century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and
barbarian invaders formed new kingdoms. The Franks, under the
Carolingian dynasty, established an empire covering much of Western
Europe; the Carolingian Empire endured until the 9th century. During the
High Middle Ages, which began after AD 1000, the population of Europe
increased as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to
flourish and crop yields to increase. Western European Christians
attempted to regain control of the Holy Land in the Crusades.
Intellectual life was marked by scholasticism and the founding of
universities. The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, the paintings of Giotto,
the poetry of Dante and Chaucer, the travels of Marco Polo, and the
architecture of Gothic cathedrals are among the outstanding achievements
of this period. The Late Middle Ages was marked by famine, plague, and
war; between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death killed about a third of
Europeans. Cultural and technological developments transformed European
society, leading to the early modern period.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1309:
Reconquista: Forces of the Kingdom of Castile captured
Gibraltar from the Emirate of Granada, although they would lose control
of it 24 years later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Siege_of_Gibraltar>
1848:
Switzerland became a federal state with the adoption of a new
constitution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland>
1933:
Hungarian-American physicist Leó Szilárd conceived of the
idea of the nuclear chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in
Bloomsbury, London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le%C3%B3_Szil%C3%A1rd>
1942:
A U-boat sank RMS Laconia with a torpedo off the coast of West
Africa and attempted to rescue the passengers, which included some 80
civilians, 160 Polish and 268 British soldiers and about 1800 Italian
POWs.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_incident>
1983:
The clandestine group Boricua Popular Army staged a bank
robbery in West Hartford, Connecticut, US, making off with $7 million in
the largest cash theft in U.S. history at the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boricua_Popular_Army>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vocable:
1. A word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than
its meaning.
2. A syllable or sound without specific meaning, used together with or in
place of actual words in a song.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vocable>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it's
close.
--Jesse Owens
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens>
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