Daily Knowledge "Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier."
[Colin Powell]
Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/08/04)
Article of the Day
.jpg)
The Black Prince's chevauchée of 1356 was a large-scale mounted raid, or chevauchée, by an Anglo-Gascon force under the command of Edward the Black Prince as part of the Hundred Years' War. In 1355, the Black Prince marched 675 miles (1,086 km) from Gascony to Narbonne and back, causing enormous economic damage. The following year, he carried out a similar chevauchée, this time as part of a strategic operation in cooperation with other English armies. On 4 August, 6,000 Anglo-Gascon soldiers headed north from Bergerac towards Bourges, devastating a wide swathe of French territory and sacking many French towns on the way. English plans went awry, and by early September the Anglo-Gascons were facing the French king, John II, and a much larger French army on their own. The Black Prince withdrew; John, determined to fight, pursued and cut off the Prince's army. The French repeatedly attacked at the Battle of Poitiers (pictured) and were heavily defeated. John and one of his sons were captured. (Full article...)
Current Events
BBC One-minute World News
Fast briefed every day.
- Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts (1970-01-01 01:00)
- Haberman reveals why Trump attacked judge and his family in speech (2023-04-05 15:30)
- 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
,_Br%C3%BCcke_%E2%80%9EPonte_Vittorio_Emanuele_II%E2%80%9C_--_2024_--_0732.jpg)
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
On this day: August 4
_underway_at_sea,_circa_the_early_1960s_(NH_97900).jpg)
- 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Army of Italy decisively defeated Austrian forces led by Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich at the Battle of Lonato.
- 1830 – American surveyor James Thompson produced the first plat of Chicago for the Illinois and Michigan Canal Commissioners.
- 1964 – Vietnam War: The National Security Agency falsely claimed that a U.S. Navy destroyer was attacked a second time by North Vietnamese vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin, leading Congress to authorize the use of military force.
- 1983 – Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, the president of Upper Volta, was ousted in a coup d'état led by Thomas Sankara.
- 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The Croatian Army initiated Operation Storm, the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and the largest European land battle since the Second World War.
- Wenceslaus III of Bohemia (d. 1306)
- Jeff Gordon (b. 1971)
- Mariah May (b. 1998)
- Keith H. Basso (d. 2013)
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].