• Readsy

On this day

Greece's public broadcaster ERT is shut down by then-prime minister Antonis Samaras. It would be opened exactly two years later by then-prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

2013

view article

Seventy-five people die in a landslide triggered by two earthquakes in Afghanistan; an entire village is buried.

2012

view article

The first FIFA World Cup held in African soil kicks off in South Africa.

2010

view article

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes a historic official apology to Canada's First Nations in regard to abuses at a Canadian Indian residential school.

2008

view article

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched into orbit.

2008

view article

Mudslides in Chittagong, Bangladesh, kill 130 people.

2007

view article

Cassini–Huygens makes its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe.

2004

view article

Antonio Meucci is acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress.

2002

view article

Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

2001

view article

Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition.

1998

view article

Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black MPs in Great Britain.

1987

view article

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, kills at least 2,000.

1981

view article

Altaf Hussain founds the student political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University.

1978

view article

The U.S. Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control.

1971

view article

After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army general officers, becoming the first women to do so.

1970

view article

Lloyd J. Old identifies the first cell surface antigens that could differentiate among different cell types.

1968

view article

World War II veteran Walter Seifert attacks an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers and seriously injuring several more with a home-made flamethrower and a lance.

1964

view article

American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stands at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they are able to register.

1963

view article

Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam.

1963

view article

John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which would revolutionize American society by guaranteeing equal access to public facilities, ending segregation in education, and guaranteeing federal protection for voting rights.

1963

view article

Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.

1962

view article

Start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that target minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths is reportedly 150.

1956

view article

Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least one hundred are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.

1955

view article

USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, is commissioned.

1944

view article

World War II: The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.

1942

view article

Free French Forces retreat from Bir Hakeim after having successfully delayed the Axis advance.

1942

view article

World War II: The Siege of Malta begins with a series of Italian air raids.

1940

view article

Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Wuhan starts.

1938

view article

Great Purge: The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin executes eight army leaders.

1937

view article

Inventor Edwin Armstrong demonstrates FM broadcasting to an audience of engineers at the FCC in Washington, DC.

1936

view article

The London International Surrealist Exhibition opens.

1936

view article

During the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gather in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to coin the political phrase "smoke-filled room".

1920

view article

Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown.

1919

view article

King Alexander assumes the throne of Greece after his father, Constantine I, is deemed to have abdicated under pressure from allied armies occupying Athens.

1917

view article

A group of Serbian officers storms the royal palace and assassinates King Alexander I of Serbia and his wife, Queen Draga.

1903

view article

The boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand are extended by the UK to include the Cook Islands.

1901

view article

The Hundred Days' Reform, a planned movement to reform social, political, and educational institutions in China, is started by the Guangxu Emperor, but is suspended by Empress Dowager Cixi after 104 days. (The failed reform led to the abolition of the Imperial examination in 1905.)

1898

view article

Paris–Bordeaux–Paris, sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the "first motor race", takes place.

1895

view article

The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, is officially established in Melbourne, Australia.

1892

view article

Nationalist riots break out in Alexandria directed against foreign domination. More than 50 Europeans are killed, including the British consul.

1882

view article

The Naval Battle of the Riachuelo is fought on the rivulet Riachuelo (Argentina), between the Paraguayan Navy on one side and the Brazilian Navy on the other. The Brazilian victory was crucial for the later success of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina) in the Paraguayan War.

1865

view article

The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, fueled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and Irish.

1837

view article

The first cornerstone is laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City.

1825

view article

A fire consumes large portions of Detroit in the Michigan Territory.

1805

view article

Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reaches Alaska.

1788

view article

The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.

1776

view article

The Coronation of Louis XVI in Reims, the last coronation before the French Revolution.

1775

view article

The American Revolutionary War's first naval engagement, the Battle of Machias, results in the capture of a small British naval vessel.

1775

view article

British explorer Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef.

1770

view article

Denmark adopts the characteristic Nordic Cross flag later taken up by all other Scandinavian countries.

1748

view article

Johann Sebastian Bach leads his cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O eternity, you word of thunder), BWV 20, on the first Sunday after Trinity, beginning his second cycle, the chorale cantata cycle.

1724

view article

Anglo-Dutch forces skirmish with French forces before the walls of Nijmegen and prevent its fall.

1702

view article

James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, lands at Lyme in Dorset with loyal followers with the intent to depose king James II of England.

1685

view article

Philip II recognizes the rights and privileges of the local nobles and chieftains in the Philippines, which paved way to the stabilization of the rule of the Principalía (an elite ruling class of native nobility in Spanish Philippines).

1594

view article

Don Tristan de Luna y Arellano sails for Florida with a party of 1,500, intending to settle on the gulf coast (Vera Cruz, Mexico).

1559

view article

Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon.

1509

view article

The Battle of Sauchieburn is fought between rebel Lords and James III of Scotland, resulting in the death of the king.

1488

view article

The Treaty of Fotheringhay is signed between the English and Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, the rebellious brother of king James III of Scotland.

1482

view article

Hundred Years' War: Start of the Battle of Jargeau.

1429

view article

The megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, chief minister of the Byzantine Empire, is lynched by political prisoners.

1345

view article

Albert I of Brandenburg, also called The Bear (Ger: Albrecht der Bär), becomes the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, Germany and the first margrave.

1157

view article

Roger of Salerno, Prince of Antioch, captures Azaz from the Seljuk Turks.

1118

view article

Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita marries Constantine Monomachos, who is crowned the following day as Byzantine Emperor.

1042

view article

Lombard Revolt: Greek citizens of Bari rise up against the Lombard rebels led by Melus and deliver the city to Basil Mesardonites, Byzantine governor (catepan) of the Catepanate of Italy.

1011

view article

Vladimir the Great consolidates the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea. He is proclaimed ruler (knyaz) of all Kievan Rus'.

980

view article

A Hasanid Alid uprising in Mecca is crushed by the Abbasids at the Battle of Fakhkh.

786

view article

Emperor Taizong of Tang sends envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk in order to seek the release of Chinese prisoners captured during the transition from Sui to Tang.

631

view article

Marcomannic Wars: The Roman army in Moravia is encircled by the Quadi, who have broken the peace treaty (171). In a violent thunderstorm emperor Marcus Aurelius defeats and subdues them in the so-called "miracle of the rain".

173

view article

Top Stories from Hacker News

The Road to the WASM Component Model 1.0

55 points

21 comments

discussionsource

Reverse engineering the Creative Katana soundbar to control it from Linux

19 points

1 comments

discussionsource

AI agent runs amok in Fedora and elsewhere

311 points

88 comments

discussionsource

CSS: Unavoidable Bad Parts

An ersatz CSS tutorial for people who need to style a web page, but aren't web developers. I am a wrong person to write this kind of thing, as I have neither the time, nor experience. I'd much rather read a book about this. Alas, I had to learn all this stuff from trawling MDN, so perhaps it is valuable to document what I have so far.

44 points

8 comments

discussionsource

Sequoyah’s syllabary created a written language for the Cherokee

Sequoyah’s syllabary faced suspicion initially, but after a demonstration, his version of “talking leaves” was widely embraced. And then the word spread

139 points

90 comments

discussionsource

Are insecure code completions in PyCharm a vulnerability?

Python, open source, and the internet

23 points

4 comments

discussionsource

PgDog is funded and coming to a database near you

PgDog is a connection pooler, load balancer, and sharding proxy for PostgreSQL. Scale Postgres horizontally without rewriting your application.

436 points

211 comments

discussionsource

What is it like to be a bat? (1974) [pdf]

79 points

79 comments

discussionsource

GeoLibre 1.0

A lightweight, cloud-native GIS platform for visualizing, exploring, and analyzing geospatial data across desktop and web environments, with a responsive layout for mobile screens.

211 points

14 comments

discussionsource

Klondike Solitaire game for curses in 5k of C

59 points

6 comments

discussionsource

Anthropic requires 30 day data retention for Fable and Mythos

334 points

161 comments

discussionsource

Cybersecurity researchers aren't happy about the guardrails on Anthropic's Fable

Cybersecurity researchers are complaining that Anthropic's new model Fable has guardrails that are too strict for any cybersecurity work.

358 points

318 comments

discussionsource

Vacuum-Form Signage

Branding Main Street America and a rabbit hole into the history behind the vacuum-formed signage found in our daily lives

52 points

6 comments

discussionsource

How JPL keeps the 13-year-old Curiosity rover doing science

Relentless engineering keeps the Curiosity rover rolling despite brutal terrain, inspiring mission design choices for future Mars rovers.

210 points

54 comments

discussionsource

Show HN: Extend UI – open-source UI kit for modern document apps

React components for PDF, DOCX, XLSX, and CSV viewers, with bounding box citations, file upload, e-signing, and more.

190 points

44 comments

discussionsource

L'Affaire Siloxane

How antiperspirant fumes nearly got NASA to evacuate the space station

194 points

29 comments

discussionsource

πFS

πfs - the data-free filesystem! Contribute to philipl/pifs development by creating an account on GitHub.

658 points

147 comments

discussionsource

OpenAI mulls slashing prices as it competes with Anthropic for users

OpenAI is reportedly mulling drastic price cuts to its AI models, as it looks to woo consumers from rival AI company Anthropic, the WSJ reported on Wednesday.,OpenAI is reportedly mulling drastic price cuts to its AI models, as it looks to woo consumers from rival AI company Anthropic, the WSJ reported on Wednesday.

49 points

45 comments

discussionsource

Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)

10 points

3 comments

discussionsource