On This Day
1860 – The launch of HMS Warrior, with her combination of screw propeller, iron hull and iron armour, renders all previous warships obsolete.
HMS Warrior is a 40-gun steam-powered armoured frigate[Note 1] built for the Royal Navy in 1859–1861. She was the name ship of the Warrior-class ironclads. Warrior and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warships, and were built in response to France’s launching in 1859 of the first ocean-going ironclad warship, the wooden-hulled Gloire. Warrior conducted a publicity tour of Great Britain in 1863 and spent her active career with the Channel Squadron. Obsolescent following the 1873 commissioning of the mastless and more capable HMS Devastation, she was placed in reserve in 1875, and was “paid off” – decommissioned – in 1883.
She subsequently served as a storeship and depot ship, and in 1904 was assigned to the Royal Navy’s torpedo training school. The ship was converted into an oil jetty in 1927 and remained in that role until 1979, at which point she was donated by the Navy to the Maritime Trust for restoration. The restoration process took eight years, during which many of her features and fittings were either restored or recreated. When this was finished she returned to Portsmouth as a museum ship. Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Warrior has been based in Portsmouth since 1987.
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Born On This Day
1923 – Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat, French mathematician and physicist
Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat (French: [ivɔn ʃɔkɛ bʁy.a] (About this soundlisten); born 29 December 1923) is a French mathematician and physicist. She has made seminal contributions to the study of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, by showing that the Einstein equations can be put into the form of an initial value problem which is well-posed. In 2015, her breakthrough paper was listed by the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity as one of thirteen ‘milestone’ results in the study of general relativity, across the hundred years in which it had been studied.[1]
She was the first woman to be elected to the French Academy of Sciences and is a Grand Officier of the Légion d’honneur.[2]
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FYI
John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021) was an American football coach and sportscaster. He was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) for ten seasons (1969–1978), and guided them to a championship in Super Bowl XI (1977). After retiring from coaching, he served as a color commentator for NFL telecasts until 2009, work for which he won 16 Sports Emmy Awards.
Madden never had a losing season as a coach, and his overall win percentage is second in league history. In recognition of his coaching career, Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006. As a broadcaster, Madden commentated on all four major networks: CBS (1979–1993), Fox (1994–2001), ABC (2002–2005), and NBC (2006–2008). He also served as a commercial pitchman for various products and retailers, and fronted the Madden NFL video game series.
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Harry Mason Reid Jr. (/riːd/; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015.
Reid began his public career as the city attorney for Henderson, Nevada, before being elected to the Nevada Assembly in 1968. Reid’s former boxing coach, Mike O’Callaghan, chose Reid as his running mate in the 1970 Nevada gubernatorial election, and Reid served as Lieutenant Governor of Nevada from 1971 to 1975. After being defeated in races for the United States Senate and mayor of Las Vegas, Reid served as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission from 1977 to 1981. From 1983 to 1987, Reid represented Nevada’s 1st district in the United States House of Representatives.
Reid was elected to the United States Senate in 1986 and served in the Senate from 1987 to 2017. He served as the Senate Democratic Whip from 1999 to 2005 before succeeding Tom Daschle as Senate Minority Leader. The Democrats won control of the Senate after the 2006 United States Senate elections, and Reid became the Senate Majority Leader in 2007. He held that position for the final two years of George W. Bush’s presidency and for the first six years of Barack Obama’s presidency. As Majority Leader, Reid helped pass major legislation of the Obama administration, such as the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Act, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In 2013, under Reid’s leadership, the Senate Democratic majority controversially invoked the “nuclear option” to eliminate the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster for presidential nominations, other than nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court.[1] Republicans took control of the Senate following the 2014 United States Senate elections, and Reid served as Senate Minority Leader from 2015 until his retirement in 2017.
Reid was succeeded as the Senate Democratic leader by Chuck Schumer, whose leadership bid had been endorsed by Reid. Along with Alben W. Barkley and Mike Mansfield, Reid was one of only three senators to have served at least eight years as majority leader.
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By Dana Mackenzie, Smithsonian Magazine: To Silence Wind Turbines and Airplanes, Engineers Are Studying Owl Wings No one knows exactly how the nocturnal hunters manage their whisper-soft flight, yet it’s inspiring the design of quieter airplanes, fans and wind turbines.
The Guardian: From respair to cacklefart – the joy of reclaiming long-lost positive words Susie Dent
Webneel: 5 Portrait Photography Tips Every Photographer Should Know
Al Cross and Heather Chapman at The Rural Blog: Teenage volunteers rescue a rural ambulance service; who will rescue short-staffed rural hospitals from the next pandemic surge?; Mite that devastates beehives may have been enabled by beekeepers’ breeding practices; if so, a fix will take time;
Builders have thwarted code changes that would provide more shelter in tornadoes and more ->
Rare Historical Photos: The bizarre Monowheel seen through vintage photographs, 1930-1940
Rare Historical Photos: Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim: The photographic story of an unusual friendship that scandalized England, 1887-1901
Rare Historical Photos: D-Day: The Normandy landings through rare photographs, 1944
Rare Historical Photos: When Hitler’s nephew moved to America and joined the US Navy to fight his uncle, 1911-1947
By Matt Goff, Sitka Nature: Photojournal Updates for 2021-12-04
By Matt Goff, Sitka Nature: Slushy Gray Day
By Matt Goff, Sitka Nature: Crescent Harbor Birds
By Matt Goff, Sitka Nature: Chilly West Wind and Loons
By Josh Jones, Open Culture: How the Beatles Experimented with Indian Music & Pioneered a New Rock and Roll Sound
By Josh Jones, Open Culture: The 850 Books a Texas Lawmaker Wants to Ban Because They Could Make Students Feel Uncomfortable
By Colin Marshall, Open Culture: Is There Life After Death?: John Cleese and a Panel of Scientists Discuss That Eternal Question
By Ayun Halliday, Open Culture: Doreen Ketchens’ Astonishing Rendition of “The House of the Rising Sun”: A World-Class Clarinetist Busks on the Streets of New Orleans
By Josh Jones, Open Culture: Enjoy Classic Songs from A Charlie Brown Christmas, Performed by Vince Guaraldi Trio Drummer Jerry Granelli (RIP)
Open Culture: The Omicron Variant Explained by Neil deGrasse Tyson & Regeneron President George Yancopoulos
By Colin Marshall, Open Culture: Why Europe Has So Few Skyscrapers
Excellent!
Recipes
ReadySetEat: Count Down Our Top 10 Favorite 2021 Recipes
DamnDelicious
RecipeTinEats
- 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
- Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel June 12, 2026Firstly, thank you for the Jaffle love. 🥰 Hit the Jaffle button above to see what he got up to today! Secondly – cake. Specifically, Coffee Cake! A classic crumb cake with a jammy cinnamon ribbon, loaded with lots and lots of nubbly, extra crunchy cinnamon streusel. Outrageously good. Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel This... […]Nagi
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 16 June 16, 2026Picture of the day View of Kirchberg an der Jagst, Germany, from the river Jagst. At the right the listed bridge, build in 1779; behind it the hill which supports Kirchberg Castle (top) and the old town of Kirchberg.
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 15 June 15, 2026Picture of the day Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda
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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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