John D. Whitney (July 19, 1850 – November 27, 1917) was an American Catholic priest who was the president of Georgetown University from 1898 to 1901. Born in Massachusetts, he joined the United States Navy at the age of sixteen. He became a Jesuit in 1872 and spent the next twenty- five years studying and teaching mathematics at Jesuit institutions in Canada, England, Ireland, and the United States. He became the vice president of Spring Hill College in Alabama before becoming the president of Georgetown. He oversaw the completion of Gaston Hall, the construction of the entrances to Healy Hall, and the establishment of Georgetown University Hospital and what would become the School of Dentistry. Afterwards, Whitney became the treasurer of Boston College and then engaged in pastoral work in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Baltimore, where he became the prefect of St. Ignatius Church. (This article is part of a featured topic: Presidents of Georgetown University.).

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Presidents_of_Georgetown_University

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1545:

The English warship Mary Rose sank outside Portsmouth during the Battle of the Solent; it was raised from the seabed in 1982 (remnants pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose

1916:

First World War: The "worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history" occurred when Australian forces unsuccessfully attacked German defences at Fromelles, France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_at_Fromelles

1957:

The largely autobiographical novel The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh was published. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ordeal_of_Gilbert_Pinfold

2014:

Gunmen ambushed an Egyptian military checkpoint in the Libyan Desert near Farafra, killing 22 soldiers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Farafra_ambush

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

intensive: 1. Done with intensity or to a great degree; thorough. 2. Being made more intense. 3. Making something more intense; intensifying. 4. (agriculture, economics) Of agriculture: increasing the productivity of an area of land. 5. (linguistics) Of a word: serving to give emphasis or force. 6. Involving much activity in a short period of time; highly concentrated. 7. Of or pertaining to innate or internal intensity or strength rather than outward extent. 8. Chiefly suffixed to a noun: using something with intensity; requiring a great amount of something; demanding. 9. (medicine) Chiefly in intensive care: of care or treatment: involving a great degree of life support, monitoring, and other forms of effort in order to manage life-threatening conditions. 10. (obsolete) 11. That can be intensified; allowing an increase of degree. 12. Synonym of intense (“extreme or very high or strong in degree; of feelings, thoughts, etc.: strongly focused”) 13. A thing which makes something more intense; specifically (linguistics), a form of a word with a more forceful or stronger sense than the root on which it is built. 14. (education) A course taught intensively, involving much activity in a short period of time. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/intensive

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Humor is a very, very important part of our life. It's not just laughing at a joke, it's an attitude toward life. And as the world gets crazier, it's more important to laugh at it. It's a survival technique.   --Bob Newhart https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bob_Newhart