"Begin to be now what you will be hereafter."
[William James]
Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2025/11/24)
Article of the Day
Chagatai Khan (c. 1184 – 1242) was a son of Genghis Khan and a prominent figure in the early Mongol Empire. The second son of Genghis's wife Börte, Chagatai was renowned for his masterful knowledge of Mongol custom and law and his harsh temperament. He was appointed to military commands alongside his brothers during the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty in 1211 and the invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire in 1219. After the campaign, Chagatai was granted large tracts of conquered land in Central Asia, which he ruled until his death, often quarrelling with officials like Mahmud Yalavach. Chagatai's inflexibility, most notably never accepting the legitimacy of his elder brother Jochi, excluded him from succession to Genghis's throne. He was nevertheless a key figure in ensuring the stability of the empire during the reign of his younger brother Ögedei Khan, whom he advised. Chagatai died shortly after Ögedei in 1242; his descendants later ruled his territories as the eponymous Chagatai Khanate. (Full article...)
Current Events
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Image of the Day
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
On this day: November 24
November 24: Feast day of the Vietnamese Martyrs (Catholicism)
- 1643 – Thirty Years' War: Holy Roman Empire, Bavarian and Spanish forces led by led by Franz von Mercy defeated the French army in Germany led by Marshal Josias von Rantzau in the Battle of Tuttlingen.
- 1918 – The Podgorica Assembly convened in Montenegro, with the intention of uniting with the Kingdom of Serbia.
- 1925 – The Eugene O'Neill Theatre (pictured) opened on Broadway, New York, with a production of the musical Mayflowers.
- 1950 – The "Great Appalachian Storm", a large extratropical cyclone, struck the east coast of the United States before moving northeast.
- 2015 – A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft was shot down by a Turkish fighter jet after the former allegedly strayed into Turkish airspace and ignored warnings to change course.
- Ismail II (d. 1577)
- Esther Applin (b. 1895)
- William F. Buckley Jr. (b. 1925)
- Pat Morita (d. 2005)
Knowledge about Earth
Facts and Figures
- Age of Earth: ~ 4.568 billion years
- World Population: 7.3 billion (July 2015)
- Continents: 7 (Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia)
- Mean Radius: 6371.0 km
- Axial Tilt: 23,44°
Image Source: Wikipedia - License: Public Domain (thanks to NASA)
Our Solar System
Our solar system consists of
1 star (Sun) and 8 planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune).
- 1 AU (astronomical unit) is roughly the distance between Earth and the Sun (about 150 million kilometres).
- The space probe Voyager 1 was launched by the NASA in 1977 and is meanwhile (autumn 2015) about 133 AU away from Earth.
Image Source: Wikipedia - License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Why you should extend your general knowledge:
There are many reasons why one should or wants to extend his knowledge.
First you should consider that "general knowledge" is knowledge which a group of humans - who belong together regional, temporal or otherwise - owns. Thus, it describes a basic understanding of specific categories of knowledge.
As the English philosopher Francis Bacon said before: "Wisdom is Power" [Bacon 1597].
Daily Knowledge