On this day: August 31

August 31: Day of Arafah (Islam, 2017)

Interior view of Kinetoscope with peephole viewer

• 1897 – Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the Kinetoscope (pictured), a precursor to the movie projector.
• 1939 – Nazi forces, posing as Poles, staged an attack against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany, creating an excuse to invade Poland the next day.
• 1969 – Approximately 150,000 people attended the Isle of Wight Festival, which featured Bob Dylan in his first gig since 1966.
• 1982 – Anti-government demonstrations were held in 66 Polish cities to commemorate the second anniversary of the Gdańsk Agreement, which allowed the Solidarity trade union to be established.
• 1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver Henri Paul were killed in a high speed car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris.

Aidan of Lindisfarne (d. 651) · John Bunyan (d. 1688) · Sara Ramirez (b. 1975)

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August 31 Wikipedia featured article

The meteorological history of Hurricane Ivan (2004) spans 26 days from late August to late September, the tenth longest storm duration of any Atlantic hurricane on record. The tropical cyclone developed from a tropical wave that moved off the coast of Africa on August 31. Tracking westward due to a ridge, it developed into Tropical Depression Nine on September 2, gradually intensifying until September 5, when it underwent rapid deepening and reached Category 4 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. At the time Ivan was the southernmost major North Atlantic hurricane on record. It was weakened by dry air but gradually reorganized, passing just south of Grenada as a major hurricane on September 7. The hurricane attained Category 5 status in the central Caribbean Sea, and passed just south of Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and western Cuba with winds at or slightly below that. Ivan gradually weakened before making landfall just west of Gulf Shores, Alabama, on September 16 with winds of 120 mph (195 km/h). After weakening, crossing Florida, restrengthening, and making another landfall in Louisiana, its circulation dissipated in Texas on September 25. (Full article...)

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[Bons Plans] Gagner de l’argent grâce aux brocantes et aux sites de petites annonces

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Gagnez facilement un petit extra d'argent en achetant et vendant sur des brocantes et des sites de petites annonces

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On this day: August 30

August 30: Constitution Day in Kazakhstan (1995)

Amalasuntha

• 526 – Upon the death of her father, Theoderic the Great, Amalasuntha (pictured) became the regent for her 10-year-old son Athalaric.
• 1862 – American Civil War: In separate actions, Confederate forces were victorious in both the Battle of Richmond in Kentucky and the Second Battle of Bull Run in Prince William County, Virginia.
• 1896 – Philippine Revolution: In the Battle of San Juan del Monte, the first real battle of the war, a Katipunan force temporarily captured a powder magazine before being beaten back by a Spanish garrison.
• 1942 – Second World War: Erwin Rommel launched the last major Axis offensive of the Western Desert Campaign, attacking the British Eighth Army position near El Alamein, Egypt.
• 1992 – German driver Michael Schumacher, the most successful Formula One driver in history, won his first race at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Albert Szenczi Molnár (b. 1574) · Mary Shelley (b. 1797) · Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster (d. 1954)

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August 30 Wikipedia featured article

Pallas's leaf warbler (Phylloscopus proregulus) is a migratory bird that breeds in mountain forests from southern Siberia east to northern Mongolia and northeastern China. It is named for German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas, who first described it. It winters mainly in and near southern China, although in recent decades increasing numbers have been found in Europe in autumn. One of the smallest Eurasian leaf warblers, it has a relatively large head and short tail. It has greenish upperparts and white underparts, a lemon-yellow rump, and yellow double wingbars and supercilia. The female builds a cup nest in a tree or bush, and incubates four to six eggs that hatch after 12 or 13 days. The chicks are fed mainly by the female and fledge when they are 12–14 days old. Pallas's leaf warbler feeds on small insects and spiders. It forages in bushes and trees, picking items from leaves or catching prey in short flights or while hovering. The species has a large range, its numbers are believed to be stable, and it is not endangered. (Full article...)

