Daily Knowledge "The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed."
[Nicolas Chamfort]
Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/01/19)
Article of the Day
King Edward III of England led a campaign in the Duchy of Brittany in 1342 and 1343. England, at war with France since 1337 in the Hundred Years' War, had sided with John of Montfort's faction in the Breton Civil War soon after it broke out in 1341. An English fleet broke the blockade of Brest on 18 August, and on 30 September a numerically inferior English army inflicted a heavy defeat on the French at the battle of Morlaix. After logistical difficulties, Edward abandoned his siege train and landed in Brittany on 26 October after a storm-wracked three-week passage. The English then advanced on the major Breton town of Vannes. The French garrison repelled an immediate assault and the English began a siege. English raiding parties devastated large parts of eastern Brittany, but attempts to reinforce or supply Edward from England failed. Philip VI of France moved his court to Brittany and entered into negotiations with Edward; they rapidly agreed the Truce of Malestroit, which is widely seen as favouring the English. (Full article...)
Current Events
BBC One-minute World News
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Image of the Day
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
On this day: January 19
January 19: Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States (2026)
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- 1511 – War of the League of Cambrai: Troops led by Pope Julius II captured Mirandola (depicted) after a brief siege.
- 1915 – World War I: The first major attack of the German bombing campaign against Britain took place when Zeppelins bombed several towns in Norfolk.
- 1972 – The French newspaper L'Aurore revealed that the former Nazi SS officer Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyon", had been found to be living in Peru.
- 1975 – An earthquake registering 6.8 Ms struck northern Himachal Pradesh in India, causing extensive damage to the region.
- 2007 – A four-man team, using only skis and kites, completed a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility, the first people to get there since 1967, and the first to do so on foot.
- Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (d. 1636)
- Herbert Chapman (b. 1878)
- Dennis Taylor (b. 1949)
- Francesca Woodman (d. 1981)
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].