A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus
passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, obscuring a small part
of the Sun's disc. During a transit, Venus can be seen from the Earth
as a small black disc moving across the face of the Sun. A transit is
similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon but, although the diameter of
Venus is almost 4 times that of the Moon, Venus appears much smaller
because it is much farther away from the Earth. Before modern
astronomy, observations of transits of Venus helped scientists measure
the distance between the Sun and the Earth using the method of
parallax. Transits of Venus are rare and occur in a pattern that
repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits 8 years apart
separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. The first of a
pair of transits of Venus took place in 2004 and the next in this pair
will occur in June 2012. Before 2004, the last pair of transits of
Venus were in December 1874 and December 1882. After 2012, there will
be no more transits of Venus until 2117.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1824:
Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor premiered in Vienna.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_%28Beethoven%29)
1915:
World War I: The ocean liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by
the German submarine Unterseeboot 20, killing 1,198 on board.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania)
1920:
Polish-Soviet War: Polish-Ukrainian troops led by Józef Pi?sudski and
Edward Rydz-?mig?y carried out the Kiev Offensive to capture Kyiv,
Ukraine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev_Offensive_%281920%29)
1945:
End of World War II in Europe: In Reims, France, General Alfred Jodl
signed and submitted the capitulation documents to the Allies on
behalf of Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reims)
1992:
The Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched for its first mission.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Endeavour)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Where men are the most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most
mistaken, and have there given reins to passion, without that proper
deliberation and suspense, which can alone secure them from the
grossest absurdities." -- David Hume
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Hume)
Francis Petre was a prominent New Zealand-born architect based in
Dunedin. Before his time, 19th-century New Zealand architecture was
dominated by an almost institutionalized Gothic revival style,
favoured by the British Empire for its far flung colonies. One of the
first of New Zealand's native born architects, Petre played an
important part in guiding it towards the brighter Palladian and
Renaissance southern European styles which were more suited to New
Zealand's climate than the gloomier Gothic. Able to work competently
in a wide diversity of architectural styles, he was also notable for
his pioneering work in concrete development and construction. He
designed numerous public and private buildings, many of which are
still standing in and around Dunedin. He is chiefly remembered for the
monumental Roman Catholic cathedrals of Wellington, Christchurch and
Dunedin, which survive today as testimony to his talent and
architectural expertise.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Petre
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1527:
Spanish and German troops sacked Rome, marking the symbolic end of
Italian Renaissance.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Renaissance)
1682:
King Louis XIV of France took up residence in the Château de
Versailles.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles)
1863:
American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia led by Robert E. Lee
and Stonewall Jackson scored a decisive Confederate victory in the
Battle of Chancellorsville.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chancellorsville)
1937:
The German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed in
Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster)
1994:
The Channel Tunnel, a 50-km long rail tunnel beneath the English
Channel at the Strait of Dover, was officially opened.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out." --
Rabindranath Tagore
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore)
Automatic number plate recognition is a mass
surveillance method that uses optical character recognition on images
to read the licence plates on vehicles. As of 2005 systems can scan
number plates at around one per second on cars travelling up to 100
mph (160 km/h). They can either use existing closed-circuit television
or road-rule enforcement cameras, or ones specifically designed for
the task. They are implemented by various police forces and as a
method of electronic toll collection on pay-per-use roads. ANPR can be
used to store the images captured by the cameras as well as the text
from the licence plate, with some configurable to store a photograph
of the driver. Systems commonly use infrared lighting to allow the
camera to take the picture at any time of day. They also tend to be
country-specific due to the variation of plates internationally. Media
reports of misidentification and high error rates have led to privacy
fears, though, as the systems have developed, they have become much
more accurate and reliable.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
Cinco de Mayo in Mexico: Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halted a
French invasion in the Battle of Puebla.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_mayo)
1864:
American Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign began with
the Battle of the Wilderness.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overland_Campaign)
1904:
Cy Young of the Boston Americans pitched the first perfect game in the
modern era of baseball.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy_Young)
1949:
The Council of Europe was formed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Europe)
1950:
Prince Bhumibol Adulyadej was crowned in Bangkok as King Rama IX of
Thailand, currently the world's longest-serving head of state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Democracy is the destiny of humanity; freedom its indestructible
arm." -- Benito Juárez
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benito_Ju%C3%A1rez)
The War of the Spanish Succession was a major European armed conflict
that arose in 1701 after the death of the last Spanish Habsburg king,
Charles II. The war proceeded for over a decade, and was marked by the
military leadership of notable generals such as the Duc de Villars and
the Duke of Berwick for France, the Duke of Marlborough for England,
and Prince Eugene of Savoy for the Austrians. The war was concluded by
the treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714). As a result, Philip
V remained King of Spain, but was removed from the French line of
succession, thereby averting a union of France and Spain. The
Austrians gained most of the Spanish territories in Italy and the
Netherlands. As a result, France's hegemony over continental Europe
was ended, and the idea of a balance of power became a part of the
