"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."
[Marcus Aurelius]
Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/05/01)
Article of the Day
The Crusading movement was a major religious, political, and military endeavour of the Middle Ages, usually dated from the 1095 Council of Clermont. There Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade in support of Eastern Christians under Muslim rule, framing it as a form of penitential pilgrimage. The crusaders founded four states in the Levant, the defence of which inspired further Crusades. The papacy later launched campaigns against Muslims in Iberia, pagans in the Baltic, and other opponents of its authority. Core crusading forces were heavily armed knights, backed by infantry, local troops, and naval aid from maritime cities. These papal-sanctioned wars fostered distinctive institutions and ideologies. Funding was initially improvised, but later supported via papal taxes on clergy and the sale of indulgences. The fusion of chivalric and monastic ideals led to the rise of military orders. The movement extended Western Christendom and left lasting marks on art and literature. (Full article...)
Current Events
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Image of the Day
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
On this day: May 1
May 1: Beltane and Samhain in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively; Third Month Fair begins in southwest China (2026); Maharashtra Day in Maharashtra, India (1960); Loyalty Day in the United States
- 880 – The Nea Ekklesia church in Constantinople, on which many later cross-in-square Eastern Orthodox churches were based, was consecrated.
- 1576 – Stephen Báthory and Anna Jagiellon (pictured) were crowned as the elected rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
- 1941 – Citizen Kane, a widely acclaimed film by actor and director Orson Welles, premiered.
- 1991 – In Major League Baseball, Rickey Henderson broke the record for stolen bases on the same night that Nolan Ryan broke his own record for no-hitters.
- Edmund Fitzalan, 2nd Earl of Arundel (b. 1285)
- Honora Sneyd (d. 1780)
- Peter Lax (b. 1926)
- Charli D'Amelio (b. 2004)
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