Daily Knowledge

"Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable."
[Franz Kafka]

Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/07/06)

Destiny's Child was an American girl group formed in Houston, Texas, in 1990. Its final lineup comprised Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. Known for their vocal harmonies, stage performances, and themes of female empowerment, Destiny's Child is regarded as one of the most influential girl groups in popular music. They released five studio albums; their best-sellers include The Writing's on the Wall (1999) and Survivor (2001). In 2001, the group went on hiatus so that each member could work on solo projects, before reuniting to release their final album, Destiny Fulfilled (2005). They garnered the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Bills, Bills, Bills", "Say My Name", "Independent Women", and "Bootylicious". The group officially disbanded in 2006, but has reunited several times. Destiny's Child is one of the best-selling girl groups, has received many accolades and honors, and has been named one of the greatest musical trios of all time. (Full article...)

Nicolae Ceausescu

1483 – The last monarch of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty, Richard III, was crowned King of England.
1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: A Royal Navy squadron failed to eliminate a smaller French Navy squadron at Algeciras before they could join their Spanish allies.
1971 – After visiting several Asian communist countries, Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu (pictured) gave a speech on a number of neo-Stalinist and socialist-realist ideals, which became known as the July Theses.
1989 – A Palestinian Islamic Jihad member carried out a suicide attack by hijacking a bus and forcing it into a ravine near Kiryat Ye'arim, Israel.
2006 – A gunman killed an 18-year-old man and injured six other people in a mass shooting on Cabildo Avenue in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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