Raymond Brownell (17 May 1894 – 12 April 1974) was a senior officer
in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and a World War I flying ace.
He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at the outbreak of World
War I and served in the Gallipoli campaign before transferring to the
Western Front. Awarded the Military Medal for his actions during the
Battle of Pozières, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917.
Moving with his squadron to Italy, he was awarded the Military Cross and
credited with shooting down 12 aircraft. After the war, Brownell
returned to Australia and was group captain at the outbreak of World
War II. Establishing the RAAF base in Singapore, he returned to
Australia in 1941 and was appointed to lead No. 1 Training Group. He
was Air Officer Commanding Western Area for over two years, then led the
No. 11 Group on Morotai. Retiring from the RAAF in 1947, Brownell
became a partner in a stockbroking firm. He died in 1974; his
autobiography was published posthumously.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Brownell>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1863:
American Civil War: At the Battle of Big Black River Bridge in
Mississippi, Union forces under John A. McClernand defeated a
Confederate rearguard and captured around 1,700 men.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Big_Black_River_Bridge>
1900:
The first copies of the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard
of Oz by L. Frank Baum were printed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz>
1954:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v.
Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in public schools
because "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and
therefore unconstitutional.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education>
1987:
An Iraqi jet fired two Exocet missiles at the American frigate
USS Stark, killing 37 personnel and injuring 21 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Stark_incident>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gazetteer:
1. (archaic or historical) A person who writes for a gazette or
newspaper; a journalist; (specifically) a journalist engaged by a
government.
2. (by extension, obsolete) A gazette, a newspaper.
3. (geography) A dictionary or index of geographical locations.
4. (by extension) A descriptive list (often alphabetical) of any
subject.
5. Synonym of gazette (“to announce the status of (someone) in an
official gazette”)
6. (archaic) To report about (someone) in a gazette or newspaper.
7. (transitive, geography) To describe the geography of (a country or
other place) in a gazetteer (etymology 2, noun sense 1).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gazetteer>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The infirmity of human intelligence is short sight. In too
many cases, the wiseacres are dunces of a sort, who lose sight of the
simplicity of things, and stifle and obscure it with formulae and
trivialities. It is the small things that one learns from books, not the
great ones. And even while they are saying that they do not wish for
war they are doing all they can to perpetuate it. They nourish national
vanity and the love of supremacy by force. "We alone," they say, each
behind his shelter, "we alone are the guardians of courage and loyalty,
of ability and good taste!" Out of the greatness and richness of a
country they make something like a consuming disease. Out of patriotism
— which can be respected as long as it remains in the domain of
sentiment and art on exactly the same footing as the sense of family and
local pride, all equally sacred — out of patriotism they make a
Utopian and impracticable idea, unbalancing the world, a sort of cancer
which drains all the living force, spreads everywhere and crushes life,
a contagious cancer which culminates either in the crash of war or in
the exhaustion and suffocation of armed peace. They pervert the most
admirable of moral principles. How many are the crimes of which they
have made virtues merely by dowering them with the word "national"? They
distort even truth itself. For the truth which is eternally the same
they substitute each their national truth. So many nations, so many
truths; and thus they falsify and twist the truth.
--Henri Barbusse
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henri_Barbusse>
Operation Title was an unsuccessful 1942 Allied attack on the German
battleship Tirpitz during World War II. The Allies considered Tirpitz
to be a major threat to their shipping and after several Royal Air Force
heavy bomber raids failed to inflict any damage it was decided to use
Royal Navy midget submarines instead. Operation Title involved a pair of
two-man British Chariots which were transported to Norway on board a
small boat named Arthur. Both Chariots were lost when bad weather caused
them to detach from Arthur on 31 October. It was not possible for the
Allied boat to reach the sea due to German security measures, and Arthur
was scuttled. The Allied personnel attempted to escape overland and all
but one reached neutral Sweden on 5 November. The other – a British
serviceman – was taken prisoner by German forces and murdered on 19
January 1943. Tirpitz was eventually sunk by another bomber raid on 12
November 1944.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Title>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1855:
Thieves stole 224 pounds (102 kg) of gold from a train
travelling from London to Folkestone, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Gold_Robbery>
1864:
American Civil War: A small Confederate force, which included
cadets from the Virginia Military Institute, forced the Union Army out
of the Shenandoah Valley.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Market>
1904:
Russo-Japanese War: The Japanese battleships Hatsuse and
Yashima sank after striking several mines off Port Arthur, China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yashima>
1916:
Jesse Washington, a teenage African-American farmhand, was
lynched in Waco, Texas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Jesse_Washington>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
child's play:
(idiomatic) Something particularly easy or simple.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/child%27s_play>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Thou silver deity of secret night, Direct my footsteps
through the woodland shade;Thou conscious witness of unknown
delight, The Lover’s guardian, and the Muse’s aid!
--Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lady_Mary_Wortley_Montagu>
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It was formed approximately
4.5 billion years ago, is a terrestrial planet and is the second
smallest of the Solar System's planets with a diameter of 6,779 km
(4,212 mi). A Martian solar day (sol) is 24.5 hours and a Martian solar
year is 1.88 Earth years (687 Earth days). Mars has two small and
irregular natural satellites: Phobos and Deimos. Carbon dioxide is
substantially present in Mars's polar ice caps and thin atmosphere. It
has the highest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons, and the
largest canyon, Valles Marineris. There are large annual temperature
swings on the surface, between −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) and 5.7 °C
(42.3 °F) – similar to Earth's seasons. Due to its geological
history, the possibility of past or present life on Mars remains of
great scientific interest. Mars has been explored by uncrewed spacecraft
and rovers, and is an attractive target for future human exploration
missions. (This article is part of a featured topic: Solar System.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Solar_System>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1857:
Mindon Min was crowned as King of Burma.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_Mindon_Min>
1863:
American Civil War: Union troops captured Jackson, the capital
of Mississippi.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jackson>
1931:
Five people were killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers opened
fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85dalen_shootings>
1948:
David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of
Independence at Independence Hall in Tel Aviv.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Declaration_of_Independence>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
impose:
1. (transitive)
2. (archaic) To physically lay or place (something) on another thing; to
deposit, to put, to set.
3. (Christianity) To lay or place (one's hands) on someone as a
blessing, during rites of confirmation, ordination, etc.
4. (printing) To lay (columns or pages of type, or printing plates)
arranged in a proper order on the bed of a press or an imposing stone
and secure them in a chase in preparation for printing.
5. (figurative)
6. To apply, enforce, or establish (something, often regarded as
burdensome as a restriction or tax: see sense 1.2.2) with authority.
7. To place or put (something chiefly immaterial, especially something
regarded as burdensome as a duty, an encumbrance, a penalty, etc.) on
another thing or on someone; to inflict, to repose; also, to place or
put (on someone a chiefly immaterial thing, especially something
regarded as burdensome).
8. To force or put (a thing) on someone or something by deceit or
stealth; to foist, to obtrude.
9. (UK, school or university slang) To subject (a student) to imposition
(“a task inflicted as punishment”).
10. (archaic or obsolete) To appoint (someone) to be in authority or
command over other people.
11. (obsolete) To accuse someone of (a crime, or a sin or other
wrongdoing); to charge, to impute.
12. (obsolete) To put (a conclusion or end) to something definitively.
13. (intransitive) Chiefly followed by on or upon.
14. To affect authoritatively or forcefully; to influence strongly.
15. To encroach or intrude, especially in a manner regarded as unfair or
unwarranted; to presume, to take advantage of; also, to be a burden or
inconvenience.
16. To practise deceit or stealth; to cheat, to deceive, to trick.
17. (obsolete) To subject to an impost, levy, tax, etc.
18. (obsolete) An act of placing or putting on something chiefly
immaterial, especially something regarded as burdensome as a duty, a
task, etc.; an imposition.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/impose>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
As there are a very great variety of religious sects in the world
(and which are probably adapted to different constitutions under
different circumstances, seeing there are many good and conscientious
characters in each), it is particularly recommended, as a means of
uniting the inhabitants of the village into one family, that while each
faithfully adheres to the principles which he most approves, at the same
time all shall think charitably of their neighbours respecting their
religious opinions, and not presumptuously suppose that theirs alone are
right.
--Robert Owen
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Owen>
Doom is a first-person shooter video game and a reboot of the Doom
franchise released on May 13, 2016. Players take the role of an unnamed
space marine who battles demonic forces within an energy-mining facility
on Mars and in Hell. The game also has an online multiplayer mode and a
level editor. Developer id Software and co-developers took eight years
to make the game. Their project "Doom 4" was fully overhauled in 2011
to better replicate the tone of the original Doom of 1993. Bethesda
Softworks published the 2016 Doom as the first major series installment
following Doom 3 in 2004. Its single-player campaign, graphics,
soundtrack, and gameplay received considerable praise, while its
multiplayer mode drew significant criticism. Doom became a best-seller,
with more than two million PC copies sold by the next year. Multiple
industry outlets named Doom among 2016's best video games. It received a
sequel four years later.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_%282016_video_game%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1958:
US vice president Richard Nixon's motorcade was attacked by a
mob in Caracas, Venezuela.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Richard_Nixon%27s_motorcade>
2000:
An explosion (aftermath pictured) at a fireworks factory in
Enschede, Netherlands, resulted in 23 deaths and approximately
€450 million in damage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enschede_fireworks_disaster>
2008:
Nine bombs placed by the Indian Mujahideen, then an unknown
terrorist group, exploded in a 15-minute period in Jaipur, India,
killing 80 people and injuring more than 200 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaipur_bombings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
what's your poison:
(originally US, idiomatic, humorous, informal, dated) Used to ask
someone what alcoholic beverage they would like to drink: what drink
would you like to have?
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/what%27s_your_poison>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have made a great discovery. I no longer believe in
anything. Objects don't exist for me except in so far as a rapport
exists between them or between them and myself. When one attains this
harmony, one reaches a sort of intellectual non-existence — what I can
only describe as a sense of peace, which makes everything possible and
right. Life then becomes a perpetual revelation. That is true poetry.
--Georges Braque
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Georges_Braque>
Leucippus was a Greek philosopher of the 5th century BCE. He is credited
with founding atomism, with his student Democritus. Leucippus divided
the world into two entities: atoms, indivisible particles that make up
all things, and the void, the nothingness between the atoms. Leucippus's
ideas were influential in ancient and Renaissance philosophy. They were
a precursor to modern atomic theory, but the two are only superficially
similar. Leucippus's atoms come in infinitely many forms, all in
constant motion, creating a deterministic world created by the
collisions of atoms. The soul is viewed as an arrangement of spherical
atoms, cycled through the body by respiration and creating thought and
sensory input. Little is known of his life, with a few scholars doubting
that he existed, attributing his ideas purely to Democritus. Two works
are attributed to Leucippus, The Great World System and On Mind, but all
of his writing has been lost except for one sentence.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucippus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1889:
Bandits attacked a U.S. Army paymaster's escort in the Arizona
Territory, stealing more than $28,000.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wham_Paymaster_robbery>
1970:
Lubbock, Texas, was struck by a tornado that left 26 people
dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubbock_tornado>
2010:
Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
and Leader of the Labour Party after failing to strike a coalition
agreement with the Liberal Democrats.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_Kingdom_government_formation>
2022:
Myanmar civil war: Government troops killed 37 unarmed
civilians in Mondaingbin.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon_Taing_Pin_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
syrinx:
1. (music) A set of panpipes.
2. (by extension)
3. (archaeology, Egyptology) Chiefly in the plural: a narrow channel cut
in rock, especially in Ancient Egyptian burial chambers.
4. (neurology, pathology) Any of several abnormal tube-shaped structures
in the body, especially a rare, fluid-filled neuroglial cavity in the
brain stem or within the spinal cord.
5. (ornithology, zootomy) The voice organ in birds, located at or near
where the trachea and the bronchi join.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/syrinx>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Get up, get up for shame! The blooming morn Upon her wings
presents the god unshorn. See how Aurora throws her fair Fresh-quilted
colours through the air: Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see The dew
bespangling herb and tree! Each flower has wept and bow’d toward the
east Above an hour since, yet you not drest; Nay! not so much as out
of bed? When all the birds have matins said And sung their thankful
hymns, ’tis sin, Nay, profanation, to keep in, Whereas a thousand
virgins on this day Spring sooner than the lark, to fetch in May.
