Li Rui (1917–2019) was a politician, historian, and Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) dissident. Joining the CCP in the 1930s, he became vice-
minister of the Ministry of Water Resources by 1958. His vocal
opposition to the proposed Three Gorges Dam brought him to the attention
of Mao Zedong, Chairman of the CCP. Li impressed Mao, who made him his
personal secretary for industrial affairs. However, Li defied Mao at the
1959 Lushan Conference, and was expelled from the party and sent to a
prison camp, spending eight years in solitary confinement. After Mao's
death in 1976, Li regained an influential position in the CCP, but was
eventually forced to resign because he was unwilling to favor the
children of powerful party members. In retirement, Li wrote extensively.
He called for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and democracy
within a socialist framework, but was censored. Li remained a Communist
Party member, respected but isolated, until his death at age 101 in
2019.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Rui>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1631:
Mumtaz Mahal, wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, died in
childbirth; Jahan spent the next seventeen years constructing her
mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal>
1913:
In Detroit, autoworkers for car manufacturer Studebaker went on
strike in the American auto industry's first major strike action.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_Studebaker_strike>
1963:
Riots broke out in Saigon one day after the signing of the
Joint Communiqué, an attempt to resolve the Buddhist crisis in South
Vietnam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Communiqu%C3%A9>
2017:
Wildfires erupted across central Portugal, eventually causing
the deaths of 66 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2017_Portugal_wildfires>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
fixedly:
1. In a fixed manner.
2. Firmly, resolutely.
3. Without changing one's expression; unchangingly.
4. Without shifting one's gaze; intently, steadily.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fixedly>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
To imitate the ostrich in political matters has never been a
satisfactory method of avoiding danger; yet this is what Hitler, as well
as his more important political, economic and even military advisers,
chose to do over and over again. The consequences of this deliberate
blindness in the face of hard facts were devastating; and it was we who
now had to bear them.
--Heinz Guderian
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heinz_Guderian>
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