FYI January 26 -31, 2023

On This Day

661 – The Rashidun Caliphate is effectively ended with the assassination of Ali, the last caliph.[1]
The Rashidun Caliphate (Arabic: اَلْخِلَافَةُ ٱلرَّاشِدَةُ, romanized: al-Khilāfah ar-Rāšidah) was the first caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was ruled by the first four successive caliphs of Muhammad after his death in 632 CE (11 AH). During its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in West Asia.

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1186 – Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, marries Constance of Sicily.
Henry VI (German: Heinrich VI.; November 1165 – 28 September 1197), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sicily.

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1069 – Robert de Comines, appointed Earl of Northumbria by William the Conqueror, rides into Durham, England, where he is defeated and killed by rebels.[3] This incident leads to the Harrying of the North.
Robert de Comines (died 28 January 1069) (also Robert de Comines, Robert de Comyn) was very briefly Earl of Northumbria.

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904 – Sergius III is elected pope, after coming out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.[1]
Pope Sergius III (c. 860 − 14 April 911) was the bishop of Rome and nominal ruler of the Papal States from 29 January 904 to his death. He was pope during a period of violence and disorder in central Italy, when warring aristocratic factions sought to use the material and military resources of the papacy.[1] At the behest of Theophylact I of Tusculum, Sergius seized the papal throne from Antipope Christopher, who in turn had deposed Pope Leo V.[2] Sergius’ reign was subsequently marked by Theophylact’s influence. As pope, Sergius continued many ecclesiastical controversies of his predecessors, including conflict over Pope Formosus’ legacy, annulling all ordinations made by the late pope,[3] and the filioque controversy with eastern patriarchs.[4] His pontificate was similarly marked by temporal conflicts, with Sergius’ refusal to crown Berengar I of Italy as Holy Roman Emperor,[5] and his support of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise’s fourth marriage.[6] Sergius also saw the restoration of the Lateran Palace.[7]


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1287 – King Wareru founds the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, and proclaims independence from the Pagan Kingdom.[2]
The Hanthawaddy Kingdom (Mon: ဍုၚ် ဟံသာဝတဳ, [hɔŋsawətɔe]; Burmese: ဟံသာဝတီ နေပြည်တော်; also Hanthawaddy Pegu or simply Pegu) was the polity that ruled lower Burma (Myanmar) from 1287 to 1539 and from 1550 to 1552. The Mon-speaking kingdom was founded as Ramaññadesa (Mon: ရးမည, Burmese: ရာမည ဒေသ) by King Wareru following the collapse of the Pagan Empire in 1287[1]: 205–206, 209  as a nominal vassal state of the Sukhothai Kingdom and of the Mongol Yuan dynasty.[2] The kingdom became formally independent of Sukhothai in 1330 but remained a loose federation of three major regional power centres: the Irrawaddy Delta, Bago, and Mottama. Its kings had little or no authority over the vassals. Mottama was in open rebellion from 1363 to 1388.

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314 – Pope Sylvester I is consecrated, as successor to the late Pope Miltiades.[1]
Pope Sylvester I (also Silvester, 285 – 31 December 335) was the bishop of Rome from 31 January 314 until his death.[2][3] He filled the see of Rome at an important era in the history of the Western Church, yet very little is known of him.[4] The accounts of his pontificate preserved in the seventh- or eighth-century Liber Pontificalis contain little more than a record of the gifts said to have been conferred on the church by Constantine I,[5] although it does say that he was the son of a Roman named Rufinus.[6] His feast is celebrated as Saint Sylvester’s Day, on 31 December in Western Christianity, and on 2 January in Eastern Christianity.[7]

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Born On This Day

183 – Lady Zhen, wife of Cao Pi (d. 221)[54]
Lady Zhen (26 January 183[1] – 4 August 221[2][3]), personal name unknown, was the first wife of Cao Pi, the first ruler of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period. In 226, she was posthumously honoured as Empress Wenzhao when her son, Cao Rui, succeeded Cao Pi as the emperor of Wei.

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1365 – Edward of Angoulême, English noble (d. 1370)
Edward of Angoulême (27 January 1365 – c. 20 September 1370) was second in line to the throne of the Kingdom of England before his death. Born in Angoulême, he was the eldest child of Edward, Prince of Wales, commonly called “the Black Prince”, and Joan, Countess of Kent, and thus was a member of the House of Plantagenet. Edward’s birth, during the Hundred Years’ War, was celebrated luxuriously by his father and by other monarchs, such as Charles V of France.

