Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the
southeastern coast of Africa. The nation comprises the island of
Madagascar as well as numerous smaller peripheral islands. Madagascar
split from India around 88 million years ago, allowing plants and
animals on the island to evolve to a biodiversity hotspot; over
90 percent of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The island
is among the last major land masses to be reached by humans; its first
settlers arrived on outrigger canoes from Borneo around 2350 years ago,
followed over 1000 years later by migrants from East Africa. The
Malagasy people are often divided into eighteen or more sub-groups of
which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands. At the turn
of the 19th century, most of the island's numerous kingdoms were united
under Merina rulers as the Kingdom of Madagascar. The monarchy collapsed
in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire,
from which the island regained independence in 1960. Since 1992 the
nation has officially been governed as a constitutional democracy from
its capital at Antananarivo. However, in a popular uprising in 2009 the
last elected president Marc Ravalomanana was made to resign and
presidential power was transferred to Andry Rajoelina in a move widely
viewed by the international community as a coup d'état.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1492:
Members of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus reported
the sighting of unknown light on their way to Guanahani.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1492_light_sighting>
1797:
French Revolutionary Wars: The Royal Navy captured eleven Dutch
Navy ships without any losses in the Battle of Camperdown.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Camperdown>
1809:
American explorer Meriwether Lewis died along the Natchez Trace
in Tennessee in an apparent suicide.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meriwether_Lewis>
1950:
A field-sequential color system developed by Hungarian-American
engineer Peter Goldmark became the first color television system to be
adopted for commercial use, but it was abandoned only a year later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-sequential_color_system>
1987:
Sri Lankan Civil War: The Indian Peace Keeping Force began
Operation Pawan to take control of Jaffna from the Tamil Tigers in order
to enforce their disarmament as a part of the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pawan>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
microcosm:
1. A smaller system which is representative of or analogous to a larger
one.
2. A small natural ecosystem; an artificial ecosystem set up as an
experimental model.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/microcosm>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green
earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are
available now.
--Thich Nhat Hanh
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thich_Nhat_Hanh>
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