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On this day: August 29

August 29

Michael Faraday

• 1831 – Michael Faraday (pictured) discovered electromagnetic induction, leading to the formation of his law of induction.
• 1842 – The Treaty of Nanking, an unequal treaty ending the First Opium War, was signed, forcing the Chinese Qing dynasty to give control of the island that is now the site of Hong Kong, and other concessions to the British.
• 1903 – The Russian battleship Slava, the last of the five Borodino-class battleships, was launched.
• 1930 – The last 36 residents of St Kilda, Scotland, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its natural and cultural qualities, voluntarily evacuated to Morvern.
• 2007 – Six nuclear warheads were alleged to have been mistakenly loaded onto a United States Air Force heavy bomber that flew from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (b. 1780) · Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (b. 1809) · Lale Andersen (d. 1972)

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August 29 Wikipedia featured article

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) was a Russian composer, a member of a group of prominent composers known as The Five, who worked together in Saint Petersburg in the mid-19th century. Considered a master of orchestration, his best-known compositions, which include Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade, are considered staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas. Scheherazade is an example of Rimsky-Korsakov's frequent use of fairy tale and folk subjects; he also left a considerable body of original Russian nationalist compositions. His preparation of works by The Five for performance brought them into the active classical repertoire, although his editing of the music of Modest Mussorgsky created controversy. As a shaper of a generation of younger composers and musicians during his decades as an educator, he is considered the main architect of what the classical music public considers the Russian style of composition. (Full article...)

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On this day: August 28

August 28: Qixi Festival (Chinese calendar, 2017); National Heroes' Day in the Philippines (2017)

Martin Luther King giving his "I have a dream" speech

• 1789 – With the first use of his new 1.2 m (3.9 ft) telescope, then the largest in the world, William Herschel discovered a new moon of Saturn, which was later named Enceladus.
• 1830 – Tom Thumb, the first American-built steam locomotive, engaged in an impromptu race against a horse-drawn car in Maryland.
• 1914 – In the first naval battle of the First World War, British ships ambushed a German naval patrol in the Heligoland Bight area of the North Sea.
• 1924 – An unsuccessful insurrection against Soviet rule in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, known as the August Uprising, began.
• 1963 – During a large political rally in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. (pictured) delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, describing his desire for a future where blacks and whites would coexist harmoniously as equals.

Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) · Sheridan Le Fanu (b. 1814) · Omayra Sánchez (b. 1972)

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August 28 Wikipedia featured article

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) was an American sociologist, historian and civil rights activist. The first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. He rose to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks, and was one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. He wrote one of the first scientific treatises in the field of American sociology, and published three autobiographies. Black Reconstruction in America (1935) challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction Era. On August 28, 1963, a day after his death, his book The Souls of Black Folk was highlighted by Roy Wilkins at the March on Washington, and hundreds of thousands of marchers honored him with a moment of silence. A year later, the US Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which he had campaigned his entire life, was enacted. (Full article...)

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On this day: August 27

August 27

Battle of Grand Port

• 1810 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy defeated (pictured) the Royal Navy, preventing them from taking the harbour of Grand Port on Île de la Passe.
• 1893 – The Sea Islands hurricane made landfall near Savannah, Georgia, U.S., causing at least 1,000 deaths.
• 1927 – Five Canadian women filed a petition to ask the Supreme Court of Canada, "Does the word 'Persons' in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons," to which the court eventually replied that it does not.
• 1942 – Nazi troops and the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police began systematically executing more than 14,000 people, mostly Jews, in and around Sarny in occupied Poland.
• 2013 – Religious violence between Hindus and Muslims erupted in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India, leaving 62 people dead.

Tomás Luis de Victoria (d. 1611) · Man Ray (b. 1890) · Brian Epstein (d. 1967)

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August 27 Wikipedia featured article

Lead is a chemical element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. A heavy metal with a density exceeding that of most common materials, it is malleable and has a low melting point for a metal. Chemically, it is a relatively unreactive post-transition metal. Lead was known to prehistoric people. A principal ore of lead, galena, often bears silver; interest in silver sparked lead extraction and use in ancient Rome. Lead production declined after the fall of Rome and did not reach comparable levels until the Industrial Revolution. Nowadays, global production of lead is about ten million tonnes annually. Its high density, low melting point, high malleability, relative inertness to oxidation, relative abundance, and low cost have resulted in its extensive use in construction, plumbing, batteries, bullets and shot, weights, solders, pewters, fusible alloys, and radiation shielding. In the late 19th century, lead was recognized as highly toxic, and since then it has been phased out for many uses. A neurotoxin that accumulates in soft tissues and bones, it can damage the nervous system and cause brain and blood disorders. (Full article...)