--Robert Herrick
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Herrick>
The Felix M. Warburg House is a mansion at 1109 Fifth Avenue on the
Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was built from 1907 to
1908 for the German-American Jewish financier Felix M. Warburg, in the
Châteauesque style, and designed by C. P. H. Gilbert. After Warburg's
death in 1937, his widow sold it to a real estate developer. When plans
to replace it with luxury apartments fell through, ownership reverted to
the Warburgs, who donated it in 1944 to the Jewish Theological Seminary
of America. In 1947, the Seminary opened the Jewish Museum in the
mansion. The house was named a New York City designated landmark in 1981
and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. In
1993, Kevin Roche constructed an annex to the house in Gilbert's style,
built with stone from the same quarry that supplied the original
mansion. Critical reviews of the original house's architecture have
generally been positive while the extension received a mixed reception.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_M._Warburg_House>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1833:
Siamese–Vietnamese wars: Lê Văn Khôi escaped from prison
to begin a revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng, primarily to avenge his
adoptive father, Vietnamese general Lê Văn Duyệt.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%AA_V%C4%83n_Kh%C3%B4i_revolt>
1916:
Ernest Shackleton and five companions arrived at South Georgia,
completing a 1,300 km (800 mi) lifeboat voyage over 16 days to obtain
rescue for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_James_Caird>
1940:
World War II: German forces commenced their invasion of
Belgium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_invasion_of_Belgium_%281940%29>
2013:
One World Trade Center in New York City, the tallest building
in the Western Hemisphere, was topped out at a height of 1,776 feet
(541 m).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_World_Trade_Center>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
embolden:
1. To render (someone) bolder or more courageous; to encourage, to
hearten.
2. (typography) To format (text) in boldface.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/embolden>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Haec ornamenta mea.Here are my jewels.
--Cornelia (mother of the Gracchi)
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cornelia_%28mother_of_the_Gracchi%29>
The horned sungem (Heliactin bilophus) is a species of hummingbird
native to Brazil, Bolivia and Suriname. It prefers open habitats such as
savanna, grassland and garden, and expanded its range into southern
Amazonas and Espírito Santo, probably due to deforestation. It is a
small hummingbird with a long tail and a short, black bill. The sexes
differ in appearance, with males having two shiny red, golden, and green
feather "horns" above the eyes, a shiny blue head crest and a black
throat with a pointed "beard". The female is plainer, with a brown or
yellow–buff throat. It is a nomadic species, responding to the
seasonal flowering of its food plants. If a flower's shape is unsuited
to the bird's short bill, it may rob nectar through a hole at its base.
It also eats small insects. Only the female builds the small cup nest,
incubates the two white eggs, and rears the chicks. The species is
currently classified as least concern, and its population is thought to
be increasing.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_sungem>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1944:
World War II: The Japanese Take Ichi convoy arrived at
Halmahera in the Dutch East Indies after losing many ships and thousands
of troops to Allied attacks while attempting to carry two divisions of
troops from China to New Guinea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Ichi_convoy>
1977:
The Hotel Polen in Amsterdam was destroyed by fire, leaving 33
people dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Polen_fire>
1980:
Part of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida collapsed after a
pier was struck by the MV Summit Venture, killing 35 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge>
2001:
Police at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, Ghana, fired tear
gas to quell unrest at a football match, leading to a stampede that
killed 126 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accra_Sports_Stadium_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
derelict:
1. (uncountable) Property abandoned by its former guardian or owner;
(countable) an item of such property.
2. (uncountable, specifically, law) Property abandoned at sea with no
hope of recovery and no expectation of being returned to its owner;
(countable) an item of such property, especially a ship.
3. (countable, dated) An abandoned or forsaken person; an outcast, a
waif.
4. (countable, by extension, derogatory) A homeless and/or jobless
person; a vagrant; also, a person who is (perceived as) negligent in
their hygiene and personal affairs.
5. (countable, chiefly US) A person who is negligent in performing a
duty.
6. Given up by the guardian or owner; abandoned, forsaken.
7. (specifically) Of a ship: abandoned at sea; dilapidated, neglected;
of a spacecraft: abandoned in outer space.
8. (figurative) Adrift, lost.
9. (chiefly US) Negligent in performing a duty; careless, deficient,
neglectful, unfaithful. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/derelict>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The best moments in reading are when you come across something
— a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things — that you'd
thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone
else, a person you've never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it's
as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.
