Daily Knowledge "There's no such thing as a free lunch."
[Milton Friedman]
Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/08/24)
Article of the Day
Brochfael ap Meurig (ruled c. 872 – c. 910) was the king of Gwent in south-east Wales. He ruled jointly with his brother, Ffernfael ap Meurig. Gwent and Glywysing, the neighbouring territory to the west, were ruled as a single kingdom in some periods; at other times they were separate and the king of Glywysing had the higher status. Brochfael's father, Meurig ab Arthfael, ruled both territories with the title of King of Glywysing, but Brochfael and Ffernfael were only kings of Gwent, and had a lower status than their cousin Hywel ap Rhys, the king of Glywysing. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia claimed dominion over most of Wales, but in the late 880s Brochfael, Ffernfael and Hywel submitted voluntarily to Alfred the Great, the king of Wessex, in order to gain protection from the oppression of Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians. A number of Brochfael's charters survive, mainly grants to Bishop Cyfeilliog and settlements of Brochfael's disputes with the bishop. Brochfael was the last of his line and was succeeded by Hywel's son, Owain ap Hywel. (Full article...)
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Image of the Day
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
On this day: August 24
August 24: Feast day of Saint Bartholomew (Western Christianity); Independence Day in Ukraine (1991)
- 1643 – A Dutch expedition (depicted) arrived at the mouth of the Valdivia River, in present-day Chile, to establish a new colony in the ruins of the abandoned Spanish settlement of Valdivia.
- 1814 – War of 1812: British forces invaded Washington, D.C., setting fire to various U.S. government buildings, including the White House.
- 1889 – The New Zealand Native football team, predominantly comprising Māori players, concluded their 107-game tour, the longest in rugby union history.
- 1942 – World War II: At the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, bombers from the U.S. aircraft carrier Saratoga sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō near Santa Isabel Island, contributing to an Allied victory.
- 1992 – Hurricane Andrew, the third-most intense Category 5 cyclone to impact the United States in the 20th century, made landfall in southern Florida.
- Lavinia Fontana (bapt. 1552)
- John Green (b. 1977)
- Charlie Watts (d. 2021)
- Verónica Echegui (d. 2025)
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].