Daily Knowledge

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."
[William Arthur Ward]

Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/06/02)

The Oregon State Capitol houses the legislature of the U.S. state of Oregon and the offices of the state governor and other officials. It is located in the state capital, Salem. Built from 1936 to 1938 and expanded in 1977, the current building is the third to house the Oregon state government in Salem, with the earlier ones destroyed by fire. New York architects Trowbridge & Livingston conceived its Art Deco stripped classical design in association with Francis Keally. The Public Works Administration partially financed construction; the building's central portion cost $2.5 million. The wings, which doubled the building's floor space, were added as part of the 1977 expansion. Much of the interior and exterior is made of marble. The Oregon State Capitol was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 29, 1988. The grounds contain artwork, fountains, and flora, including the state tree (the Douglas fir) and the state flower (the Oregon grape). (Full article...)

Sketch of the wedding by Thure de Thulstrup

1805 – Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish fleet recaptured the British-held Diamond Rock, an uninhabited island at the entrance to the bay leading to Fort-de-France, Martinique.
1886 – The wedding of Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom (wedding depicted) took place in the White House, in the only time that a U.S. president has married in the building.
1962 – One of the most violent football matches took place at the World Cup as Chile defeated Italy in a group match.
2008 – Artist Tim Buckley published "Loss" as part of his webcomic Ctrl+Alt+Del.

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 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