100px|W. E. B. Du Bois in 1918

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) was an American civil rights activist, author, and editor. After graduating from Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology, and economics at Atlanta University. Du Bois, one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, rose to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks. Racism was the main target of Du Bois's polemics, and he strongly protested against lynching, Jim Crow laws, and discrimination in education and employment. He was a proponent of Pan-Africanism and helped organize efforts to free African colonies from European powers. Du Bois wrote several seminal essays and treatises, and published many influential pieces in his role as editor of the NAACP's journal The Crisis. He was an ardent peace activist and advocated nuclear disarmament. The United States' Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which Du Bois had campaigned his entire life, was enacted one year after his death. (more...)

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1739:

The identity of English highwayman Dick Turpin, who had been living under an alias in York, was uncovered by his former schoolteacher, who recognised his handwriting, leading to Turpin's arrest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Turpin

1944:

In response to an insurgency in Chechnya, the Soviet Union began the forced deportation of native Chechen and Ingush populations of North Caucasus to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lentil_%28Caucasus%29

1945:

American photographer Joe Rosenthal took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima during the Battle of Iwo Jima, an image that was later reproduced as the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima

1947:

The International Organization for Standardization, responsible for worldwide industrial and commercial standards, was founded. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_for_Standardization

1987:

Light from the supernova SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud reached the Earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

petrology (n): (geology) The study of the origin, composition and structure of rock http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/petrology

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

There can be no rainbow without a cloud and a storm. --John Heyl Vincent http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Heyl_Vincent