The Log from the Sea of Cortez is a book written by John Steinbeck, published in 1951, which details a six-week marine specimen-collecting boat expedition he made in 1940 at various sites in the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez), with his friend, marine biologist Ed Ricketts. It is regarded as one of Steinbeck's most important works of non-fiction chiefly because of the involvement of Ricketts, who shaped Steinbeck's thinking and provided the prototype for many of the pivotal characters in his fiction, and the insights it gives into the philosophies of the two men. The Log from the Sea of Cortez is the narrative portion of an unsuccessful earlier work, Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research, which was published by Steinbeck and Ricketts shortly after their return from the Gulf of California, and combined the journals of the collecting expedition, reworked by Steinbeck, with Ricketts' species catalogue. After Ricketts' death in 1948, Steinbeck dropped the species catalogue from the earlier work and republished it with a eulogy to his friend added as a foreword.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1781:

American Revolutionary War: A British force under General Lord Cornwallis, numbering 1,900, fought 4,400 American troops under Rhode Island native General Nathanael Greene at the Battle of Guilford Court House inside present-day Greensboro, North Carolina. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guilford_Court_House

1877:

Cricketers representing England and Australia began the first match in Test cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Test_cricket_from_1877_to_1883%23The_first_Test%3C%21--%5B%5BEnglish_cricket_team_in_Australia_and_New_Zealand_in_1876%E2%80%9377%5D%5D_article_is_tagged_with_%7B%7Brefimporve%7D%7D--%3E

1917:

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was forced to abdicate in the February Revolution, ending three centuries of Romanov rule. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II_of_Russia

1943:

World War II: German forces recaptured Kharkov after four days of house-to-house fighting against Soviet troops, ending the month-long Third Battle of Kharkov. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Kharkov

1985:

The company Symbolics became the first ever entity, individual or party to register a .com top-level domain name: symbolics.com. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.com

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

rive (v): 1. To rend asunder by force; to split or cleave.

2. To be split or rent asunder http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rive

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending. --Andrew Jackson http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson