Daily Knowledge "Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding."
[Khalil Gibran]
Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/09/14)
Article of the Day
Melisende (c. 1109 – 1161) was the queen of Jerusalem from 1131 to 1152. The eldest daughter and heir of Baldwin II, she was crowned alongside her husband, Fulk. He initially sidelined Melisende, but she forced him to share power after a baronial uprising in 1134. Together they strengthened the crusader kingdom's defenses, while Melisende became celebrated for supporting its Christian communities. When Fulk died in 1143, she assumed full power and was crowned again with their son Baldwin III. After Edessa fell to Muslims in 1144, Melisende urged European intervention, helping set the Second Crusade in motion. Her relationship with Baldwin deteriorated as she resisted sharing authority with him. After a brief division of the kingdom, Baldwin invaded her territory and forced her to abdicate. From her new seat in Nablus, she remained involved in state and church affairs. William of Tyre praised Melisende as a wise and capable ruler, while modern historians are divided in their assessment. (Full article...)
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Image of the Day
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
On this day: September 14
- AD 81 – Domitian, the last Flavian emperor of Rome, was confirmed by the Senate to succeed his brother Titus.
- 1723 – António Manoel de Vilhena, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, laid the first stone of Fort Manoel in Malta.
- 1901 – Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States at age 42, the youngest person ever to do so, eight days after William McKinley was fatally wounded in Buffalo, New York.
- 1979 – Afghan president Nur Muhammad Taraki (pictured) was overthrown and later killed on the orders of Hafizullah Amin, who succeeded him.
- 2019 – Drone attacks on major processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais forced Saudi Arabia to cut more than half of its oil production.
- Drusus Julius Caesar (d. AD 23)
- John Boyden (b. 1936)
- Ron DeSantis (b. 1978)
- Grace Kelly (d. 1982)
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].