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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Wednesday, August 31, 2016

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of  
Carolina Naturally
A three dog day ...! 
 
Carolina Naturally is read in 210 countries around the world daily.   
  
Tug-of-War is a dirty business ... !
Today is - Tug-of-War Day

 You want the unvarnished truth?
Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Antigua - Argentina - Aruba - Bahamas - Barbados - Belize - Bolivia - Brazil - Canada - Chile  Colombia - Costa Rica - Dominican Republic- Ecuador - El Salvador - French Guiana - Haiti  Honduras - Jamaica - Mexico - Nicaragua - Paraguay - Peru - Puerto Rico - Sint Eustatius and Saba  Sint Maartin - Trinidad and Tobago - Turks and Caicos - United States - Uruguay - Venezuela
Virgin Islands
Europe
Albania - Armenia - Austria - Belarus - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia  Cyprus -  Czech Republic - Denmark - England - Estonia - Finland - France - Georgia - Germany Greece -  Hungary - Iceland - Ireland - Isle of Mann - Italy - Jersey - Latvia - Lithuania - Macedonia  Malta - Monaco - Montenegro - Netherlands - Northern Ireland - Norway - Poland - Portugal  Romania - Russia - San Marino - Scotland - Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden  Switzerland - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Afghanistan - Bangladesh - Brunei - Burma - Cambodia - China - Hong Kong - India - Indonesia  Iran - Iraq - Israel - Japan - Jordan - Kazakhstan - Korea -  Lebanon - Malaysia - Mauritius
Mongolia - Nepal - Oman - Pakistan - Saudi Arabia - Singapore - Sri Lanka - Taiwan - Thailand  Tibet - United Arab Emirates - Uzbekistan - Vietnam - Yemen
Africa
Chad - Congo - Egypt - Ethiopia - Ivory Coast - Kenya - Libya - Madagascar - Morocco  Mozambique - Nigeria - South Africa - Sudan - Tunisia - Zambia - Zimbabwe
The Pacific
Australia - French Polynesia - Guam - Marshall Islands - New Zealand - Philippines
Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

1303
The War of Vespers in Sicily ends with an agreement between Charles of Valois, who invaded the country, and Frederick, the ruler of Sicily.
1756
The British at Fort William Henry, New York, surrender to Louis Montcalm of France.
1802
Captain Meriwether Lewis leaves Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean.
1864
At the Democratic convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan is nominated for president.
1919
The Communist Labor Party is founded in Chicago, with the motto, “Workers of the world unite!”
1928
Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera opens in Berlin.
1940
Joseph Avenol steps down as Secretary-General of the League of Nations.
1942
The British army under General Bernard Law Montgomery defeats Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in the Battle of Alam Halfa in Egypt.
1944
The British Eighth Army penetrates the German Gothic Line in Italy.
1949
Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attend the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1951
The 1st Marine Division begins its attack on Bloody Ridge in Korea. The four-day battle results in 2,700 Marine casualties.
1961
A concrete wall replaces the barbed wire fence that separates East and West Germany, it will be called the Berlin wall.
1965
US Congress creates Department of Housing & Urban Development.
1968
The Dasht-e Bayaz 7.3 earthquake in NE Iran completely destroys five villages and severely damages six others.
1970
Lonnie McLucas convicted of torturing and murdering fellow Black Panther Party member Alex Rackley in the first of the New Haven Black Panther Trials.
1980
Polish government forced to sign Gdansk Agreement allowing creation of the trade union Solidarity.
1985
Police capture Richard Ramirez, dubbed the “Night Stalker” for a string of gruesome murders that stretched from Mission Viejo to San Francisco, Cal.
1986
A Russian cargo ship collides with cruise ship Admiral Nakhimov, killing 398.
1987
Longest mine strike in South Africa’s history ends, after 11 people were killed, 500 injured and 400 arrested.
1990
East and West Germany sign the Treaty of Unification (Einigungsvertrag) to join their legal and political systems.
1990
Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr. become first father and son to play on same team simultaneously in professional baseball (Seattle Mariners).
1994
Last Russian troops leave Estonia and Latvia.
1994
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) announces a “complete cessation of military operations,” opening the way to a political settlement in Ireland for the first time in a quarter of a century.
1997
Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a Paris car crash along with her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul while fleeing paparazzi.
1997
New York Yankees retire Don Mattingly’s #23 (first baseman, coach, manager).
2006
Edvard Munch’s famed painting The Scream recovered by Norwegian police. The artwork had been stolen on Aug. 22, 2004.

The Top 8 Tastiest Mascots

Forget trojans, lions, or bulldogs. Nothing's more intimidating than a mascot capable of giving you food poisoning.

Peeing in the Pool Is Grosser and More Dangerous Than You Thought

Overseas Companies Bankroll the NRA—Where Is the Wingnut 'Pay-For-Play' Outrage?

NY Times Reporter Shows What Is Fundamentally Wrong with Corporate Media

Arkansas woman jailed in ‘debtor’s prison’ for the 7th time over a single $29 bounced check

Nikki Petree, who is now unemployed and cares for her ailing father, was released last week after spending 35 days in jail related to the check she accidentally bounced years ago.

Journalist Turned Private Eye Shows How Messed Up Our Criminal Justice System Is

Oklahoma woman kills ‘possessed’ daughter by shoving crucifix down her throat

Gomez had swollen hands and bruises on her arms that she told police were the result of her efforts to remove Satan from her daughter’s body.
***
Methinks it weren't the daughter who was "possessed". 

The 'Christian' Religio-Wingnuts' Latest Quack Crusade Is No Excuse for Trading in Child Pornography

Fear Culture Gone Wild as False Reports of Gunfire Shut Down Another Airport

Burglary suspect left behind a T-shirt with his name on it

A man accused of breaking into two businesses in Racine, Wisconsin, in late July allegedly left a shirt with his name ironed into it at one of the crime scenes. On July 28, Racine police officers were dispatched to the Port of Call liquor store on a report of a burglary.
When police arrived, the observed two broken glass doors leading into the store in addition to a grey T-shirt laying in the entrance way. Police observed that the cash register had been taken. When they talked with the owners, they indicated the cash in the register was about $300 and the register itself was valued at about $1,000.
When police reviewed the security footage, they observed that the T-shirt on the floor contained the name "Dustin Brannon" ironed onto it. Officers looked up the aforementioned name in their lookup system and found a picture of Brannon. They compared the photo with Port of Call's security footage and made the match.
Brannon is also accused of robbing a second Racine-area business, a Citgo gas station. Brannon, 35, of Trevor, is being held in the Racine County Jail on a $2,500 cash bond. He has been charged with two counts of felony burglary that carry a combined maximum of 24 years of incarceration if he is convicted. Brannon's next appearance in court is Sep. 1.

Police saved man’s life with Heimlich maneuver before arresting him over drugs he coughed up

A police officer in Buffalo, New York, saved a choking man’s life by performing the Heimlich maneuver, but after the man coughed up a bag of cocaine, he arrested him.
Central District Officers Sean McCabe and Omar Rodriguez said they were on routine patrol on Thursday when they saw Bryan Ramos sitting outside a vacant house. When they approached Ramos for questioning and for a pat down, he put a pack of cigarettes that appeared to contain drugs in his mouth, according to an arrest report.
Ramos struggled, and he was pulled by the officers to the ground. He continued to resist, so the officers sprayed him with pepper spray. Ramos began having a hard time breathing, and was turning purple, so McCabe performed the Heimlich maneuver on him. Officers said Ramos coughed up the cigarette pack containing a plastic bag of cocaine.
Ramos, 23, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence, obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest and criminal trespass following the incident. After his arrest, Ramos told the officers his cousin had asked him to hold the items. “If there is something in that bag I am (in deep trouble). That bag is huge. I know it’s probably a B felony,” Ramos said, according to police.

Police used fishing hook to capture criminal in canal

Police in Queensland, Australia, went to great lengths to catch an alleged armed criminal on the Gold Coast, chasing him down in a teenager's dinghy and finally capturing him with a gaff hook.
Officers said the man, 38, fled when they arrived at a Palm Beach house on Sunday morning over reports he was seen armed with a knife and trying to enter a house.
Neighbor David Rowe said the man tried to get away by jumping a number of fences into the nearby canal, where he tried to swim to the other side. Quick thinking police saw three teenagers cruising past in a dinghy and commandeered their vessel. "He was in the water a good 20 minutes or so before they used the gaff hook and pulled him to shore," Mr Rowe said.

The alleged offender could been seen trying to swim away despite being hooked, until he was dragged to shore where three officers were waiting. The man, from Maroochydore, has been charged with possessing a knife, trespass and assault or obstruct police officer. "I've seen some weird arrests, but this is the weirdest one I've seen in a while," a Queensland police spokesman said.

Woman says she came face-to-face with Old Stinker the werewolf

A woman has described the moment she came face-to-face with the notorious werewolf Old Stinker. Jemma Waller, an animal rescue worker, was driving through the East Riding of Yorkshire village of Halsham when she believes she saw the legendary creature. The 24-year-old said the beast looked like a big dog "with a human face". Ms Waller was with two friends at the time of the sighting. She said: "We were driving down this country lane on our way to get some pizza and my friend in the back seat said that he had seen a fox.
"I looked on my driver's side and saw this beast on all fours who started to walk straight towards my car on two legs. It looked like a big dog, probably bigger than my car, but it had a human face. It also had this cream and grey fur. My automatic reaction was to keep on driving, but thankfully it didn't keep coming towards me. It just turned around and ran off diagonally. Everyone in the car was really shaken. We'd never seen anything like that before." The party stopped their car at a nearby petrol station to calm themselves down.
When concerned staff asked what was wrong, the friends described what they had seen. Staff then told them about the Beast of Barmston Drain. Ms Waller said: "We had never heard about it before, but when we started reading up about it, it was exactly like what we saw. It just made us more scared to be honest and I didn't get any sleep that night. It was just like a horror movie." Sightings of "Old Stinker" are believed to date back to the 18th century when wolves still stalked the countryside.
In one report from the 1960s, a lorry driver said a creature had tried to smash its way through his windscreen as he drove along a remote Wolds road. Last month, Hull City Council officially confirmed it has no written policy on dealing with werewolves after a resident submitted a freedom of information request. Wayne Carr asked if a risk assessment had been "undertaken on Barmston Drain with regards to werewolves". The council replied by saying it had no written policy on werewolves, no record of werewolf-related risk assessments and no secret stock of silver bullets locked away in a Guildhall cupboard.

Village abandoned by its residents due to hoax ghost threat

A village in Jharkhand, India, has been abandoned by its residents due to a hoax ghost threat.
Reportedly, at least 10 people of the Parhiya caste in Khirakhar in the Latehar district have died in the past year.
This has frightened the residents of the presence of some supernatural powers in the village.

However, residents of nearby villages claim that it’s the lack of proper medication and diagnosis due to which these people have died. The village also lacks basic water and electricity facilities.

Life on Tristan da Cunha

Tristan da Cunha is the most remote inhabited island in the world. We’ve posted about the island before. Now you can take a little tour of island life with Stewart McPherson. Resident Harold Green says it’s quiet and peaceful, except for that volcanic eruption in 1961 that forced a two-year evacuation. Fifty-five years later, it’s still a traumatic memory for the islanders.
With less than 300 permanent residents, it’s no wonder they consider each other brothers and sisters. It’s likely they are all at least cousins. They have what they need, for now. There’s a bus, which is something my town of 8,000 doesn’t have. Then again, we have cars.

Fascinating New Discoveries Involving The Vikings

Recent archaeological finds reveal that the Vikings were not only fierce, bloodthirsty warriors but also farmers, skilled craftsmen, impressive mariners, and expert traders as well.
As more discoveries are made, our knowledge of the Vikings will widen even more - dispelling many myths surrounding this fascinating group of people.

Number of Potentially Habitable Planets Is Greater Than The Number of People Alive on Earth

Animal Pictures


Tuesday, August 30, 2016

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of  
Carolina Naturally
Sounds like a plan ...! 
 
Carolina Naturally is read in 210 countries around the world daily.   
  
Swimming with Whale Sharks ... !
Today is - International Whale Shark Day

 You want the unvarnished truth?
Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Antigua - Argentina - Aruba - Bahamas - Barbados - Belize - Bolivia - Brazil - Canada - Chile  Colombia - Costa Rica - Dominican Republic- Ecuador - El Salvador - French Guiana - Haiti  Honduras - Jamaica - Mexico - Nicaragua - Paraguay - Peru - Puerto Rico - Sint Eustatius and Saba  Sint Maartin - Trinidad and Tobago - Turks and Caicos - United States - Uruguay - Venezuela
Virgin Islands
Europe
Albania - Armenia - Austria - Belarus - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia  Cyprus -  Czech Republic - Denmark - England - Estonia - Finland - France - Georgia - Germany Greece -  Hungary - Iceland - Ireland - Isle of Mann - Italy - Jersey - Latvia - Lithuania - Macedonia  Malta - Monaco - Montenegro - Netherlands - Northern Ireland - Norway - Poland - Portugal  Romania - Russia - San Marino - Scotland - Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden  Switzerland - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Afghanistan - Bangladesh - Brunei - Burma - Cambodia - China - Hong Kong - India - Indonesia  Iran - Iraq - Israel - Japan - Jordan - Kazakhstan - Korea -  Lebanon - Malaysia - Mauritius
Mongolia - Nepal - Oman - Pakistan - Saudi Arabia - Singapore - Sri Lanka - Taiwan - Thailand  Tibet - United Arab Emirates - Uzbekistan - Vietnam - Yemen
Africa
Chad - Congo - Egypt - Ethiopia - Ivory Coast - Kenya - Libya - Madagascar - Morocco  Mozambique - Nigeria - South Africa - Sudan - Tunisia - Zambia - Zimbabwe
The Pacific
Australia - French Polynesia - Guam - Marshall Islands - New Zealand - Philippines
Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

1617
Rosa de Lima of Peru becomes the first American saint to be canonized.
1721
The Peace of Nystad ends the Second Northern War between Sweden and Russia, giving Russia considerably more power in the Baltic region.
1781
The French fleet arrives in the Chesapeake Bay to aid the American Revolution.
1813
Creek Indians massacre over 500 whites at Fort Mims, Alabama.
1860
The first British tramway is inaugurated at Birkenhead by an American, George Francis Train.
1861
Union General John Fremont declares martial law throughout Missouri and makes his own emancipation proclamation to free slaves in the state. Lincoln overrules the general.
1892
The Moravia, a passenger ship arriving from Germany, brings cholera to the United States.
1932
Nazi leader Hermann Goering is elected president of the Reichstag.
1944
Ploesti, the center of the Rumanian oil industry, falls to Soviet troops.
1961
President John F. Kennedy appoints General Lucius D. Clay as his personal representative in Berlin.
1963
Hot Line communications link installed between Moscow and Washington, DC.
1967
US Senate confirms Thurgood Marshall as first African-American Supreme Court justice.
1976
Tom Brokaw becomes news anchor of Today Show.
1979
First recorded instance of a comet (Howard-Koomur-Michels) hitting the sun; the energy released is equal to approximately 1 million hydrogen bombs.
1982
Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) forced out of Lebanon after 10 years in Beirut during Lebanese Civil War.
1983
Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford, Jr., becomes the first African-American astronaut to travel in space.
1986
KGB arrests journalist Nicholas Daniloff (US News World Report) on a charge of spying and hold him for 13 days.
1983
Eiffel Tower welcomes its 150 millionth visitor, 33-year-old Parisian Jacqueline Martinez.

Spending a Year on Mars … Sort Of

A crew of six volunteer scientists spent an entire year isolated in a tent on small section of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano to simulate what life would be like on Mars. They were part of the Hawaii Space Exploration and Analog and Simulation project, called HI-SEAS for short. The 365-day simulation ended Sunday, and the crew was allowed to come outside without a space suit for the first time in a year. Although they have been in contact with "earth" by internet, any messages were delayed by 20 minutes to simulate such communication on Mars. The experiment is about how humans would react under isolation from the outside world, and how they got along with crewmates in cramped conditions. Sheyna Gifford and Tristan Bassingthwaighte talked about their experiences.
Counting down to their so-called “re-entry,” the crew had their sights set on everyday things we Earthlings take for granted ― hugging loved ones, feasting on a burger, swimming in the ocean and running on grass.
In addition to spending time with family and getting outside, Bassingthwaighte’s said he’s looking forward to living in a place with a window.
“I mean holy crap! A whole window that belongs just to me?” he wrote. “I don’t even know what to do with that, we’ve all been sharing a window the size of a medium pizza for the last year.”
In her time away, Gifford said she’s come to realize that the journey to Mars will likely prove more challenging in ways we don’t expect than in ways we do. The good news, she said, is “human beings are pretty much capable of anything.”

7 Things You Might Not Have Learned In Shop Class

tools
7 Things You Might Not Have Learned In Shop Class
It’s not too late to become a home-repair wizard

7 Mistakes You're Making With Your Scrambled Eggs

5 Things That Don’t Kill Your Brain Cells, Despite What You’ve Heard

Steps ...


‘White Lives Matter’ will now be classified as a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center

Agitators with the “White Lives Matter” movement will be aligned with other white nationalist groups like the KKK or skinheads, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate map.”

Kurtz Complains That Harassment Lawsuits Make Fox 'News' ''Look Like A Terrible Place''

Catholic Hospital Turns Away Woman Bleeding from Dislodged IUD Because Cult Opposes Birth Control

Residents concerned about clown apparently attempting to lure children into the woods

A note some residents of Greenville County, South Carolina, found on their apartment doors has them concerned for the safety of their neighborhood. Residents at Fleetwood Manor Apartments reportedly received letters on Wednesday stating the property management has received complaints of a person dressed as a clown trying to “lure children into the woods.”

Teenager on the run requested that the media used a 'better photo' of her

A teenager on the run from police in Australia asked a TV station to use a 'better photo' of her when reporting her escape. Amy Sharp is alleged to have broken out of a police station in Sydney before running away.
As is fairly standard practice, police issued a statement accompanied by two photographs they had taken of the 18-year-old in a bid to find the youngster. But the search took an unexpected turn when the pictures and police statement were uploaded onto Sydney's 7 News Facebook page. The first person to comment on the story and the photos was Ms Sharp herself.
Clearly unhappy with how she looked in the police mugshots, in which she wore a glum expression and a red blanket draped over her shoulders, she uploaded a more flattering shot in the comments section of the page with a simple request: "Can you use this photo please, and thank you. Yours truly, Amy Sharp xx" The comment was accompanied with a smiling emoji with a halo.
Police said that Ms Sharp was in the Surry Hills Corrective Services Cell Complex when she fled from staff and was last seen running away. Police did not consider her a risk to members of the public saying she had been in custody for property offenses. She was later caught in Wentworth Park, not far from where she allegedly escaped. She has now been charged with escaping lawful custody.

Man fought boredom by walking around motel while completely naked

A man from Greenfield, Massachusetts, told police he decided to fight his boredom by walking around a motel while completely naked. Police arrested Alfred Henderson, 40, after he admitted he purposely walked around the Red Roof Inn naked, according to a police report filed in Framingham District Court.
Early on Wednesday morning, motel employees told police they were in the lobby when a fully naked man walked by carrying an ice bucket. He went to the vending machine area and returned to his room. One of the two women said they had seen the man walking around wearing nothing but a T-shirt earlier, police said.
Police knocked on his room door and were greeted by Henderson. “He said, ‘You are probably looking for me.’” Henderson admitted to walking around nude. When asked why, he said, “Boredom.” “Alfred exposed himself openly and recklessly disregarding a substantial risk to public exposure,” police said.
Police arrested Henderson and charged him with open and gross lewdness. At Henderson’s Framingham District Court arraignment prosecutors did not ask for bail and Judge David Frank released him. Henderson is due back in court on Oct. 16 for a pretrial conference.

Naked tomato thief on the loose

Police in Toronto, Canada, say a naked tomato thief is on the loose.
They say that at about 8pm on Friday night, officers received a call about a naked man who was seen in a residential backyard.
"He was soaping himself up" and washing off with a hose. The garden intruder then took off with tomatoes from the backyard.
Toronto police say officers arrived at the home, but the man had fled the scene. A search was conducted in the neighborhood, but police say neither the man nor the tomatoes could be found.

Study Reveals Bacteria Are the Real Boogeyman Hiding Inside Your Bed

How the most famous human ancestor died

How the most famous human ancestor died
How the most famous human ancestor died
Lucy, the most famous fossil of a human ancestor, probably died after falling from a tree, according to a study appearing inNature led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. Lucy, a 3.18-million-year-old specimen of Australopithecus afarensis — or...

Interactive map shows where animals will move under climate change

Interactive map shows where animals will move under climate change
Interactive map shows where animals will move under climate change
Scientists predict that as Earth warms and climate patterns morph in response, animals will be forced to move to survive. That usually means hightailing it to higher latitudes as equatorial areas become too hot and dry. This movement pattern has happened fluidly and...

Disabled dog's wheelchair stolen from family's porch

A special wheelchair used by a disabled dog was stolen from his owners’ porch in Long Beach, Washington.
Charley, a 6-year-old black Labrador, has used the custom-made chair to get around since he lost feeling in his hind legs a year and a half ago. Charley’s owners, Rod Beauregard and Leoni Wolf, usually keep the two-wheeled vehicle inside, but it was left outside recently, and the wheelchair, which cost around $400, together with the ramp Charley used were stolen.

Rod and Leoni say they can tell he wants to play and chase his ball, but he can’t. Since the theft, they have been transporting him outside using a blanket. “I don’t know what’s happening with the world. People just seem to be taking more and more from each other,” said Leoni. “He can’t walk now, he can’t run for his ball, he can’t get up, he can’t stand up, and he’s sad about it,” Rod added.

Rod says he can't understand why someone would steal his dog's wheelchair, but he has an idea. "It has BMX wheels on it. Someone could put it on a bike. They're going to throw the other piece away probably," he said. However, a family friend created a GoFundMe account to raise money to replace the chair and within hours of the page going up, the funds were met.

Scared Seal Dives into a Boat to Escape Orcas

Orcas eat seals -we know that. Seals know that too and they know the best way to escape is to get to dry land. When there is no dry land though, there is another option for the truly desperate -a boat. And this little terrified guy was all too willing to hop a ride on a passing by ship filled with humans as long as it meant he wasn't on the orca dinner menu.

Animal Pictures


Monday, August 29, 2016

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of  
Carolina Naturally
More herbs ...! 
 
Carolina Naturally is read in 210 countries around the world daily.   
  
Fresh Herbs ... !
Today is - More Herbs, Less Salt Day

 You want the unvarnished truth?
Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Antigua - Argentina - Aruba - Bahamas - Barbados - Belize - Bolivia - Brazil - Canada - Chile  Colombia - Costa Rica - Dominican Republic- Ecuador - El Salvador - French Guiana - Haiti  Honduras - Jamaica - Mexico - Nicaragua - Paraguay - Peru - Puerto Rico - Sint Eustatius and Saba  Sint Maartin - Trinidad and Tobago - Turks and Caicos - United States - Uruguay - Venezuela
Virgin Islands
Europe
Albania - Armenia - Austria - Belarus - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia  Cyprus -  Czech Republic - Denmark - England - Estonia - Finland - France - Georgia - Germany Greece -  Hungary - Iceland - Ireland - Isle of Mann - Italy - Jersey - Latvia - Lithuania - Macedonia  Malta - Monaco - Montenegro - Netherlands - Northern Ireland - Norway - Poland - Portugal  Romania - Russia - San Marino - Scotland - Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden  Switzerland - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
Afghanistan - Bangladesh - Brunei - Burma - Cambodia - China - Hong Kong - India - Indonesia  Iran - Iraq - Israel - Japan - Jordan - Kazakhstan - Korea -  Lebanon - Malaysia - Mauritius
Mongolia - Nepal - Oman - Pakistan - Saudi Arabia - Singapore - Sri Lanka - Taiwan - Thailand  Tibet - United Arab Emirates - Uzbekistan - Vietnam - Yemen
Africa
Chad - Congo - Egypt - Ethiopia - Ivory Coast - Kenya - Libya - Madagascar - Morocco  Mozambique - Nigeria - South Africa - Sudan - Tunisia - Zambia - Zimbabwe
The Pacific
Australia - French Polynesia - Guam - Marshall Islands - New Zealand - Philippines
Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

70
The Temple of Jerusalem burns after a nine-month Roman siege.
1526
Ottoman Suleiman the Magnificent crushes a Hungarian army under Lewis II at the Battle of Mohacs.
1533
In Peru, the Inca chief Atahualpa is executed by orders of Francisco Pizarro, although the chief had already paid his ransom.
1776
General George Washington retreats during the night from Long Island to New York City.
1793
Slavery is abolished in Santo Domingo.
1862
Union General John Pope‘s army is defeated by a smaller Confederate force at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
1882
Australia defeats England in cricket for the first time. The following day a obituary appears in the Sporting Times addressed to the British team.
1942
The American Red Cross announces that Japan has refused to allow safe conduct for the passage of ships with supplies for American prisoners of war.
1945
U.S. airborne troops are landed in transport planes at Atsugi airfield, southwest of Tokyo, beginning the occupation of Japan.
1949
USSR explodes its first atomic bomb, “First Lightning.”
1950
International Olympic Committee votes to allow West Germany and Japan to compete in 1952 games.
1952
In the largest bombing raid of the Korean War, 1,403 planes of the Far East Air Force bomb Pyongyang, North Korea.
1957
US Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1957 after Strom Thurmond (Sen-D-SC) ends 24-hour filibuster, the longest in Senate history, against the bill.
1960
US U-2 spy plane spots SAM (surface-to-air) missile launch pads in Cuba.
1964
Mickey Mantle ties Babe Ruth’s career strikeout record (1,330).
1965
Astronauts L. Gordon Cooper Jr. and Charles “Pete” Conrad Jr complete 120 Earth orbits in Gemini 5, marking the first time the US set an international duration record for a manned space mission.
1966
The Beatles give their last public concert (Candlestick Park, San Francisco).
1968
Democrats nominate Hubert H Humphrey for president at their Chicago convention.
1977
Lou Brock (St Louis Cardinals) breaks Ty Cobb’s 49-year-old career stolen bases record at 893.
1986
Morocco’s King Hassan II signs unity treaty with Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, strengthening political and economic ties and creating a mutual defense pact.
1991
USSR’s parliament suspends Communist Party activities in the wake of a failed coup.
1992
Thousands of Germans demonstrate against a wave of racist attacks aimed at immigrants.
1995
NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
2003
A terrorist bomb kills Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, and nearly 100 worshipers as they leave a mosque in Najaf where the ayatollah had called for Iraqi unity.
2005
Rains from Hurricane Katrina cause a levee breech at the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, causing severe flooding.
2012
The Egyptian Army’s Operation Eagle results in the deaths of 11 suspected terrorists and the arrest of another 23.

The Hapless Explorer Who Helped Create the National Park System

In 1870, a group of prominent citizens of the Montana Territory set out on an expedition to map the area known as the Yellowstone country. The Washburn Expedition hoped to confirm or disavow the tall tales of geysers, boiling lakes, and other wonders. Among their number was one Truman Everts, who was very nearsighted and totally unsuited for a wilderness expedition.  
A desk-jockey all his life, Everts had run the Montana Territory’s Internal Revenue department in Helena for the past five years. The Grant administration wanted its own man collecting taxes in Montana, though, and by the summer of 1870, the taxman had been unemployed for seven months. Enamored with the idea of exploring the unknown with Montana’s fellow leading citizens, the middle-aged widower enthusiastically joined the Washburn Expedition. The jaunt into the unknown was to be “sort of a between-jobs vacation for him,” Whittlesey says. Little did Everts know his holiday would become a comic wilderness odyssey—think The Revenant meets National Lampoon’s Vacation—of grit, luck, and utter incompetence that would, against all odds, help lead to the creation of the nation’s first national park.
The first thing Everts did was fall behind the group and become lost. Then his horse ran away with his supplies. The rest of the expedition looked for him for a week, then decided he must have frozen to death. With neither tools nor supplies, Everts continued the best he could. When a prospector found him 37 days later, Everts weighed only 50 pounds. The story of his terrifying time alone in the wilderness, strangely, aided the push to make Yellowstone the United States’ first national park in 1872. Read about Everts’ ordeal at Outside.