"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
[Albert Einstein]
Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/07/21)
Article of the Day
Lope Martín (marooned 21 July 1566) was an Afro-Portuguese maritime pilot. Martín was a free mulatto from Lagos, Portugal, who became a licensed pilot in Spain. He was contracted for Miguel López de Legazpi's expedition from Mexico to the Philippines and was the pilot of a patache called the San Lucas. Martín and the San Lucas separated from the rest of the fleet and sailed through the Marshall Islands and the Caroline Islands before arriving at the Philippines. Without the rest of the fleet, Martín then embarked upon the return voyage from Asia to the Americas and arrived in Mexico. The Real Audiencia of Mexico ordered him to return to the Philippines and appear before Legazpi, who was expected to execute him for having deserted the rest of his fleet. Martín's ship, the San Jerónimo, departed Mexico and Martín led mutinies and took command of the ship. He anchored the San Jerónimo at Ujelang Atoll (pictured) in July 1566, where Martín and 26 other men were left behind and never seen again. (Full article...)
Current Events
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Image of the Day
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
On this day: July 21
July 21: Belgian National Day (1831)
- 625 – Paulinus was consecrated as the first bishop of York by Justus, the archbishop of Canterbury.
- 1925 – American high-school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee's Butler Act by teaching evolution in class.
- 1946 – After weeks of unrest, rioters lynched Bolivian president Gualberto Villarroel, desecrating and hanging his corpse in the streets of La Paz.
- 1972 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated twenty-two bombs throughout Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- 2019 – People returning from anti–extradition bill protests in Hong Kong were attacked (pictured) by suspected triad members in Yuen Long, leaving 45 people injured.
- George Brian Sinclair (b. 1928)
- Claus von Stauffenberg (d. 1944)
- Charlotte Gainsbourg (b. 1971)
- Endrick (b. 2006)
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