The Great Auk was a large, flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It lived in the North Atlantic, and bred on rocky, isolated islands with easy access to both the ocean and a plentiful food supply, a rarity in nature that provided only a few breeding sites for it. The Great Auk was 75 to 85 centimetres (30 to 33 in) tall and weighed around 5 kilograms (11 lb), making it the largest alcid. It had a black back and a white belly. The black beak was heavy and hooked with grooves on its surface. During summer, the Great Auk had a white patch over each eye. During winter, the auk lost this patch, instead developing a white band stretching between the eyes. The auk was a powerful swimmer, a trait that it used in hunting. Humans had hunted the Great Auk for more than 100,000 years, and by the 19th century, its growing rarity increased interest from European museums and private collectors in obtaining skins and eggs of the bird. The last two confirmed specimens were killed off the coast of Iceland on July 3, 1844. The last credible observation is from 1852.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

987:

Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, becoming the first monarch of the Capetian dynasty, which ruled France continuously until overthrown during the French Revolution in 1792. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Capet

1608:

French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City

1778:

American Revolutionary War: Loyalists and Iroquois killed over 300 Patriots at the Battle of Wyoming in Pennsylvania. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wyoming

1940:

Second World War: The British Navy attacked the French fleet (French destroyer Mogador pictured), fearing that the ships would fall into German hands after the armistice between those two nations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Mers-el-K%C3%A9bir

1988:

United States Navy warship USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

Panglossian: 1. (pejorative) Naively or unreasonably optimistic. 2. (pejorative) Of or relating to the view that this is the best of all possible worlds. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Panglossian

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

An artist is the magician put among men to gratify — capriciously — their urge for immortality. The temples are built and brought down around him, continuously and contiguously, from Troy to the fields of Flanders. If there is any meaning in any of it, it is in what survives as art, yes even in the celebration of tyrants, yes even in the celebration of nonentities. What now of the Trojan War if it had been passed over by the artist's touch? Dust. A forgotten expedition prompted by Greek merchants looking for new markets. A minor redistribution of broken pots. But it is we who stand enriched, by a tale of heroes, of a golden apple, a wooden horse, a face that launched a thousand ships — and above all, of Ulysses, the wanderer, the most human, the most complete of all heroes — husband, father, son, lover, farmer, soldier, pacifist, politician, inventor and adventurer. --Tom Stoppard https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Stoppard