Since starting in 2001, our volunteer contributors have been helping us towards our goal: to benefit readers by acting as a comprehensive written compendium that contains information on all branches of knowledge.
−3114The epoch of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, a non-repeating, vigesimal calendar used by the Maya civilization and several other Mesoamerican cultures, occurred (pictured).
106The region of Dacia, comprising regions of modern Romania, became a province of the Roman Empire.
1492The first papal conclave held in the Sistine Chapel elected Roderic Borja as Pope Alexander VI to succeed Pope Innocent VIII.
1952King Talal of Jordan abdicated due to health reasons and was succeeded by his eldest son Hussein.
1965Violent race riots began in Watts, Los Angeles, lasting for six days and leaving 34 people dead and 1,032 injured.
1973 At a party in the recreation room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue|a New York City apartment building, DJ Kool Herc began rapping during an extended break, laying the foundation for hip-hop music.
The Conroy Virtus, intended to carry the Space Shuttle orbiter, would have used two B-52 bomber fuselages in its construction?
1948 Olympics rowing gold medallist Bert Bushnell was involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk during the Second World War?
Niki Reiser, composer for such films as Alles auf Zucker!, was awarded the Rheingau Music Prize in 2005 for "suffusing each individual work with its own unique sound"?
Residents of the Iron Age village of Khirbet Zanuta near Hebron achieved a revision of the planned demolition of their dwellings by the Israeli military authorities?
2012 Olympian Coolboy Ngamole won the South African Marathon Championships in 2010 and 2012?
Bank on Dave, an alternative to High Street banks in Burnley, Lancashire, now has a waiting list for would-be customers?
The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago. Regions of the city, referred to as sides, are divided by the Chicago River and its branches. The South Side of Chicago was originally defined as all of the city south of the main branch of the Chicago River, but it now excludes the Loop. The South Side has a varied ethnic composition, and it has great disparity in income and other demographic measures. The South Side covers 60% of the city's land area, with a higher ratio of single-family homes and larger sections zoned for industry than the rest of the city. Neighborhoods such as Armour Square, Back of the Yards, Bridgeport, and Pullman tend to be composed of more blue collar residents, while Hyde Park, the Jackson Park Highlands District, Kenwood, and Beverly tend to have middle, upper-middle class, and affluent residents. The South Side boasts a broad array of cultural and social offerings, such as professional sports teams, landmark buildings, nationally renowned museums, elite educational institutions, world class medical institutions, and major parts of the city's elaborate parks system. (Read more...)
The President of Venezuela is both the head of state and the head of government of Venezuela. The current presidential term is for six years with the constitutionally guaranteed recourse of holding a popular recall referendum anytime within the last three years of a presidential term. On 15 February 2009, a referendum removed the previous restrictions which limited the President to two terms. Nicolás Maduro assumed office of the presidency of Venezuela on 14 April 2013 after a special presidential election held five days earlier, following the death of Hugo Chávez(pictured). The presidential designation encompasses only those persons who were sworn into office as President of Venezuela following Venezuela's declaration of independence from Spanishcolonial rule, which took effect on 5 July 1811. The first president, taking office on 5 July 1811, was actually the president of a triumvirate that rotated the presidency weekly. The person serving as president during the week of 5 July was one of the three signatories of the Declaration of Independence: Cristóbal Mendoza. Mendoza shared the triumvirate with Juan Escalona and Baltasar Padrón.
The Tepees, a rock formation in Petrified Forest National Park in the U.S. state of Arizona. Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the park covers about 146 sq mi (380 km2), encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands. The petrified trees that give the park its name date to the Late Triassic, about 225 million years ago.
