On This Day
1147 – Seljuk Turks defeat German crusaders under Conrad III at the Battle of Dorylaeum.
The second Battle of Dorylaeum took place near Dorylaeum in October 1147, during the Second Crusade. It was not a single clash but consisted of a series of encounters over a number of days. The German crusader forces of Conrad III were defeated by the Seljuk Turks led by Sultan Mesud I.
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1377 – Tvrtko I is crowned the first king of Bosnia.
Stephen Tvrtko I (Serbo-Croatian: Stjepan/Stefan Tvrtko / Стјепан/Стефан Твртко; c. 1338 – 10 March 1391) was the first king of Bosnia. A member of the House of Kotromanić, he succeeded his uncle Stephen II as the ban of Bosnia in 1353. As he was a minor at the time, Tvrtko’s father, Vladislav, briefly ruled as regent, followed by Tvrtko’s mother, Jelena. Early in his personal rule, Tvrtko quarrelled with his country’s Roman Catholic clergy but later enjoyed cordial relations with all the religious communities in his realm. After initial difficulties – the loss of large parts of Bosnia to his overlord, King Louis I of Hungary, and being briefly deposed by his magnates – Tvrtko’s power grew considerably. He conquered some remnants of the neighbouring Serbian Empire in 1373, after the death of its last ruler and his distant relative, Uroš the Weak. In 1377, he had himself crowned king of Bosnia and Serbia, claiming to be the heir of Serbia’s extinct Nemanjić dynasty.
Born On This Day
840 – Ya’qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar, founder of the Saffarid dynasty (d. 879)
Ya’qūb ibn al-Layth al-Saffār (Persian: یعقوب لیث صفاری; 25 October 840 – 5 June 879),[1] was a coppersmith and the founder of the Saffarid dynasty of Sistan, with its capital at Zaranj (a city now in south-western Afghanistan). Under his military leadership, he conquered much of the eastern portions of Greater Iran consisting of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan as well as portions of western Pakistan[2][3] and a small part of Iraq. He was succeeded by his brother, Amr ibn al-Layth.
1427 – Sigismund, Archduke of Austria (d. 1496)
Sigismund (26 October 1427 – 4 March 1496), a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1439 (elevated to Archduke in 1477) until his death. As a scion of the Habsburg Leopoldian line, he ruled over Further Austria and the County of Tyrol from 1446 until his resignation in 1490.
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Excellent Sheriff Gregory Tony!
Sheriff Gregory Tony announces arrest of Deputy Jemiah Thomas
James Clear: 3-2-1: How to handle errors, eliminating points of failure, and the willingness to look foolish
By Colin Marshall, Open Culture: How the “Lost Cities” of the Amazon Were Finally Discovered
By Colin Marshall, Open Culture: The History of the Electric Guitar Solo: A Seven-Part Series
By Jonathan Thompson, High Country News: Landline: A Sagebrush Rebellion flares up in Wyoming?
By Sonya Vatomsky, Mental Floss: The Origins of 25 Monsters, Ghosts, and Spooky Things From myths to literature to giant squid, here’s how some of our favorite eerie creatures and legends got their start.
Less things to fail.
By Jeff Somers, LifeHacker: The Case for Buying ‘Dumb’ Appliances Smart appliances are everywhere—and you probably don’t need them.
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By Betty Crocker Kitchens: 15 Clever Ways to Make Dinner in a Pie Plate
By Betty Crocker Kitchens: Marbled Halloween Cookies
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.
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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.
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