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August 26 Wikipedia featured article

Operation Bernhard was an exercise by the Nazis to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the economy, but the operation was closed in early 1942 after its head, Alfred Naujocks, fell out of favour with his superior officer, Reinhard Heydrich. It was reopened in July as a counterfeiting operation to finance German intelligence operations. Prisoners were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp to work under SS Major Bernhard Krüger, producing British notes until mid-1945 worth between £130 and £300 million. Counterfeit notes from the operation were used to pay the Turkish agent Elyesa Bazna—code-named Cicero—for his work in obtaining secrets from the British ambassador in Ankara, Turkey. Another £100,000 helped to free the Italian leader Benito Mussolini in the Gran Sasso raid in September 1943. The operation was dramatised in a 1981 BBC comedy-drama miniseries, Private Schulz, and in a 2007 Austrian film, The Counterfeiters. (Full article...)

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On this day: August 26

August 26: Heroes' Day/Herero Day in Namibia; Women's Equality Day in the United States

Bomb explosion at Harvey's Resort Hotel

• 1071 – Byzantine–Seljuq wars: Seljuk Turks led by Alp Arslan captured Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV at the Battle of Manzikert.
• 1810 – Juan José Castelli ordered the execution of Santiago de Liniers, during the Argentine War of Independence.
• 1914 – First World War: The German colony of Togoland surrendered to French and British forces after a 20-day campaign.
• 1968 – The Beatles released "Hey Jude", which became the then-longest single to top the UK charts.
• 1980 – Three men planted a bomb (explosion pictured) at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada, U.S., that the FBI described as the most complex improvised explosive device ever created.

Manuel Abad y Queipo (b. 1751) · Sue Bailey Thurman (b. 1903)

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August 25 Wikipedia featured article

The Fade Out is a crime comic created by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips with the help of colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser and research assistant Amy Condit. Twelve issues were published by Image Comics between August 2014 and January 2016, and republished in paperback and hardcover formats. The story, partly inspired by the life of Brubaker's uncle, is set in 1948 and features Charlie Parish, a Hollywood screenwriter suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder and fronting for his blacklisted best friend, Gil. When Charlie wakes from a blackout in the same room as a murdered starlet, he and Gil set out to bring her killer to justice. As they learn more about her troubled past, they find themselves up against powerful Hollywood elites. Although Brubaker had been concerned the premise was not commercial enough to have wide appeal, The Fade Out sold better than any of the authors' previous collaborations and early issues went through several printings. The series received positive reviews from critics, who enjoyed the tragic conclusion. (Full article...)

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On this day: August 25

August 25

Rings of Neptune

• 1258 – George Mouzalon, regent of the Empire of Nicaea, was assassinated as part of a conspiracy led by the nobles under future emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.
• 1758 – Seven Years' War: Prussian forces engaged the Russians at the Battle of Zorndorf in present-day Sarbinowo, Poland.
• 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces attacked the Australian base at Milne Bay on the eastern tip of New Guinea.
• 1950 – Althea Gibson entered into the U.S. Tennis Championships, becoming the first African American woman to be a competitor on the world tennis tour.
• 1989 – The Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Neptune and provided definitive proof of the existence of the planet's rings (pictured).

James Watt (d. 1819) · Agnes Mowinckel (b. 1875) · Theresa Andrews (b. 1962)

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August 24 Wikipedia featured article

Benjamin Cardozo

Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co. (1928) is a leading case in American tort law on the question of liability to an unforeseeable plaintiff. Arising out of an unusual incident on August 24, 1924, the case has been studied by generations of law students. The plaintiff, Helen Palsgraf, was injured as she was boarding a train when a man (aided by railroad employees) dropped a package that exploded, causing a large coin-operated scale on the platform to hit her. She sued the railroad, arguing that she had been harmed by the negligence of its employees while they assisted the man. She won a jury verdict but lost on appeal to the New York Court of Appeals, the highest state court in New York; its opinion was written by Chief Judge Benjamin Cardozo (pictured), a leading figure in the development of American common law and later a Supreme Court justice. Cardozo wrote for a majority of the Court of Appeals, ruling that the railroad was not negligent because its employees, in helping the man board, did not have a duty of care to Palsgraf as injury to her was not a foreseeable harm from aiding a man with a package. (Full article...)

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On this day: August 24

August 24: Independence Day in Ukraine (1991)

The 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team

• 49 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Forces loyal to Julius Caesar led by Gaius Scribonius Curio were crushingly defeated by Pompeian Republicans under Publius Attius Varus and King Juba I of Numidia.
• 1482 – Anglo-Scottish Wars: The border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed and its castle were captured by English forces.
• 1889 – The predominantly Māori New Zealand Native football team (pictured) played the last match of their 107-game tour, the longest in rugby union history.
• 1942 – World War II: Bombers from the United States aircraft carrier Saratoga sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō near Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands, helping to lead to an Allied victory.
• 2004 – About 90 people died after suicide bombers attacked two airliners flying out of Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport.

Magnus Barefoot (d. 1103) · William Wilberforce (b. 1759) · Valentine Baker (b. 1888)

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On this day: August 23

August 23: Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism/Black Ribbon Day in Canada, parts of the European Union, Georgia, and the United States

Sacco and Vanzetti

• 1873 – The Albert Bridge, spanning the River Thames in London, opened.
• 1898 – The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departed from London.
• 1927 – After a controversial trial, and despite worldwide protests, Italian-born American anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti (both pictured) were executed via electrocution in Massachusetts for murder.
• 1943 – World War II: The decisive Soviet victory in the Battle of Kursk gave the Red Army the strategic initiative for the rest of the war.
• 2010 – A former Philippine National Police officer hijacked a tourist bus in Manila and held its occupants hostage for nearly 11 hours before being killed by police.

Ali al-Ridha (d. 818) · Henry Every (b. 1659) · Oscar Hammerstein II (d. 1960)

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August 23 Wikipedia featured article

T3 was a sea-going torpedo boat operated by the Royal Yugoslav Navy between 1921 and 1941. Originally 78 T, a 250t-class torpedo boat commissioned on 23 August 1914 by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, she saw active service during World War I, performing convoy, escort and minesweeping tasks, anti-submarine operations and shore bombardment missions. Following Austria-Hungary's defeat in 1918, she was allocated to Yugoslavia and renamed T3. She was captured by the Italians during the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. After her main armament was modernised, she served with the Royal Italian Navy as T3, although she was only used for coastal and second-line tasks. Following the Italian capitulation in September 1943, she was captured by Germany, and after being fitted with additional anti-aircraft guns, she served with the German Navy and the Navy of the Independent State of Croatia as TA48. In German and Croatian service her crew of 52 consisted entirely of Croatian officers and enlisted men. She was sunk by Allied aircraft in February 1945 while in the port of Trieste, where she had been built. (Full article...)

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Comment gagner beaucoup de cadeaux (et d’argent) grâce aux jeux concours?

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Aujourd’hui sur ABC Argent nous allons parler de jeux-concours. 3 ans et demi d’existence et c’est un sujet que je n’avais encore jamais abordé. Et pourtant, certaines personnes gagnent de jolis cadeaux…. dont elles profitent ou qu’elles revendent ensuite sur Le Bon Coin ou dans des brocantes. Un bon moyen de se faire un joli […]

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On this day: August 22

August 22

America's Cup

• 1485 – Lancastrian forces under Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, defeated Yorkist forces under Richard III of England at the Battle of Bosworth Field, decisively ending the Wars of the Roses.
• 1851 – The yacht America won the Cup of One Hundred Sovereigns race (trophy pictured), later renamed the America's Cup, near the Isle of Wight, England.
• 1910 – Japan annexed Korea with the signing of the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II.
• 1961 – Ida Siekmann jumped from a window in her tenement building trying to flee to West Berlin, becoming the first person to die at the Berlin Wall.
• 2015 – A Hawker Hunter aircraft crashed at an airshow at Shoreham-by-Sea, United Kingdom, killing eleven people.