Edward died at the age of five, leaving his three-year-old brother, Richard of Bordeaux, as the new second in line. After the Black Prince’s death in 1376, Richard became heir apparent to Edward III and succeeded the following year. Richard later ordered a monument to be made for his brother’s tomb, which he had re-located; he also possibly depicted his brother on the Wilton Diptych.

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1312 – Joan II, queen of Navarre (d. 1349)[18]
Joan II (French: Jeanne; 28 January 1312[a] – 6 October 1349) was Queen of Navarre from 1328 until her death. She was the only surviving child of Louis X of France, King of France and Navarre, and Margaret of Burgundy. Joan’s paternity was dubious because her mother was involved in a scandal, but Louis X declared her his legitimate daughter before he died in 1316. However, the French lords were opposed to the idea of a female monarch and elected Louis X’s brother, Philip V, king. The Navarrese noblemen also paid homage to Philip. Joan’s maternal grandmother, Agnes of France, and uncle, Odo IV of Burgundy, made attempts to secure the counties of Champagne and Brie (which had been the patrimony of Louis X’s mother, Joan I of Navarre) to Joan, but the French royal troops defeated her supporters. After Philip V married his daughter to Odo and granted him two counties as her dowry, Odo renounced Joan’s claim to Champagne and Brie in exchange for a compensation in March 1318. Joan married Philip of Évreux, who was also a member of the French royal family.

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1455 – Johann Reuchlin, German-born humanist and scholar (d. 1522)[35]
Johann Reuchlin (German: [ˈjoːhan ˈʀɔʏ̯çlin]; sometimes called Johannes; 29 January 1455 – 30 June 1522) was a German Catholic humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew, whose work also took him to modern-day Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. Most of Reuchlin’s career centered on advancing German knowledge of Greek and Hebrew.

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58 BC – Livia, Roman wife of Augustus (d. 29)[19]
Livia Drusilla (30 January 59 BC – AD 29) was Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of Emperor Caesar Augustus. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14.

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1512 – Henry, King of Portugal (d. 1580)[20]
Henry (Portuguese: Henrique [ẽˈʁik(ɨ)]; 31 January 1512 — 31 January 1580), dubbed the Chaste (Portuguese: o Casto) and the Cardinal-King (Portuguese: o Cardeal-Rei), was king of Portugal and a cardinal of the Catholic Church, who ruled Portugal between 1578 and 1580. As a clergyman, he was bound to chastity, and as such, had no children to succeed him, and thus put an end to the reigning House of Aviz. His death led to the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 and ultimately to the 60-year Iberian Union that saw Portugal share a monarch with that of Habsburg Spain. The next independent monarch of Portugal would be John IV, who restored the throne after 60 years of Spanish rule.

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FYI

 
 
NASA: Astronomy Picture of the Day
 
 
This Day in Tech History
 
 
Interesting Facts
 
 

James Clear: 3-2-1: Healthy self-esteem, how to build an exercise habit, and improving by 1%

 
 
 
 
By Jonny Thomson, Big Think: Bonhoeffer’s “theory of stupidity”: We have more to fear from stupid people than evil ones Evil is easy to identify and fight against; not so with stupidity.

 
 
 
 
By Beth Skwarecki, lifehacker: How to Shovel Snow Without Hurting Your Back Shovel early and often, push instead of lift, and more ways to survive the next big snowstorm.
 
 
 
 
Liberty Games: Every Country’s Most Listened-to Current and Past Artists
 
 
 
 
By Nick Routley, Graphics/Design: Joyce Ma, Visual Capitalist: Ranked: The Top 50 Most Visited Websites in the World

 
 
 
 

By Beth Skwarecki, Lifehacker: You’re Defogging Your Car Windows Wrong Should you use the heat or the air conditioning? Or should you use both?
 
 
 
 
By Eric Berger, ARS Technica: NASA will join a military program to develop nuclear thermal propulsion None of this will happen quickly. The technology is difficult and unproven.
 
 
 
 
TED-Ed: How to deal with rejection
 
 
 
 

Ideas

By M. C. Langer: Robotics for School: Create Four Easy Robots Using Simple Materials
 
 
By beamerpook: How to Propagate String-of-Pearls Plant
 
 
 
 

Recipes

By Ronna Farley: Orange Pineapple Mock Hot Toddie
 
 
I Wash You Dry: 3 Ingredient Chip Dip
 
 
By Betty Crocker Kitchens: Top-Rated Noodle Dishes
 
 
By wannabemadsci: English Toffee – It’s EASY to Make!
 
 
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
 
 


 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

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Stacy, Carol RT Book Reviews

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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