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>
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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>
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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>