--The History Boys
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_History_Boys_%28film%29>
Anna Blackburne (1726–1793) was an English botanist and collector. She
was born at Orford Hall in Lancashire into a family of landowners and
after her mother's death she remained there with her father, John
Blackburne, who had hothouses for exotic plants and an extensive
library. Blackburne taught herself Latin so she could read the Systema
Naturae of Carl Linnaeus, and created a natural history museum where she
collected insects, shells, minerals and birds. She knew the naturalist
Johann Reinhold Forster, who instructed her in entomology, and
corresponded with other naturalists including Linnaeus. Her brother
Ashton, who lived in New York, sent her specimens of North American
birds, which were described by the naturalist Thomas Pennant in his
Arctic Zoology. After her father's death, Blackburne and her museum
moved to nearby Fairfield Hall. After her death, her nephew John
Blackburne inherited her collection. Several species are named for her,
including the Blackburnian warbler.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Blackburne>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1842:
A train derailed and caught fire near Versailles, France,
killing at least 52 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versailles_rail_accident>
1927:
French aviators Charles Nungesser and François Coli aboard the
biplane L'Oiseau Blanc took off from Paris, attempting to make the first
non-stop flight to New York, only to disappear before arrival.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Oiseau_Blanc>
1963:
In Huế, South Vietnam, soldiers opened fire into a crowd of
Buddhists protesting against a government ban on the flying of the
Buddhist flag on Phật Đản, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist
crisis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu%E1%BA%BF_Ph%E1%BA%ADt_%C4%90%E1%BA%A3n_sho…>
1972:
Four members of Black September hijacked Sabena Flight 571 to
demand the release of 315 Palestinians convicted on terrorism charges.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabena_Flight_571>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
whither:
1. Interrogative senses.
2. To what place; where.
3. (figurative, also humorous) To what (future) cause, condition or
state, reason, etc.; where, where next; also (obsolete) to what extent;
how far.
4. Relative senses.
5. To which place; also (after a noun denoting a place) to which.
6. To the place in or to which.
7. (generally) In or to any place to which; to whatever place; wherever.
8. (formal, archaic except literary or poetic) A place to which someone
or something goes; also, a condition to which someone or something
moves. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/whither>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It used to be said, that in places like this, nature eventually
failed to support man, the truth is exactly the reverse, here man failed
to support nature. Ten thousand years ago man regarded the natural world
as divine, but as he domesticated animals and plants so nature lost some
of its mystery and appeared to be little more than a larder that could
be raided with impunity.
--David Attenborough
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Attenborough>
The Structure of Literature is a 1954 book of literary criticism by Paul
Goodman, the published version of his doctoral dissertation. It proposes
a mode of formal literary analysis in which Goodman defines a formal
structure within an isolated literary work, finds how parts of the work
interact with each other to form a whole, and uses those definitions to
study other works. He analyzes multiple literary works as examples with
close reading and genre discussion. Goodman finished his dissertation in
1940, but took 14 years to publish it. In mixed reviews, critics
described the book as falling short of its aims; engaging psychological
insight and incisive asides were mired in glaring style issues and
jargon that made passages impenetrable or obscured his argument. Though
Goodman contributed to the development of the Chicago School of
Aristotelian formal literary criticism, he neither received wide
academic recognition for his dissertation nor was his method accepted by
his field.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Literature>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1794:
French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre established the Cult
of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First
Republic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_the_Supreme_Being>
1798:
War of the First Coalition: A British garrison repelled a
French attack on the Îles Saint-Marcouf off the Normandy coast,
inflicting heavy losses.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_%C3%8Eles_Saint-Marcouf>
1937:
Employees at Fleischer Studios in New York City went on strike
in the animation industry's first major labor strike.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_Fleischer_Studios_strike>
1946:
Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita founded the telecommunications
corporation Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, later renamed Sony.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
kugel:
1. A traditional savoury or sweet Jewish dish consisting of a baked
pudding of pasta, potatoes, or rice, with vegetables, or raisins and
spices.
2. A traditional hanging ornament of German origin made of coloured
glass, usually spherical but also produced in other shapes such as
bunches of grapes and drops.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kugel>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hear the verbal protestations of all men: Nothing so certain as
their religious tenets. Examine their lives: You will scarcely think
that they repose the smallest confidence in them.
