mao at the 1959 Lushan Conference, and was expelled from the party and sent to a prison camp, spending eight years in solitary confinement. After Mao's death in 1976, Li regained an influential position in the CCP, but was eventually forced to resign because he was unwilling to favor the children of powerful party members. In retirement, Li wrote extensively. He called for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and democracy within a socialist framework, but was censored. Li remained a Communist Party member, respected but isolated, until his death at age 101 in 2019.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1631:

Mumtaz Mahal, wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, died in childbirth; Jahan spent the next seventeen years constructing her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal

1913:

In Detroit, autoworkers for car manufacturer Studebaker went on strike in the American auto industry's first major strike action. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_Studebaker_strike

1963:

Riots broke out in Saigon one day after the signing of the Joint Communiqué, an attempt to resolve the Buddhist crisis in South Vietnam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Communiqu%C3%A9

2017:

Wildfires erupted across central Portugal, eventually causing the deaths of 66 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2017_Portugal_wildfires

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

fixedly: 1. In a fixed manner. 2. Firmly, resolutely. 3. Without changing one's expression; unchangingly. 4. Without shifting one's gaze; intently, steadily. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fixedly

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

To imitate the ostrich in political matters has never been a satisfactory method of avoiding danger; yet this is what Hitler, as well as his more important political, economic and even military advisers, chose to do over and over again. The consequences of this deliberate blindness in the face of hard facts were devastating; and it was we who now had to bear them.   --Heinz Guderian https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heinz_Guderian