On this day: February 17

February 17: Independence Day in Kosovo (2008)

Geraldine Farrar as Madame Butterfly

• 1801 – The U.S. House of Representatives elected Thomas Jefferson as President and Aaron Burr as Vice President, resolving an electoral tie in the 1800 presidential election.
• 1859 – The French Navy captured the Citadel of Saigon, a fortress that was manned by 1,000 Nguyễn Dynasty soldiers, en route to conquering Saigon and other regions of southern Vietnam.
• 1904 – Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Geraldine Farrar in the title role pictured) premiered at La Scala in Milan, generating negative reviews that forced him to rewrite the opera.
• 1959 – Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite, was launched to measure cloud cover distribution.
• 2006 – A massive landslide in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte killed over 1,000 people.

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February 17 Wikipedia featured article

Myles Standish (c. 1584 – 1656) was an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military advisor for the Plymouth Colony. One of the Mayflower passengers, Standish played a leading role in the administration and defense of the colony from its inception. On February 17, 1621, the colony militia elected him as its first commander and continued to re-elect him to that position for the remainder of his life. He served as an agent of Plymouth Colony in England, and as assistant governor and treasurer of the colony. He was also one of the first settlers and founders of the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. As a military leader, Standish favored preemptive action, sometimes angering Native Americans and disturbing more moderate members of the colony. By the 1640s, he relinquished his role as an active soldier and settled into a quieter life on his Duxbury farm. Several towns and military installations have been named for Standish, and monuments have been built in his memory. The popularity of the fictionalized book The Courtship of Miles Standish by H.W. Longfellow helped to cement the Pilgrim story in US culture. (Full article...)

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February 16 Wikipedia featured article

Fort Yellowstone was established as a U.S. Army cavalry post in 1891 at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. The army administered the park from then until 1918 when it was transferred to the newly created National Park Service. The first structures (1891–1897) were mainly wood-framed buildings in what has been called the "cottage style", some with Colonial Revival elements. Later structures (1908–1913), including the current park headquarters and the Horace Albright Visitor Center, were primarily built from locally quarried sandstone, and many of these are still in use as administrative offices, residences for National Park Service employees, and museums. The army left a legacy of policies and practices that served as precedents for the National Park Service's management of national parks, including wildlife management, protection of natural features, and prosecution of illegal activities. A version of the campaign hat worn by members of the army during the last years of their management of Yellowstone National Park was adopted by the National Park Service's Park Rangers. (Full article...)

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On this day: February 16

February 16: Family Day in various regions of Canada (2015); Statehood Day in Lithuania (1918)

Sikorsky S-51

• 1270 – Livonian Crusade: In the Battle of Karuse, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania achieved a decisive victory over the Livonian Order on the frozen surface of the Baltic Sea.
• 1804 – United States Navy Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a raid to destroy the captured USS Philadelphia in Tripoli, denying her use to the Barbary States in the First Barbary War.
• 1918 – The Council of Lithuania signed the Act of Independence of Lithuania, proclaiming the restoration of an independent Lithuania governed by democratic principles, despite the presence of German troops in the country during World War I.
• 1946 – The Sikorsky S-51 (pictured), the first helicopter to be built for civilian instead of military use, made its first flight.
• 1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires burned 513,979 acres (2,080 km²) in South Australia and 518,921 acres (2,100 km²) in Victoria, killing 75 people and injuring 2,676 others.

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February 15 Wikipedia featured article

Chester A. Arthur (1829–1886) was the 21st President of the United States, from 1881 to 1885. After practicing law in New York City, he served as quartermaster general in the New York Militia during the American Civil War. Rising quickly in the Republican political machine run by Senator Roscoe Conkling, he was appointed to the lucrative post of Collector of the Port of New York in 1871. In 1878 the new president, Rutherford B. Hayes, fired Arthur as part of a reform measure. When James Garfield won the Republican nomination for president in 1880, Arthur was nominated for vice president to balance the ticket. After Garfield's assassination, Arthur took up the cause of reform, supporting the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. He presided over the rebirth of the U.S. Navy but was criticized for failing to alleviate a growing federal budget surplus. Suffering from poor health, Arthur retired at the close of his term. Journalist Alexander McClure later wrote, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired ... more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe." (Full article...)

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On this day: February 15

February 15: National Day in Serbia (1804); Washington's Birthday (Presidents' Day) in the United States (2016)

DEW Line radar station

• 1898 – The United States Navy battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana, Cuba, killing more than 260 people and precipitating the Spanish–American War.
• 1900 – Second Boer War: British cavalry under Major-General John French defeated Boer forces to end a 124-day siege of Kimberley, present-day South Africa.
• 1954 – The Canadian and American governments agreed to jointly build the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line), a line of radar stations running across the high Arctic (radar station pictured).
• 1976 – The current Constitution of Cuba, providing for a system of government and law based on those of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries, was adopted by a national referendum.
• 2003 – In one of the largest anti-war rallies in history, millions around the world in approximately 800 cities took part in protests against the impending invasion of Iraq.

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February 14 Wikipedia featured article

Asmara Moerni (Indonesian for True Love) is a 1941 romance film from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) produced by Ang Hock Liem for Union Films. The film was written by Saeroen and directed by Rd Ariffien. It follows Dr. Pardi (Adnan Kapau Gani), who is stunned to find that his childhood playmate, the family's maid Tati (Djoewariah), has grown up to be a beautiful woman. When his mother tells him he should marry quickly, he says only that he already has someone in mind, aware that his mother would never approve an inter-class marriage. Tati, meanwhile, is engaged to Amir (S. Joesoef), who falls victim to a car accident after many adventures. On his deathbed, Amir asks Pardi to take care of Tati; the two are later married. The black-and-white film was cast and advertised to cater to the growing native intelligentsia: Ariffien was part of the nationalist movement, Gani was a medical doctor, and advertisements emphasised the film's departures from the stage traditions which dominated the local film industry. Despite mixed reviews, Asmara Moerni was a commercial success. As with most films of the Indies, it may be lost. (Full article...)

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On this day: February 14

February 14: Valentine's Day; Feast of St. Brigit of Kildare (Eastern Christianity)

Protests in Bahrain

• 1779 – English explorer James Cook was killed near Kealakekua when he tried to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the ruling chief of the Island of Hawaii.
• 1919 – The first serious armed conflict of the Polish–Soviet War took place near present-day Biaroza, Belarus.
• 1943 – World War II: General Hans-Jurgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launched a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
• 1991 – Upon the death of Carrie C. White, Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment became the world's oldest living person, and she went on to have the longest confirmed human life span in history, dying in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.
• 2011 – A "Day of Rage" (pictured) marked the beginning of the Bahraini uprising, part of the Arab Spring.

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February 13 Wikipedia featured article

Twenty-four McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II fighter-bombers were operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) between 1970 and 1973. The aircraft were leased from the United States Air Force (USAF) as an interim measure owing to delays in the delivery of the RAAF's General Dynamics F-111C bombers. The F-4C Phantom was evaluated by the RAAF in 1963 as a possible replacement for the English Electric Canberra, but was judged unsuitable. The F-111 was selected instead, but when technical faults delayed the project, the RAAF decided that the F-4E would be the best alternative. The Australian and US governments negotiated an agreement in 1970 for the RAAF to lease 24 F-4Es from the USAF. The Phantoms entered service in September that year, and proved highly effective. They prepared aircrew to operate the sophisticated F-111, and the training program improved the RAAF's professional standards. One of the F-4Es was destroyed in an accident in June 1971, and another was repaired by the RAAF after it was damaged in a crash landing. The 23 surviving aircraft were returned to the USAF in two batches during October 1972 and June 1973. (Full article...)

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On this day: February 13

February 13

India Gate, New Delhi

• 1739 – During his invasion of the Mughal Empire, the forces of Nader, Shah of Persia, defeated the Mughal army at Karnal within three hours, despite being outnumbered six-to-one.
• 1815 – The Cambridge Union Society, one of the oldest debating societies in the world, was founded at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.
• 1931 – New Delhi (India Gate pictured) was inaugurated as the new capital of British India by Viceroy Lord Irwin.
• 1961 – American geode prospectors discovered what they claimed was a 500,000-year-old rock with a spark plug encased inside.
• 1991 – Gulf War: The United States Air Force dropped two laser-guided "smart bombs" on an air-raid shelter in Baghdad, Iraq, which was believed to be a military command site, killing at least 408 civilians.

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Des nouveautés sur le blog

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Bientôt deux semaines que je n’ai rien publié sur ce blog, et pour cause, j’étais occupé à améliorer le design et la navigation du blog. De petits changements qui je l’espère vous permettront d’accéder beaucoup plus rapidement aux informations que vous cherchez et surtout aux idées que vous souhaitez mettre en place pour gagner de [...]

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February 12 Wikipedia featured article

The Alpine chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) is a bird in the crow family, one of two species in the genus Pyrrhocorax. Its two subspecies breed in high mountains from Spain east through southern Europe and North Africa to Central Asia, India and China. It has nested at 6,500 m (21,300 ft), higher than any other bird species, and its eggs have adaptations that improve oxygen intake and reduce water loss at these altitudes. This bird has glossy black plumage, a yellow bill, and red legs. Widely spread flight feathers allow acrobatic manoeuvres. A large bird with distinctive whistling calls, it pairs for life and displays fidelity to its breeding site, usually a cave or crevice in a cliff face. Building a lined stick nest, it lays three to five brown-speckled pale beige eggs. It feeds on fruit in winter and mainly invertebrate prey in grazed grassland in summer. Although some localised populations have declined due to predation, parasitism and changes in agricultural practices, this widespread and abundant species is not threatened globally. Climate change may present a long-term threat by shifting the bird's alpine habitat even higher. (Full article...)

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On this day: February 12

February 12: Red Hand Day

Puyi

• 1818 – On the first anniversary of its victory in the Battle of Chacabuco, Chile formally declared its independence from Spain.
• 1855 – Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the United States' first agricultural college.
• 1912 – Xinhai Revolution: Puyi, the last Emperor of China, abdicated under a deal brokered by military official and politician Yuan Shikai, formally replacing the Qing Dynasty with a new republic in China.
• 1946 – Black United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard was severely beaten by a South Carolina police officer to the point that he lost his vision in both eyes, an incident that galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.
• 1993 – Two-year-old James Bulger was led away from New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, England, and brutally murdered by two ten-year-old boys, who became the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history.

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February 11 Wikipedia featured article

Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) was an American scientist who made important theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. His work on the applications of thermodynamics was instrumental in transforming physical chemistry into a rigorous deductive science. Together with James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann, he created statistical mechanics (a term that he coined), explaining the laws of thermodynamics as consequences of the statistical properties of large ensembles of particles. Gibbs also worked on the application of Maxwell's equations to problems in physical optics. He invented modern vector calculus, independently of Oliver Heaviside's similar work. In 1863, Yale awarded Gibbs the first American doctorate in engineering. He was a professor of mathematical physics at Yale from 1871 until his death. Working in relative isolation, he became the earliest theoretical scientist in the United States to earn an international reputation, and in 1901 he was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London. He was praised by Albert Einstein as "the greatest mind in American history". (Full article...)

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On this day: February 11

February 11: Victory of the Revolution in Iran (1979); National Foundation Day in Japan

Nelson Mandela

• 660 BC – According to tradition, Emperor Jimmu founded Japan and established his capital in Yamato.
• 1858 – Fourteen-year-old peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous reported the first of eighteen Marian apparitions in Lourdes, France, resulting in the town becoming a major site for pilgrimages by Catholics.
• 1929 – To help settle the "Roman Question", Italy and the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church signed the Lateran Treaty to establish Vatican City as an independent sovereign enclave within Italy.
• 1979 – The Pahlavi dynasty of Iran effectively collapsed when the military declared itself "neutral" after rebel troops overwhelmed forces loyal to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in armed street fighting.
• 1990 – Anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela (pictured), a political prisoner for 27 years, was released from Victor Verster Prison near Paarl, South Africa.

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February 10 Wikipedia featured article

Telopea truncata

Telopea truncata, commonly known as the Tasmanian waratah, is a plant in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to Tasmania where it is found on moist acidic soils at altitudes of 600 to 1200 m (2000–4000 ft). A component of alpine eucalypt forest, rainforest, and scrub communities,T. truncata grows as a multistemmed shrub to a height of 3 metres (10 ft), or occasionally as a small tree, with red flower heads, known as inflorescences, that appear over the Tasmanian summer (November to February) and bear 10 to 35 individual flowers. Yellow-flowered forms are occasionally seen, but do not form a population distinct from the rest of the species. Collected by French botanist Jacques Labillardière in 1792–93, T. truncata was first described in 1805. Genetically the most distinctive of the five waratah species, Tasmanian waratah can be cultivated in temperate climates, requiring soils with ample moisture and good drainage and in partly shaded or sunny positions. Several commercially available cultivars have been developed that are hybrids of T. truncata with the New South Wales waratah (T. speciosissima) and Gippsland waratah (T. oreades). (Full article...)

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On this day: February 10

February 10: Ash Wednesday in Western Christianity (2016); Feast of Saint Paul's Shipwreck in Malta

Rudolf Abel on Soviet stamp

• 1567 – After an explosion destroyed the house in Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh, where he was staying, the strangled body of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, the King consort of Scotland, was found in a nearby orchard.
• 1763 – Britain, France, and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris to end the Seven Years' War, significantly reducing the size of the French colonial empire while at the same time marking the beginning of an extensive period of British dominance outside of Europe.
• 1936 – Second Italo-Abyssinian War: The Battle of Amba Aradam began, ending nine days later in a decisive tactical victory for Italy and the neutralisation of almost the entire Ethiopian army as a fighting force.
• 1962 – "Rudolf Abel" (pictured on stamp), a Soviet spy arrested by the FBI, was exchanged for Gary Powers, the pilot of the CIA spy plane that had been shot down over Soviet airspace two years earlier.
• 2009 – The first accidental hypervelocity collision between two intact satellites in low Earth orbit took place when Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collided and destroyed each other.

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February 9 Wikipedia featured article

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Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm is an 1832 painting by English artist William Etty. It was inspired by a metaphor in Thomas Gray's poem The Bard in which the apparently bright start to the misrule of Richard II of England was compared to a gilded ship whose occupants are unaware of an approaching storm. Etty chose to illustrate Gray's lines literally, showing a golden boat filled with and surrounded by nude and near-nude figures. The Bard was about a curse on the House of Plantagenet placed by a Welsh bard following Edward I's attempts to eradicate Welsh culture, and critics felt that Etty had misunderstood its point. Some reviewers praised the piece, and in particular Etty's technical abilities, but audiences of the time found it hard to understand, and the use of nudity led some critics to consider the painting tasteless and offensive. It was bought in 1832 by Robert Vernon. In 1847 Vernon donated his collection to the National Gallery, which in turn transferred it to the Tate Gallery in 1949. Youth and Pleasure remains one of Etty's best-known works, and formed part of major exhibitions in 2001–02 and 2011–12. (Full article...)

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On this day: February 9

February 9: Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday (Western Christianity, 2016)

John Quincy Adams

• 1825 – After no presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes, the U.S. House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams (pictured) president.
• 1920 – The Svalbard Treaty was signed, recognizing Norwegian sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, but all signatories were also given equal rights to engage in commercial activities on the islands.
• 1969 – The Boeing 747 made its first flight, with test pilots Jack Waddell and Brien Wygle at the controls and Jess Wallick at the flight engineer's station.
• 1976 – The Australian Defence Force was formed by the unification of the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force.
• 2001 – The American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally collided with the Ehime Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by the Uwajima Fishery High School.

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February 8 Wikipedia featured article

"Interactions" (premiered March 8, 2008) is the second episode of the animated television series The Spectacular Spider-Man, which is based on the comic book character Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. In the episode, Spider-Man confronts the supervillain Electro, who has been contaminated by genetically modified electric eels that were being investigated as a potential source of clean energy. "Interactions" was directed by Troy Adomitis and written by Kevin Hopps, who researched all the available comic books that featured Electro. Electro is drawn to match his comic book appearance, though designer Victor Cook emphasized the color green and removed the character's customary star-shaped mask. Voice actor Crispin Freeman sought to reflect the character's declining sanity in his vocal style. "Interactions" aired on the Kids WB! block of The CW network. Its 1.4/4 Nielsen rating was higher than that of the pilot, "Survival of the Fittest". The episode received mixed reviews; IGN commended the episode for "some notable moments" but found it inferior to the pilot episode. (Full article...)

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