--David Hume
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Hume>
The Take Ichi convoy was an Imperial Japanese Navy convoy of World
War II. Under the command of Rear Admiral Sadamichi Kajioka (pictured),
the convoy left Shanghai on 17 April 1944, carrying two infantry
divisions to reinforce Japan's defensive positions in the Philippines
and western New Guinea. United States Navy submarines attacked the
convoy on 26 April and 6 May, sinking four transports and killing more
than 4,000 soldiers. These losses caused the convoy to be diverted to
Halmahera, where the surviving soldiers and their equipment were
unloaded. The failure to bring the two divisions to their destination
without loss contributed to the Imperial General Headquarters' decision
to move Japan's defensive perimeter back by 1,000 km (600 mi). The
divisions' combat power was also blunted by their losses, and while they
both saw action against United States Army forces, they contributed
little to Japan's attempt to defend its empire.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Ichi_convoy>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1782:
Construction began on the Grand Palace in Bangkok, the official
residence of the king of Thailand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palace>
1915:
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: SY Aurora, anchored in
McMurdo Sound, broke loose during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal in
the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean for her 18-man crew.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SY_Aurora%27s_drift>
2004:
The final episode of the television sitcom Friends was aired.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends>
2013:
Amanda Berry escaped from the Cleveland, Ohio, home of her
captor, Ariel Castro, having been held there with two other women for
ten years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Castro_kidnappings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
descend:
1. Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position.
2. (transitive) To pass from a higher to a lower part of (something,
such as a flight of stairs or a slope); to go down along or upon.
3. (transitive) Of a flight of stairs, a road, etc.: to lead down (a
hill, a slope, etc.).
4. (transitive, archaic) To move (someone or something) from a higher to
a lower place or position; to bring or send (someone or something) down.
5. (intransitive) To physically move or pass from a higher to a lower
place or position; to come or go down in any way, such as by climbing,
falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to move downwards; to fall, to sink.
6. (astrology) Of a zodiac sign: to move away from the zenith towards
the horizon; to sink; also, of a planet: to move to a place where it has
less astrological significance.
7. (astronomy) Of a celestial body: to move away from the zenith towards
the horizon; to sink; also, to move towards the south.
8. (biology, physiology) Of a body part: to move downwards, especially
during development of the embryo; specifically, of the testes of a
mammal: to move downwards from the abdominal cavity into the scrotum.
9. (chemistry, obsolete) Of a liquid substance: to distil out from
another substance and gather at the bottom of a container; also, to
distil a substance to obtain another liquid substance in this manner.
10. (intransitive) To slope or stretch downwards.
11. (intransitive, chiefly historical) To alight from a carriage, a
horse, etc.; also, to disembark from a vessel; to land.
12. (intransitive, figurative)
13. To come or go down, or reduce, in intensity or some other quality.
14. Of a physical thing (such as a a cloud or storm) or a (generally
negative) immaterial thing (such as darkness, gloom, or silence): to
settle upon and start to affect a person or place.
15. In speech or writing: to proceed from one matter to another;
especially, to pass from more general or important to specific or less
important matters to be considered.
16. Chiefly followed by into or to: of a situation: to become worse; to
decline, to deteriorate.
17. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to make an attack or incursion, from
or as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence.
18. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to arrive suddenly or unexpectedly,
especially in a manner that causes disruption or inconvenience.
19. (reflexive) To come down to a humbler or less fortunate, or a worse
or less virtuous, rank or state; to abase or lower oneself; to
condescend or stoop to something.
20. (reflexive, chiefly poetic or religion) Chiefly in the form descend
into (or within) oneself: to mentally enter a state of (deep) meditation
or thought; to retire.
21. (mathematics) Of a sequence or series: to proceed from higher to
lower values.
22. (music) To pass from a higher to a lower note or tone; to fall in
pitch.
23. Senses relating to passing down from a source to another thing.
24. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To trace (a lineage) from earlier to
later generations.
25. (intransitive) Of a characteristic: to be transmitted from a parent
to a child.
26. (intransitive, often passive voice) Chiefly followed by from or
(obsolete) of: to come down or derive from an ancestor or ancestral
stock, or a source; to originate, to stem.
27. (intransitive, chiefly law) Of property, a right, etc.: to pass down
to a generation, a person, etc., by inheritance. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/descend>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The most extravagant idea that can be born in the head of a
political thinker is to believe that it suffices for people to enter,
weapons in hand, among a foreign people and expect to have its laws and
constitution embraced. No one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson
of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies.
--Maximilien Robespierre
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre>