Daily Knowledge "Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians."
[Charles de Gaulle]
Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/08/13)
Article of the Day
Ellis Wackett (13 August 1901 – 3 August 1984) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Its chief engineer from 1935 to 1959, he served on the RAAF's Air Board for a record seventeen years and was credited with infusing operations with new standards of airworthiness. Starting as a Royal Australian Navy cadet, he transferred to the Air Force in 1923. He inaugurated parachute instruction within the RAAF and made the country's first freefall descent from a military aircraft in 1926. Wackett rose to air commodore by 1942, assuming the role of Air Member for Engineering and Maintenance, then established the Technical Branch as a separate department of the RAAF in 1948. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Companion of the Order of the Bath. From 1960 to 1968, he was a member of the Australian National Airlines Commission, the parent of Trans Australia Airlines. (Full article...)
Current Events
BBC One-minute World News
Fast briefed every day.
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- What to know about the Trump indictment on the eve of his court appearance (2023-04-06 00:50)
- READ: Trump indictment related to hush money payment (1970-01-01 01:00)
- Russian authorities detain suspect over St. Petersburg cafe blast (1970-01-01 01:00)
Image of the Day
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
On this day: August 13
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- 582 – Maurice was crowned as Byzantine emperor, succeeding Tiberius II Constantine.
- 1650 – General George Monck founded Monck's Regiment of Foot, the predecessor to the Coldstream Guards, the oldest regular regiment of the British Army in continuous active service.
- 1876 – A performance of Das Rheingold (scene pictured) opened the first performance of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle at the inaugural Bayreuth Festival, attended by emperors and other composers.
- 1918 – Opha May Johnson became the first woman to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.
- 2010 – After being boarded by Canadian authorities, MV Sun Sea docked in British Columbia and the 492 Sri Lankan Tamil refugee claimants on board were placed in detention.
- George Grove (b. 1820)
- Hayato Ikeda (d. 1965)
- Sebastian Stan (b. 1982)
- Nazia Hassan (d. 2000)
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].