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"The sweetest of all sounds is praise."
[Xenophon]

Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/06/22)

Manchester is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of over 589,000 in 2024, and with Salford and surrounding towns forms one of the nation's most populous conurbations. Its history began with the settlement near the Roman fort of Mamucium or Mancunium, established around AD 79. Throughout the Middle Ages, it remained a manorial township, but began to expand with a boom in textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution. Manchester attained city status in 1853. Its fortunes declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation, and the 1996 Manchester bombing led to redevelopment. It was the host city for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. In the 2020s, Manchester has been reported to be experiencing an economic boom, sometimes attributed to the ideology of Manchesterism. The city is notable for its architecture, culture, musical exports, media links, scientific and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. (Full article...)

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June 22: Windrush Day (United Kingdom)

George V and Mary after their coronation

1593 – Habsburg troops defeated a larger Ottoman force at the Battle of Sisak in the Kingdom of Croatia, triggering the Long Turkish War.
1911 – King George V and Queen Mary (both pictured) were crowned at Westminster Abbey in London.
1941 – World War II: As Axis troops began their invasion of the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian Activist Front started an uprising to liberate Lithuania from Soviet occupation.
1979 – Former British Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe was acquitted of conspiracy to murder Norman Scott, who had accused Thorpe of having a relationship with him.
2002 – A magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck northwestern Iran, killing at least 230 people and injuring 1,300 others; the official response, perceived to be slow, later caused widespread public anger.

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