Isabella of France (d. 1358) · Thomas Tredgold (b. 1788) · Alexandros Kontoulis (d. 1933)

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August 22 Wikipedia featured article

Fabio Aru, the race winner

The 2015 Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain) was the 70th edition of the three-week race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The 3,358.1-kilometre (2,086.6 mi) race included 21 stages, from Marbella on 22 August to Madrid on 13 September. Astana Pro Team's Fabio Aru (pictured) won the race, with Joaquim Rodríguez (Team Katusha) second and Rafał Majka (Tinkoff–Saxo) third. The early leaders were Esteban Chaves (Orica–GreenEDGE) and Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant–Alpecin). Aru took over the lead in Andorra following Stage 11, and kept it for five stages through the mountains of northern Spain before losing it to Rodríguez on Stage 16. Dumoulin retook the lead on Stage 17, but was dropped by Aru in the next-to-last stage, falling to sixth place overall. It was Aru's first Grand Tour victory. The points classification, decided during the final stage, was won by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team), while Rodriguez won the combination classification. The mountains classification was won by Omar Fraile (Caja Rural–Seguros RGA). Dumoulin won the combativity award, while Movistar won the team prize. (Full article...)

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On this day: August 21

August 21

Mona Lisa

• 1140 – Song dynasty general Yue Fei defeated an army led by Jin dynasty general Wanyan Wuzhu at the Battle of Yancheng during the Jin–Song Wars.
• 1858 – The first of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, candidates for an Illinois seat in the United States Senate, was held in Ottawa, Illinois.
• 1911 – Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (pictured) was stolen from the Louvre by a museum employee and was not recovered until two years later.
• 1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army lost the Battle of the Tenaru, the first of its three major land offensives during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
• 2007 – Hurricane Dean made landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula as a Category 5 storm, causing 45 deaths and US$1.5 billion in damage.

Alphonse, Count of Poitiers (d. 1271) · Emily Tinne (b. 1886) · Emma Mashinini (b. 1929)

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August 21 Wikipedia featured article

Powderfinger

"My Happiness" is a song by Australian rock band Powderfinger (pictured), released by Universal Music Australia on 21 August 2000 as the first single from the band's fourth album, Odyssey Number Five. Frontman Bernard Fanning, inspired by a love of gospel and soul music, wrote the lyrics for "My Happiness" as a reflection on the loneliness the band felt while touring. The rest of the band are co-credited with Fanning for composing the track. Powderfinger's most successful single, it peaked at number four on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, was instantly successful in New Zealand, and was the first Powderfinger song to appear on the American Hot Modern Rock Tracks. It won an ARIA and an APRA Award, topped the Triple J Hottest 100 poll in 2000, and placed 27th in the 2009 Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time poll. Along with the single "My Kind of Scene", "My Happiness" was highly praised by critics; even negative reviews of Odyssey Number Five noted it as a highlight, especially for its catchy chorus. (Full article...)

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On this day: August 20

August 20: Day of Restoration of Independence in Estonia (1991); St. Stephen's Day in Hungary

Yellowstone fires

• 917 – Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: Bulgarians led by Tsar Simeon I drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory in the Battle of Achelous.
• 1707 – The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the British abandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida.
• 1882 – The 1812 Overture by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was first performed in Moscow, conducted by Ippolit Al'tani.
• 1988 – Fires (pictured) in the United States' Yellowstone National Park destroyed more than 150,000 acres (610 km²), the single-worst day of the conflagration.
• 2008 – Spanair Flight 5022 crashed just after take off from Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 154 people.

Jerónimo Osório (d. 1580) · James Prinsep (b. 1699) · Ron Paul (b. 1935)

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