On This Day
907 – Abaoji, chieftain of the Yila tribe, is named khagan of the Khitans.[3]
Abaoji (872–6 September 926), posthumously known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Liao,[1] was a Khitan leader and the founding emperor of the Liao dynasty of China, ruling from 916 to 926.[2] He had a sinicised name, Yelü Yi; some sources suggest that Abaoji’s family name, Yelü, was adopted during his lifetime,[2] although there is no consensus amongst historians on this point.
Abaoji was born in 872 in Southern Mongolia and had a turbulent childhood. His grandfather was killed in a conflict between tribes, and his father and uncles fled. He was hidden by his grandmother for his safety. He became khagan of the Khitans on 27 February 907, [3]and was subsequently enthroned as emperor in 916, proclaiming his own era name.[4] He died on 6 September 926.[3] He was responsible for the conquest and unification of all of Inner Mongolia, northern China and southern Manchuria.[2] After the Khitan Empire became the Liao dynasty in 942, Abaoji was posthumously considered a Liao emperor.
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870 – The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes.[2]
The Fourth Council of Constantinople was the eighth ecumenical council of the Catholic Church held in Constantinople from October 5, 869, to February 28, 870. It was poorly attended, the first session by only 12 bishops and the number of bishops later never exceeded 103.[1] In contrast the pro-Photian council of 879–80 was attended by 383 bishops.[2] The Council met in ten sessions from October 869 to February 870 and issued 27 canons.
The council was called by Emperor Basil I the Macedonian, with the support of Pope Hadrian II.[3] It deposed Photius, a layman who had been appointed as Patriarch of Constantinople, and reinstated his predecessor Ignatius.
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Born On This Day
1343 – Alberto d’Este, Marquis of Ferrara (d. 1393)
Alberto (V) d’Este (27 February 1347 – 30 July 1393) was lord of Ferrara and Modena from 1388 until his death.
He was associated in the lordship of the House of Este by his brother Niccolò in 1361, becoming the sole ruler of Ferrara and Modena after the latter’s death in 1388. He was the son of Obizzo III d’Este, Marquis of Ferrara, who had ruled in Ferrara from 1317 to 1352.
Alberto founded the University of Ferrara in 1391. In the same year he married Giovanna de’ Roberti (d. 1393). After her death, he married his mistress Isotta Albaresani.
He was succeeded by his legitimated son Niccolò (III).
1533 – Michel de Montaigne, French philosopher and author (d. 1592)[20]
Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne (/mɒnˈteɪn/ mon-TAYN;[4] French: [miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ]; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592[5]), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes[6] and autobiography with intellectual insight. Montaigne had a direct influence on numerous Western writers; his massive volume Essais contains some of the most influential essays ever written.
During his lifetime, Montaigne was admired more as a statesman than as an author. The tendency in his essays to digress into anecdotes and personal ruminations was seen as detrimental to proper style rather than as an innovation, and his declaration that “I am myself the matter of my book” was viewed by his contemporaries as self-indulgent. In time, however, Montaigne came to be recognized as embodying, perhaps better than any other author of his time, the spirit of freely entertaining doubt that began to emerge at that time. He is most famously known for his skeptical remark, ”Que sçay-je?” (“What do I know?”, in Middle French; now rendered as “Que sais-je?” in modern French).
FYI
NASA: Astronomy Picture of the Day
This Day in Tech History
Interesting Facts
Word Genius: Word of the Day
By Keith Collins, Quartz: How One Programmer Broke the Internet By Deleting a Tiny Piece of Code A man in Oakland, California, disrupted web development around the world in 2016 by deleting 11 lines of code.
By Stephen Trzeciak, Anthony Mazzarelli, and Emma Seppälä, Harvard Business Review: Leading with Compassion Has Research-Backed Benefits
By Esther Landhuis, NPR: Which type of eye doctor do you need? Optometrists and ophthalmologists face off
Jocko Podcast: How to Get Shadowbanned Immediately.
Shadow banning, also called stealth banning, hellbanning, ghost banning, and comment ghosting, is the practice of blocking or partially blocking a user or the user’s content from some areas of an online community in such a way that the ban is not readily apparent to the user, regardless of whether the action is taken by an individual or an algorithm. For example, shadow-banned comments posted to a blog or media website will not be visible to other users accessing the site.
The phrase “shadow banning” has a colloquial history and has undergone some usage evolution. It originally applied to a deceptive sort of account suspension on web forums, where a person would appear to be able to post while actually having all of their content hidden from other users. More recently, the term has come to apply to alternative measures, particularly visibility measures like delisting and downranking.[1]
By partly concealing, or making a user’s contributions invisible or less prominent to other members of the service, the hope may be that in the absence of reactions to their comments, the problematic or otherwise out-of-favour user will become bored or frustrated and leave the site, and that spammers and trolls will be discouraged[2] to continue their unwanted behavior or create new accounts.[3][4]
Recipes
Simple Living Alaska: Canning Homemade Mustard | Berry Butter & Puff Pastry Bites
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 19 June 19, 2026Picture of the day Alley on Escheckstraße (and part of the cuckoo clock trail), Schönwald im Schwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 18 June 18, 2026Picture of the day Red-headed weaver (Anaplectes rubriceps leuconotus) male building nest in the Soysambu Conservancy, Kenya.
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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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