The Zuiderzee Works were a massive hydraulic engineering project
undertaken by the Netherlands during the 20th century. They were
built to protect land from flooding and to reclaim land in extensive
polders, for farming and housing. Original plans for the works date
back to the 17th century, but it was not until 1913, when Cornelis
Lely became minister of transport, that official planning started.
The single biggest structure in the project was a 32 km long dam, the
Afsluitdijk, protecting the Dutch from the North Sea. But to test the
waters the small Amsteldiepdijk was built first, construction of
which lasted four years and proved to be a valuable learning
experience for the much larger Afsluitdijk. When the Afsluitdijk was
finished in 1932, the Zuiderzee was completely dammed off and from
then on would be called lake IJsselmeer. The inflation-adjusted cost
of the dam would be the current equivalent of $710 million.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuiderzee_Works
Today's selected anniversaries:
1700 At the Battle of Narva King Charles XII of Sweden defeated
the army of Tsar Peter the Great.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva)
1789 New Jersey became the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill
of Rights.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights)
1969 Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer published explicit
photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in
Vietnam.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre)
1999 The People's Republic of China launched its first Shenzhou
spacecraft.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_spacecraft)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Unless you choose to do great things with it, it makes no
difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have."
~ Oprah Winfrey
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey)
Sir Alfred Hitchcock was a British film director whose films are
closely associated with the suspense thriller genre. Hitchcock is one
of the most well-known and popular directors of all time, known as
the "Master of Suspense" due to the many successful motion pictures
he directed involving murderers and the innocent people caught in
their paths. He directed over fifty films over the course of his
career, with several of them becoming well-known box office hits that
have influenced a great number of filmmakers, producers, and actors.
From 1955 to 1965, Hitchcock was the host and producer of a
long-running television series entitled Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
While his films had made Hitchcock's name synonymous with "suspense,"
the series made Hitchcock a celebrity himself. His voice, image, and
mannerisms became instantly recognizable, and were often the subject
of parody. He directed a few episodes of the series himself, and he
upset a number of movie production companies when he insisted on
using his television crew to produce his motion picture Psycho.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock
Today's selected anniversaries:
1493 Christopher Columbus became the first European to land on
Puerto Rico, an island he named San Juan Bautista.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico)
1794 The United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain
concluded the Jay Treaty.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Treaty)
1863 U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg
Address.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address)
1942 Soviet forces under General Georgy Zhukov launched the
Operation Uranus envelopment at the Battle of Stalingrad,
turning the tide of the battle in the Soviet Union's favor.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Uranus)
1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader
to officially visit Israel; he met with Prime Minister
Menachem Begin and spoke before the Knesset.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Sadat)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Nowadays most men lead lives of noisy desperation." ~ James Thurber
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Thurber)
In mathematics, a regular polytope is a geometric figure with a high
degree of symmetry. Examples in two dimensions include the square,
the regular pentagon and hexagon, and so on. In three dimensions the
regular polytopes include the cube, the dodecahedron, and in fact all
the Platonic solids. There exist examples in higher dimensions also.
Circles and spheres, although highly symmetric, are not considered
regular polytopes because they do not have flat faces. See the
section history of discovery for a more precise definition of regular
polytopes. The strong symmetry of the regular polytopes gives them an
aesthetic quality that piques the interest of non-mathematicians and
mathematicians alike.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_polytope
Today's selected anniversaries:
1307 William Tell, a legendary marksman in Switzerland,
successfully shot an apple on the head of his son with a
single bolt from his crossbow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tell)
1905 Prince Carl of Denmark became Haakon VII, the first King of
Norway after the personal union of Sweden-Norway was
dissolved.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haakon_VII_of_Norway)
1959 Ben-Hur, a film based on a bestselling historical novel by
Lew Wallace, premiered in New York City. It went on to win
an unprecedented eleven Academy Awards.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben%2dHur)
1978 Jim Jones led more than 900 members of the People's Temple
to a mass murder/suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown)
1985 Calvin and Hobbes, a comic strip by Bill Watterson, was
first published.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes)
Wikiquote of the day:
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is
striking at the root." ~ Henry David Thoreau
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau)
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign
of World War II, fought in the seas around the island of Leyte in the
Philippines from October 23 to October 26, 1944. The Japanese
intended to repel or destroy the Allied invasion of Leyte. Instead,
the Allied navies inflicted a major defeat on the outnumbered
Imperial Japanese Navy which finished it as a strategic force in the
Pacific War. The battle is often considered to be the largest naval
battle in history. Leyte Gulf was also the scene of the first use of
kamikaze aircraft by the Japanese. The Australian heavy cruiser HMAS
Australia was hit on 21 October, and organized suicide attacks by the
"Special Attack Force" began on 25 October.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf
Today's selected anniversaries:
1558 Elizabeth I ascended the English Throne.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England)
1869 The Suez Canal was inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal)
1969 The SALT I negotiations between the Soviet Union and the
United States began in Helsinki.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SALT_I)
1970 Douglas Engelbart received the patent for the first
computer mouse.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/computer_mouse)
1973 Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, US President
Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors
"I am not a crook."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal)
Wikiquote of the day:
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will
know peace." ~ Jimi Hendrix
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jimi_Hendrix)
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character. Created in 1922, his black
body, white eyes and giant grin, coupled with the surrealism of the
situations his cartoons placed him in, combined to make him one of
the most recognizable cartoon characters in the world. Felix was the
first cartoon character to attain a level of popularity sufficient to
draw movie audiences based solely on his star power. Felix the Cat had
his origins in cartoons starring an animated Charlie Chaplin that
Messmer created while working at the animation studio of Australian
émigré Pat Sullivan. Felix reached the height of his worldwide fame
in 1925. Sullivan marketed the cat relentlessly, making up all sorts
of tall tales about the character's origins and even taking credit
for being the character's sole creator.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_the_Cat
Today's selected anniversaries:
1532 Francisco Pizarro and his men captured Incan Emperor
Atahualpa and his nobles.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atahualpa)
1885 Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and "Father of
Manitoba", Louis Riel, was executed for high treason.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Riel)
1973 Richard Nixon signed legislation authorizing the
Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans%2dAlaska_Pipeline_System)
1981 Luke and Laura marry on General Hospital; it is the
highest-rated hour in American daytime television history.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_and_Laura_Spencer)
2002 What is believed to be the first outbreak of severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS) began in the Guangdong province
of China.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Every now and then a clear harmonic cry gave new suggestions of a
tune that would someday be the only tune in the world and would
raise men's souls to joy." ~ Jack Kerouac in On The Road
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/On_The_Road)
Linus Pauling was an American physical chemist. Widely considered as
the most influential chemist of the 20th century and one of the most
important scientists of all time, Pauling was one of the first
quantum chemists, and in 1954 was awarded the Nobel Prize in
chemistry for his work describing the nature of chemical bonds.
Pauling received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his campaign
against above-ground nuclear testing, becoming one of only two people
to receive the Nobel Prize in more than one field, the other being
Marie Curie.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling
Today's selected anniversaries:
1854 The Suez Canal was given a royal concession by Said to
commence operation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal)
1889 Deodoro da Fonseca overthrew Emperor Pedro II to become the
first President of the Republic of Brazil.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deodoro_da_Fonseca)
1920 The first general assembly of the League of Nations was
held in Geneva, Switzerland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations)
1971 Intel released the world's first microprocessor, the 4004.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor)
2002 Hu Jintao became General Secretary of the Communist Party
of China.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Jintao)
Wikiquote of the day:
"If I want to understand something, I must observe, I must not
criticize, I must not condemn, I must not pursue it as pleasure or
avoid it as non-pleasure. There must merely be the silent
observation of a fact." ~ J. Krishnamurti
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._Krishnamurti)
Jonathan Swift's first major work, A Tale of a Tub, was composed
between 1694 and 1697 and published in 1704. It is probably his most
difficult satire, and possibly his most masterful. The Tale is a
prose parody which is divided up into sections of "digression" and
"tale". The "tale" presents a consistent satire of religious excess,
while the digressions are a series of parodies of contemporary
writing in literature, politics, theology, Biblical exegesis, and
medicine. The overarching parody is of enthusiasm, pride, and
credulity. From its opening (once past the prolegomena, which
comprises the first three sections), the book is constructed like a
layer cake, with Digression and Tale alternating. However, the
digressions overwhelm the narrative, both in terms of the
forcefulness and imaginativeness of writing and in terms of volume.
