On This Day
792 – Kardam of Bulgaria defeats Byzantine Emperor Constantine VI at the Battle of Marcellae.
The Battle of Marcellae (Bulgarian: Битката при Маркели; Greek: Μάχη των Μαρκελλών) was fought in 792 between the forces of the Byzantine Empire, led by Constantine VI, and those of the First Bulgarian Empire under Kardam. The Byzantines were routed and forced to retreat to Constantinople. Fighting took place at Marcellae (Markeli), near the modern town of Karnobat in southeastern Bulgaria, the same site as an earlier battle in 756.
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230 – Pope Pontian succeeds Urban I as the eighteenth pope. After being exiled to Sardinia, he became the first pope to resign his office.
Pope Pontian (Latin: Pontianus; died October 235) was the bishop of Rome from 21 July 230 to 28 September 235.[1] In 235, during the persecution of Christians in the reign of the Emperor Maximinus Thrax, Pontian was arrested and sent to the island of Sardinia.
Born On This Day
1313 – John Tiptoft, 2nd Baron Tibetot (d. 1367)
John Tiptoft (or Tibetot), 2nd Baron Tibetot (20 July 1313 – 13 April 1367), English nobleman, was the son of Pain Tiptoft, 1st Baron Tibetot and Agnes de Ros.
He brought his retinue to fight in Edward III’s Flanders campaign of 1338–1340.[2] He was appointed Keeper of Berwick-upon-Tweed on 16 April 1346 and Chancellor of Berwick on 21 May 1346.
He married Margaret de Badlesmere, daughter of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Lord Badlesmere, and had two children:
Robert Tiptoft, 3rd Baron Tibetot (1341–1372)
John Tiptoft, died without issue
He married a second time to Elizabeth Aspall, daughter of Sir Robert Aspall, and had one child:
Sir Payn Tiptoft (d. c. 1413)
541 – Emperor Wen of Sui, emperor of the Sui Dynasty (d. 604)
Emperor Wen of Sui (隋文帝; 21 July 541 – 13 August 604[1]), personal name Yang Jian (楊堅), Xianbei name Puliuru Jian (普六茹堅), alias Narayana (Chinese: 那羅延; pinyin: Nàluóyán) deriving from Buddhist terms, was the founder and the first emperor of the Chinese Sui dynasty. The Book of Sui records him as having withdrawn his favour from the Confucians, giving it to “the group advocating Xing-Ming and authoritarian government.”[2] As a Buddhist, he encouraged the spread of Buddhism through the state. He is regarded as one of the most important emperors in Chinese history, reunifying China proper in 589 after centuries of division since the independence of the Cheng Han and Han Zhao dynasties from the Western Jin dynasty in 304. During his reign, the construction of the Grand Canal began.
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Word Genius: Word of the Day
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American singer. Bennett amassed many accolades throughout his career, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. He was named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree, and was the founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York.[1] Bennett sold more than 50 million records worldwide.
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Tony Bennett’s Wonderful World: Live in San Francisco
Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga @ Jazz at Lincoln Center • New York • [Juillet 2014]
Joyousness
Dolly Parton – We Are The Champions/We Will Rock You (Official Audio)
By James Clear: 3-2-1: On designing your life, and the value of doing hard things
By Noam Cohen, Wired: One Woman’s Mission to Rewrite Nazi History on Wikipedia
Ksenia Coffman’s fellow editors have called her a vandal and a McCarthyist. She just wants them to stop glorifying fascists—and start citing better sources.
By Alyshia Hull, Insider: I’ve lived in a van full time for 3 years. Here are the 5 biggest downsides no one talks about.
By David Browne, Rolling Stone: Man, It’s a Hot One: The Oral History of Santana and Rob Thomas’ ‘Smooth’
How Carlos Santana scored his first hit in decades with help from Matchbox Twenty’s frontman — and how it almost didn’t happen. The making of the unlikely 1999 smash.
By Amy Paturel, Wired: Why Songs Get Stuck in Your Head—and How to Stop Them Maybe it’s a commercial jingle, a TikTok song, or a new summer bop. Here’s how to trick your brain into hitting pause.
Jason Aldean just Proved CMT’s RACISM Towards Black Americans! | Buddy Brown
Jason Aldean – Try That In A Small Town (Official Music Video) [BEHIND THE SCENES]
Cleared Hot Podcast: Addiction and Acceptance
Recipes
Food Talk Daily: 13 Comfort Food Dinners to Soothe the Soul These recipes will surely become your new favorites for a satisfying, cozy and comforting meal. By Recipe Round-ups
By Reicpe Round-ups, Food Talk Daily: 10 Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes for Every Kind of Cookie Lover Soft, chewy, crispy and candy-filled, find a whole bunch of favorite chocolate cookie recipes right here
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 20 June 20, 2026Picture of the day Flower of a Geranium sanguineum, bloody crane's-bill. Focus stack of 51 photos.
- 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
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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?