international order due to its mention in the Treaty of Utrecht.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Spanish_Succession
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1471:
Wars of the Roses: Yorkist Edward IV defeated a Lancastrian army in
the Battle of Tewkesbury.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tewkesbury)
1855:
William Walker and group of mercenaries sailed from San Francisco to
conquer Nicaragua.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_%28soldier%29)
1919:
The May Fourth Movement began with large-scale student demonstrations
in Tiananmen Square in Peking, China against the Paris Peace
Conference and Japan's Twenty-one demands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fourth_Movement)
1953:
Ernest Hemingway was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and
the Sea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." --
Horace Mann
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Horace_Mann)
Poland's Constitution of May 3rd, 1791 was instituted by the
Government Act adopted on that date by the Sejm (parliament) of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was Europe's first modern codified
national constitution, and the world's second, after the Constitution
of the United States of America, written in 1787, which began to
function in 1789. It was designed to redress long-standing political
defects of the federative Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The
Constitution instituted political equality between townspeople and
nobility and placed the peasants under the protection of the
government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. The adoption
of the May 3rd Constitution provoked the active hostility of the
Polish Commonwealth's neighbors. In the War in Defense of the
Constitution, Poland was betrayed by its Prussian ally and defeated by
Catherine the Great's Tsarist Russia. Though overthrown in 1792 by
that alliance of foreign invaders and internal traitors, the May 3rd
Constitution influenced later democratic movements througout the world
and remained, after the demise of the Polish Republic in 1795, for the
following 123 years of its political total eclipse, a beacon in the
struggle to restore Polish sovereignty.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Constitution_of_May_3%2C_1791
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1808:
Finnish War: The Swedish fortress of Sveaborg was lost to Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suomenlinna)
1937:
Gone With the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, won the Pulitzer
Prize.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_With_the_Wind)
1945:
World War II: Sinking of the Cap Arcona by the RAF in the Lübeck Bay.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_Arcona)
1947:
A new post-World War II Japanese constitution went into effect.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Japan)
1991:
The last episode of the television soap opera Dallas was broadcast.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_%28television_series%29)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to
take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its
success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of
things." -- Niccolò Machiavelli
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Niccolo_Machiavelli)
Charles Ives was an American composer of classical music. He is widely
regarded as one of the first American classical composers of
international significance. Ives's music was largely ignored during
his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over
time, Ives would come to be regarded as one of the "American
Originals". He was a composer working in a uniquely American style,
with American folk tunes woven through his music, and a reaching sense
of the possible in music. Ives, who died in 1954 in New York City,
left behind material for an unfinished "Universe Symphony". Although
there have been several attempts at completion, none has found its way
into general performance.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ives
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1670:
A Royal Charter granted the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly in the fur
trade in Rupert's Land.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson%27s_Bay_Company)
1933:
The first modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster was reported.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness_Monster)
1945:
World War II: General Helmuth Weidling, defence commandant of Berlin,
surrendered the city to Soviet forces, ending the Battle of Berlin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin)
1982:
Falklands War: The HMS Conqueror sank the ARA General Belgrano.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_General_Belgrano)
1999:
Mireya Moscoso became the first woman to be elected President of
Panama.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mireya_Moscoso)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"You know more than you think you do." -- Benjamin Spock
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock)
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms at right angles to
either the right or left. It is traditionally oriented so that a main
line is horizontal, though is occasionally found at a 45-degree angle
to this, with the Hindu version typically featuring a dot in each
quadrant. The history of the swastika goes back to the origins of the
Eurasian continent. The swastika is an important symbol in Hinduism
and Buddhism, among others, and was also used in Native American and
Jewish faiths prior to World War II. By the early twentieth century it
was regarded worldwide as symbol of good luck and auspiciousness.
Since the rise of the Nazi Party, the swastika has been associated
with fascism, the Second World War and the Holocaust in much of the
world. The swastika remains a core symbol of Neo-Nazi groups. Since
the end of the Second World War, there have been failed attempts by
individuals and groups to convince Westerners to look past the
swastika's recent association with the Nazis to its prehistoric
origins.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
The Order of the Illuminati, a secret society, was founded in Bavaria,
Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati)
1840:
The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, was issued
in the United Kingdom.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black)
1893:
The World Columbian Exposition, a World's Fair to celebrate the 400th
anniversary of the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus,
opened in Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Columbian_Exposition)
1941:
Citizen Kane, a widely acclaimed film by Orson Welles, premiered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Kane)
1960:
In India, the state of Bombay was partitioned into Gujarat and
Maharashtra along linguistic lines.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarat)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
* "DON'T PANIC" -- Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The
Galaxy --
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams)