On This Day
180 – Commodus becomes sole emperor of the Roman Empire at the age of eighteen, following the death of his father, Marcus Aurelius.[1]
Commodus (/ˈkɒmədəs/;[4] 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until the latter’s death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. His reign is commonly thought of as marking the end of a golden period of peace in the history of the Roman Empire, known as the Pax Romana.
1241 – First Mongol invasion of Poland: Mongols overwhelm Polish armies in Kraków in the Battle of Chmielnik and plunder the city.
The Mongol Invasion of Poland from late 1240 to 1241 culminated in the Battle of Legnica, where the Mongols defeated an alliance which included forces from fragmented Poland and their allies, led by Henry II the Pious, the Duke of Silesia. The first invasion’s intention was to secure the flank of the main Mongolian army attacking the Kingdom of Hungary. The Mongols neutralized any potential help to King Béla IV being provided by the Poles or any military orders.
Born On This Day
1231 – Emperor Shijō of Japan (d. 1242)
Emperor Shijō (四条天皇, Shijō-tennō) (March 17, 1231 – February 10, 1242) was the 87th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. This reign spanned the years 1232 through 1242.[1]
1395 – John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, English military commander (d. 1447)[11]
John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon, KG (29 March 1395 – 5 August 1447) was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years’ War. His father, the 1st Duke of Exeter, was a maternal half-brother to Richard II of England, and was executed after King Richard’s deposition. The Holland family estates and titles were forfeited, but John was able to recover them by dedicating his career to royal service. Holland rendered great assistance to his cousin Henry V in his conquest of France, fighting both on land and on the sea. He was marshal and admiral of England and governor of Aquitaine under Henry VI.[4]
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Interesting Facts
Word Genius: Word of the Day
Day One’s Agency: 2023 Predictionary
Last year, we coined the phrase “Catch 2022” to describe confronting the uncertainty of a wide, weird, post-pandemic world. And it certainly was a year of shifting sands and shocks across cultural, political and economic planes, often one that had us feeling a bit untethered from reality. So after a year on the defensive—weathering geopolitical, cultural and existential crises—how do we regain agency and autonomy, building a future that feels more human, resilient and empowering?
“Precalibrating,” might be a start. It describes anticipating rather than reacting, building a firewall and creative framework to navigate the year (and years ahead) with critical, innovative thinking—and dare we say, optimism.
It’s through this lens that we wrote the 2023 Predictionary: part-dictionary, part-prediction breaking down a series of words like “AI-nxiety,” “trendflation” and “fratigue” that will define the year ahead.
Read more and the full report ->
By Maria Popova, The Marginalian: Nikolai Vavilov and the Living Library of Resilience: The Story of the World’s First Seed Bank and the Tragic Hero of Science Who Set Out to End Humanity’s Suffering The most moving story of self-sacrifice in the history of science.
By Dave Davies, NPR: A veterinarian says pets have a lot to teach us about love and grief
Recipes
By Nicholas Dekker, kitchn: This TikTok-Famous Cucumber Sandwich Is My All-Time Favorite WFH Lunch
Homemade on a Weeknight: Baked Beef Tacos
By Ivis Estrada, Taste of Home: Top 10 Casserole Recipes
By Kitchen Mason: No Bake Kinder Bueno Cheesecake Recipe
Just the Recipe: Paste the URL to any recipe, click submit, and it’ll return literally JUST the recipe- no ads, no life story of the writer, no nothing EXCEPT the recipe.
DamnDelicious
RecipeTinEats
- Spinach French Onion Cob Dip – Australia’s favourite dip! June 19, 2026Meet Australia’s favourite dip!!! This Spinach French Onion Cob Dip is made using a French Onion Soup mix and is served in a cob bread loaf. It is unapologetically retro, gloriously unfashionable, breaks every real-food rule I preach, and is completely addictive!! Spinach French Onion Cob Dip This dip has been a fixture at Australian... […]Nagi
- Easy Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef June 16, 2026Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef is what you make when you want a big batch of crowd-pleasing food with relatively little effort. The succulent pulled beef is smothered in an incredible homemade barbecue sauce, and there’s so many ways to serve it – pile into sliders, heap onto plates or stuff into baked potatoes! Easy... […]Nagi
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 21 June 21, 2026Picture of the day Bags of organic fertiliser adorn newly-planted fields against a backdrop of the Western Catchment in the Nilgiri mountains. Tamil Nadu, India
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 20 June 20, 2026Picture of the day Flower of a Geranium sanguineum, bloody crane's-bill. Focus stack of 51 photos.
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Welcome to the Stump the Bookseller blog!
Stump the Bookseller is a service offered by Loganberry Books to reconnect people to the books they love but can’t quite remember. In brief (for more detailed information see our About page), people can post their memories here, and the hivemind goes to work. After all, the collective mind of bibliophiles, readers, parents and librarians around the world is much better than just a few of us thinking. Together with these wonderful Stumper Magicians, we have a nearly 50% success rate in finding these long lost but treasured books. The more concrete the book description, the better the success rate, of course. It is a labor of love to keep it going, and there is a modest fee. Please see the How To page to find price information and details on how to submit your Book Stumper and payment.
Thanks to everyone involved to keep this forum going: our blogging team, the well-read Stumper Magicians, the many referrals, and of course to everyone who fondly remembers the wonder of books from their childhood and wants to share or revisit that wonder. Isn’t it amazing, the magic of a book?