Furthermore, after Chapter X (the commonly anthologized "Digression
on Madness"), the labels for the sections are incorrect. Sections
then called "Tale" are Digressions, and those called "Digression" are
also Digressions.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_a_Tub
Today's selected anniversaries:
1851 Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick was first published.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick)
1940 World War II: Coventry was destroyed by 500 German
Luftwaffe bombers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry)
1971 Mariner 9 reached Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to
orbit another planet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_9)
1990 The Federal Republic of Germany amended its constitution to
confirm the Polish border at the Oder-Neisse line.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oder%2dNeisse_line)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Anyone who believes in God and the Last Day should not harm his
neighbor. Anyone who believes in God and the Last Day should
entertain his guest generously. And anyone who believes in God and
the Last Day should say what is good or keep quiet." ~ Muhammad
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Muhammad)
The Economy of Africa is comprised of more than 800 million people in
fifty-four different nations. Africa's economy is emerging from the
after-effects of colonialism and it struggles with difficult
democratic, welfare and quality of life issues. Africa is by far the
world's poorest continent, and more saliently it is on average poorer
than it was twenty-five years ago. While rapid growth in China and
now India, and moderate growth in South America, has lifted millions
beyond subsistence living, Africa has stagnated, even going backwards
in terms of foreign trade, investment, and per capita income. This
poverty has widespread effects, including low life expectancy,
violence, and instability—factors that further increase the
continent's poverty. Over the decades a number of solutions have been
proposed and many attempted, but no improvement scheme has shown much
success.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Africa
Today's selected anniversaries:
1887 Bloody Sunday clashes in Trafalgar Square
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_1887)
1970 A 100-mph tropical cyclone hit the densely populated Ganges
Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an
estimated 500,000 people (this is regarded as the 20th
century's worst cyclone disaster).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh)
1982 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington
D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War
veterans.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_Veterans_Memorial)
1985 The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted, causing a lahar
(volcanic mudslide) that buried Armero, Colombia, killing
approximately 23,000 people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevado_del_Ruiz)
1990 The first known web page was written.
http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/Link.htm
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence
that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as
Time." ~ Thomas Carlyle
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle)
Baseball is a team sport that is popular in the Americas and East
Asia. In the United States, baseball has often been called the
national pastime, and the total attendance for Major League games is
more than that of all other American professional sports combined. In
Japan, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, South Korea, and several other
countries, baseball is the most popular sport by any measurement.
Among American television viewers, however, it has been surpassed in
popularity by American football and, in the South, car racing.
Although the three most popular team sports in North America are ball
games (baseball, basketball and American football), baseball's
popularity was once so great that the word "ballgame" in the United
States specifically refers to a game of baseball, and "ballfield" or
"ballpark" to a baseball diamond. Baseball is played between two
teams of nine players each on a baseball field, usually under the
authority of one or more officials, called umpires. The game is
played in nine innings in which each team gets one turn to and try to
score runs while the other pitches and defends in the field,
attempting to get three players of the batting team out.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball
Today's selected anniversaries:
1936 In California, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened
to traffic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco%2dOakland_Bay_Bridge)
1970 The Oregon Highway Division attempted to destroy a rotting
beached Grey whale with explosives, leading to the
exploding whale incident.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_whale)
1991 Indonesian forces opened fire on student demonstrators in
the Dili Massacre.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dili_Massacre)
1992 Absolutely Fabulous aired its first episode on BBC1.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolutely_Fabulous)
2001 Taliban forces abandoned Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan,
ahead of advancing Northern Alliance troops.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabul)
Wikiquote of the day:
"All the people of all the nations which had fought in the First
World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh
hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh
month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen,
that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one
another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during
that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the
sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some
men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind." ~ Kurt
Vonnegut
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut)
Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It is considered one of the most important cities in the Balkans and
has had a long and rich history ever since it was founded by the
Ottomans in 1461. It was the site of the assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand which sparked World War I; more recently Sarajevo has
hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics and experienced the longest siege in
the history of modern warfare. Sarajevo is part of Canton Sarajevo,
one of the ten Cantons of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is
located close to the geometric center of the triangularly-shaped
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and covers some 142 km2 (88.2 square miles)
of land. Sarajevo has a continental climate, lying between the
climate zones of central Europe to the north and the Mediterranean to
the south. The city has warm summers, with temperatures of
35°C (95°F) not being uncommon; Sarajevo also has cold winters with
much snow due to the city's high altitude.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarajevo
Today's selected anniversaries:
1675 Gottfried Leibniz demonstrated integral calculus for the
first time to find the area under the y = x function.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Leibniz)
1880 Australian bank robber and bushranger Edward "Ned" Kelly
was hanged in Melbourne.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly)
1930 A patent was awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd
for their invention, the Einstein Refrigerator.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_Refrigerator)
1965 Ian Smith, Premier of the British Crown Colony of Southern
Rhodesia, issued the Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Smith)
Wikiquote of the day:
"When war is declared, truth is the first casualty." ~ Arthur
Ponsonby
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Ponsonby)