Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer who led three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans between 1768 and 1779. During these voyages, he sailed tens of thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas, mapping coastlines, islands, and features across the globe. He completed the first known circumnavigation of the main islands of New Zealand, and led the first recorded visit by Europeans to the east coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. Renowned for exceptional seamanship and courage in times of danger, he was also a pioneer in the prevention of scurvy. In his three Pacific voyages, Cook encountered numerous indigenous peoples, many with little or no previous contact with Europeans, leading to violent encounters in which indigenous peoples and Cook's crew members were killed. Cook was killed in Hawaii in 1779, when a dispute with Native Hawaiians turned violent. (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1895: Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (production pictured), once described as the second-most quoted English-language play after Hamlet, premiered in London. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest> 1916: World War I: Britain, France and Russia made the Declaration of Sainte-Adresse, stating that they would refuse to sign any peace treaty with the Central Powers that failed to ensure the political and economic independence of Belgium. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Sainte-Adresse> 1961: Lawrencium, the radioactive synthetic element with atomic number 103, was first synthesized at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrencium> 2011: Arab Spring: On the Day of Rage, Bahraini youths began an uprising against the government in 55 marches across 25 locations. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Rage_%28Bahrain%29> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: paramour: 1. (chiefly archaic) One who is the object of a person's love, especially in an affair or romance; a lover; also, a sexual partner. 2. (by extension) 3. (chiefly dated) A person (especially someone who is not one's spouse) with whom one has an illicit or secret affair; also (Scotland, US, law), one with whom a married person has an adulterous affair. 4. (historical) A woman who is the object of a knight's love, and who he fights for. 5. (Christianity, obsolete) God as the object of a person's devotion or love. [...] 6. About Word of the Day 7. Nominate a word 8. Leave feedback <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/paramour> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves. All we need is to imagine our ability to love developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth. --Pierre Teilhard de Chardin <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe write to: [email protected] Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
