From the late 19th century until 1933, the first
homosexual movement
unsuccessfully sought the repeal of Paragraph 175, a German law
criminalizing sex between men. In 1897, Magnus Hirschfeld founded the
Scientific-Humanitarian Committee—the world's first homosexual rights
organization—to achieve this goal through science. The movement
greatly expanded after World War I and the German revolution, when the
first mass-market periodicals for gay people were published. The German
Friendship Society and the League for Human Rights, founded after the
war, emphasized human rights and respectability politics. In 1929, the
German parliament considered but ultimately did not vote on a proposal
to decriminalize homosexuality. The movement waned after failing to
achieve its objectives, and was shut down after the Nazi takeover in
early 1933. The first homosexual movement has inspired and influenced
later LGBT movements.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_homosexual_movement>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1868:
Ōdate, the last castle of the Satake clan in Japan's Tōhoku
region, was captured during the Boshin War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satake_clan>
1878:
The state funeral of Mindon Min, who ruled Burma for 25 years,
was held.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_funeral_of_Mindon_Min>
1914:
Japan captured Pohnpei from Germany, eventually leading to
large-scale Japanese immigration to Micronesia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Micronesians>
2006:
Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and human-rights
activist, was assassinated in the elevator of her apartment block in
Moscow.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Anna_Politkovskaya>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
man-of-war:
1. (military, archaic except humorous) A man whose occupation is
fighting in wars; a soldier, a warrior.
2. (military, nautical, chiefly historical) A powerful armed naval
vessel, primarily one armed with cannon and propelled by sails; a
warship.
3. (obsolete, rare) In full man-of-war's-man: a sailor serving on board
an armed naval vessel.
4. Senses relating to animals.
5. Short for man-of-war bird or (obsolete) man-of-war hawk: any of a
number of seabirds, especially one which attacks other seabirds to take
their food.
6. (specifically, archaic) A frigatebird (family Fregatidae), especially
the magnificent frigatebird (Fregata magnificens).
7. (specifically, US) The Arctic skua (Stercorarius parasiticus).
8. Short for Portuguese man-of-war (“Physalia physalis, a jellyfish-like
marine cnidarian consisting of a floating colony of hydrozoans attached
to a float”)
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/man-of-war>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We respect Ukrainians' desire to see their country free, safe and
prosperous. I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible
only in partnership with Russia. Our spiritual, human and civilizational
ties formed for centuries and have their origins in the same sources,
they have been hardened by common trials, achievements and victories.
Our kinship has been transmitted from generation to generation. It is in
the hearts and the memory of people living in modern Russia and Ukraine,
in the blood ties that unite millions of our families. Together we have
always been and will be many times stronger and more successful. For we
are one people. Today, these words may be perceived by some people with
hostility. They can be interpreted in many possible ways. Yet, many
people will hear me. And I will say one thing — Russia has never been
and will never be "anti-Ukraine". And what Ukraine will be — it is up
to its citizens to decide.
--Vladimir Putin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin>