Metallica is an American heavy metal band that formed in 1981 in Los Angeles, California. Metallica's line-up has primarily consisted of Ulrich, rhythm guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield, and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, while going through a number of bassists. Currently, the spot is held by Robert Trujillo. Metallica's early releases included fast tempos, instrumentals, and aggressive musicianship. The band earned a growing fan base in the underground music community and critical acclaim, with the 1986 release Master of Puppets described as one of the most influential and "heavy" thrash metal albums. The band achieved substantial commercial success with its self-titled 1991 album, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. In 2000, Metallica was among several artists who filed a lawsuit against Napster for sharing the band's copyright-protected material for free without the band members' consent. Despite reaching #1 on the Billboard 200, the release of St. Anger alienated many fans with the exclusion of guitar solos and the "steel-sounding" snare drum. The band has won seven Grammy Awards, and has had five consecutive albums peak at #1 on the Billboard 200, making Metallica the only band to top the chart five consecutive times. Metallica is the fifth highest-selling music artist since the SoundScan era began tracking sales in 1991.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallica

Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo finished repainting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in fresco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel)

Portuguese maritime explorer Ferdinand Magellan led the first European expedition to navigate the Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Magellan)

A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami destroyed Lisbon, and killed at least 60,000 people in Portugal and Morocco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake)

As part of the reforms implemented under the leadership of Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the current 29-letter Turkish alphabet, used for the Turkish language, was established, replacing the Ottoman Turkish alphabet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_alphabet)

The Arecibo Observatory, with the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, officially opened in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Observatory)

incipient: (adj)   Beginning, starting, coming into existence.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/incipient)

Youth is not a question of years: one is young or old from birth.
--Natalie Clifford Barney
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Natalie_Clifford_Barney)

The Attack on Sydney Harbour was raid during World War II by submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy on the cities of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. On the night of 31 May–1 June, three Ko-hyoteki class midget submarines, each with a two-member crew, entered Sydney Harbour to sink Allied warships. After being detected and attacked, the crews of two of the midget submarines scuttled their boats and committed suicide without engaging Allied vessels. The third attempted to torpedo the heavy cruiser USS Chicago but instead sank the converted ferry HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 sailors. This midget submarine then disappeared, its fate remaining a mystery until 2006, when amateur scuba divers discovered the wreck off Sydney's northern beaches. Immediately following the raid the five Japanese fleet submarines that carried the midgets to Australia embarked on a campaign to disrupt merchant shipping in eastern Australian waters. The midget submarine attacks are among the best-known examples of Axis naval activity in Australian waters during World War II. The main impact was psychological and popular fear of an impending invasion forced the Australian military to upgrade defences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Sydney_Harbour

French Revolution: Under the terms of a new constitution that was ratified during the aftermath of the Reign of Terror and the subsequent Thermidorian Reaction, the Directory succeeded the National Convention as the executive government of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Directory)

British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration, proclaiming British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917)

BBC Television Service launched the world's first regular, public all-electronic television service with a high level of image resolution which became known as high-definition television.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_One)

American industrialist and aviator Howard Hughes flew Spruce Goose, the largest flying boat ever built, on its maiden flight from the coast of Long Beach, California, USA.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_H-4_Hercules)

Expedition 1: American astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko became the first resident crew to arrive at the International Space Station.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station)

tmesis: (n)   (prosody) The insertion of one or more words between the components of a compound word.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tmesis)

Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards.
--Fred Hoyle
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fred_Hoyle)

Delhi is the second largest metropolis of India, and the fifth largest city in the world by population, with a population greater than 18 million, and a federally-administered union territory. Located on the banks of river Yamuna in northern India, archaeological evidence suggest that Delhi has been continuously inhabited since at least 6th century BC. In 1639, Mughal emperor Shahjahan built a new walled city in Delhi which served as the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1649 to 1857. A new capital city, New Delhi, was built during the 1920s. When India gained independence from British rule in 1947, New Delhi was declared its capital and seat of government. As such, New Delhi houses important offices of the federal government, including the Parliament of India. Owing to the immigration of people from across the country, Delhi has grown to be a cosmopolitan city. Its rapid development and urbanisation, coupled with the relatively high average income of its population, has transformed the city. Today, Delhi is a major cultural, political, and commercial center of India.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi

French playwright, journalist and outspoken feminist Olympe de Gouges was guillotined for her revolutionary ideas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympe_de_Gouges)

The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper, was founded as the The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_of_India)

A new constitution drafted by Johan Rudolf Thorbecke was proclaimed, severely limiting the powers of the monarchy of the Netherlands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Rudolf_Thorbecke)

The Chicago Tribune newspaper published the erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" shortly after incumbent U.S. President Harry S. Truman upset heavily favored Governor of New York Thomas Dewey in the U.S. presidential election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1948)

The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, carrying Laika the Russian space dog as the first living creature from Earth to enter orbit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika)

connote: (v)    1. To signify beyond a literal or principal meaning.
    2. To possess an inseparable related condition; to imply as a logical consequence.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/connote)

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
--Aleister Crowley
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley)

John McCain (born 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona and presidential nominee of the Republican Party in the 2008 presidential election. During the Vietnam War, he nearly lost his life in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, he was shot down and held as a prisoner of war until 1973, experiencing episodes of torture; his war wounds left him with lifelong physical limitations. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, he served two terms, and was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain

Barack Obama (born 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential election. Obama is the first African American to be nominated by a major political party for president. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review, he worked as a community organizer, served three terms in the Illinois Senate, and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and was elected to the Senate in November 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy, currently the oldest active opera house in Europe, was inaugurated.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teatro_di_San_Carlo)

Count Cavour became prime minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, which soon expanded to become the Kingdom of Italy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillo_Benso,_conte_di_Cavour)

London's City and South London Railway, the first deep-level underground railway in the world, opened, running a distance of 5.1 km (3.2 mi) between the City of London and Stockwell.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_and_South_London_Railway)

Hundreds of Iranian students supporting Iran's post-revolutionary regime seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, beginning a 444-day hostage crisis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis)

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was mortally wounded by Yigal Amir while at a peace rally at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Yitzhak_Rabin)

vituperative: (adj)   Marked by harsh spoken or written abuse; invective; scolding; abusive.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vituperative)

When you get to a fork in the road, take it.
--Yogi Berra
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yogi_Berra)

A group is a mathematical set of elements together with an operation that combines any two of its elements to form a third element. To qualify as a group, the set and operation must satisfy a few conditions called group axioms, namely associativity, identity and invertibility. The ubiquity of groups in numerous areas—both within and outside mathematics—makes them a central organizing principle of contemporary mathematics. The concept of a group arose from the study of polynomial equations, starting with Évariste Galois in the 1830s. After contributions from other fields such as number theory and geometry, the group notion was generalized and firmly established around 1870. Modern group theory—a very active mathematical discipline—studies groups in their own right. To explore groups, mathematicians have devised various notions to break groups into smaller, better-understandable pieces, such as subgroups, quotient groups and simple groups.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_(mathematics)

The Gunpowder Plot: Thomas Knyvet arrested explosives expert Guy Fawkes and foiled Robert Catesby's plot to destroy the Houses of Parliament in London during the State Opening.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot)

Glorious Revolution: Protestant Prince William of Orange landed at Brixham in Devon, on his way to depose his father-in-law King James II, the last Catholic monarch of England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution)

The collapse of the Federal Republic of Central America began with Nicaragua seceding from the union.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Republic_of_Central_America)

American Suffragette Susan B. Anthony voted in the U.S. presidential election for the first time in Rochester, New York. She was later fined US$100 for her participation, which she never paid, and the government never pursued her for nonpayment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony)

St. Tikhon of Moscow was elected Patriarch of Moscow and of the Russian Orthodox Church.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikhon_of_Moscow)

autochthonous (adj)      1. Native to the place where found; indigenous.
   2. (geology) Buried in place, especially of a fossil preserved in its life position without disturbance or disarticulation.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/autochthonous)

War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.
--Jimmy Carter
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter)

Mario Vargas Llosa (born 1936) is a Peruvian writer, politician, journalist, and essayist. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation. Some critics consider him to have had a larger international impact and world-wide audience than any other writer of the Latin American Boom. Vargas Llosa rose to fame in the 1960s with novels such as The Time of the Hero, The Green House, and the monumental Conversation in the Cathedral. He continues to write prolifically across an array of literary genres, including literary criticism and journalism. His novels include comedies, murder mysteries, historical novels, and political thrillers. Many of Vargas Llosa's works are influenced by the writer's perception of Peruvian society and his own experiences as a native Peruvian. Increasingly, however, he has expanded his range, and tackled themes that arise from other parts of the world. Like many Latin American authors, Vargas Llosa has been politically active throughout his career; over the course of his life, he has gradually moved from the political left towards the right. He ran for the Peruvian presidency in 1990 with the center-right Frente Democrático coalition, advocating neoliberal reforms. He has subsequently supported moderate conservative candidates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Vargas_Llosa

King Gustavus Adolphus the Great of Sweden is killed in the Battle of Lützen during the Thirty Years' War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_L%C3%BCtzen_(1632))

Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican Party candidate to win the U.S. presidential election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1860)

Before the Institute of Radio Engineers in New York, American electrical engineer and inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong presented his study on using frequency modulation for radio broadcasting.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_modulation)

The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 1761, condemning South Africa's apartheid policies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa_in_the_apartheid_era)

Although opinion polls had clearly suggested that the majority of the electorate favoured republicanism, the Australian republic referendum was defeated, keeping the British monarch as the country's head of state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_republic_referendum,_1999)

sentience (n)      The state or quality of being sentient; possessing consciousness, perception, and thought.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sentience)

Love and music and happiness and family, that's what it's all about. I believe in these things. It would be awful not to, wouldn't it?
--Julie Andrews
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julie_Andrews)

The Komodo dragon is a species of lizard that inhabits the islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang, and Gili Dasami, in central Indonesia. A member of the monitor lizard family (Varanidae), it is the largest living species of lizard, growing to an average length of 2–3 meters (approximately 6.5–10 ft) and weighing around 70 kilograms (154 lb). Their unusual size is attributed to island gigantism, since there are no other carnivorous animals to fill the niche on the islands where they live, and also to the Komodo dragon's low metabolic rate. As a result of their size, these lizards are apex predators, dominating the ecosystems in which they live. Although Komodo dragons eat mostly carrion, they will also hunt and ambush prey including invertebrates, birds, and mammals. Mating begins between May and August, and the eggs are laid in September. About twenty eggs are deposited in abandoned megapode nests and incubated for seven to eight months, hatching in April, when insects are most plentiful. Young Komodo dragons are vulnerable and therefore dwell in trees, safe from predators and cannibalistic adults. They take around three to five years to mature, and may live as long as fifty years. In the wild their range has contracted due to human activities and they are listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. They are protected under Indonesian law, and a national park, Komodo National Park, was founded to aid protection efforts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_dragon

The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English newspaper, was first published as the Oxford Gazette.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Gazette)

American forces led by Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison defeated the forces of Shawnee leader Tecumseh's growing American Indian confederation at the Battle of Tippecanoe near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tippecanoe)

Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the first transcontinental railroad across Canada, concluded with financier and politician Sir Donald Smith driving in the "last spike" in Craigellachie, British Columbia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Pacific_Railway)

Vladimir Lenin led a Bolshevik insurrection against the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky, starting the Bolshevik Revolution, the second phase of the overall Russian Revolution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_(1917))

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali deposed and replaced Habib Bourguiba as President of Tunisia, declaring him medically unfit for the duties of the office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine_El_Abidine_Ben_Ali)

grandiloquent (adj)      Of a person, their language or writing: overly wordy, pompous, flowery, or elaborate.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grandiloquent)

Creators, makers of the new, can never become obsolete, for in the arts there is no correct answer. The story of discoverers could be told in simple chronological order, since the latest science replaces what went before. But the arts are another story — a story of infinite addition. We must find order in the random flexings of the imagination.
--Daniel J. Boorstin
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_J._Boorstin)

"Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" is a 1971 US number-one hit single released on the Gordy (Motown) label, recorded by The Temptations and produced by Norman Whitfield. The second single from their 1971 Sky's the Limit album, "Just My Imagination" was the third of four Temptations songs to go to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The single held the number-one position on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart for two weeks in 1971, from March 27 to April 10, replacing "Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin, and replaced by "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night. "Just My Imagination" also held the number-one spot on the Billboard R&B Singles chart for three weeks, from February 27 to March 20. Rolling Stone magazine listed "Just My Imagination" as number 389 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Today, "Just My Imagination" is considered one of the Temptations' signature songs, and is notable for recalling the sound of the group's 1960s recordings. It is also the final Temptations single to feature founding members Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams. During the process of recording and releasing the single, Kendricks departed from the group to begin a solo career, while the ailing Williams was forced to retire from the act for health reasons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_My_Imagination_(Running_Away_with_Me)

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés entered Tenochtitlan where Aztec tlatoani Moctezuma II welcomed him with great pomp as would befit a returning god.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Aztec_Empire)

Stockholm Bloodbath: Following a successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces under Christian II of Denmark, scores of Swedish leaders were executed despite Christian's promise of general amnesty.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Bloodbath)

German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range that is known today as X-rays.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Conrad_R%C3%B6ntgen)

Adolf Hitler, Erich Ludendorff and other members of the Kampfbund started the Beer Hall Putsch, a failed attempt to seize power in Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch)

A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb exploded during a Remembrance Sunday ceremony in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing at least eleven people and injuring sixty-three others.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day_bombing)

blithely (adv)         1. Without care, concern, or consideration.
   2. In a joyful, carefree manner.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blithely)

A man said to the Universe: "Sir, I exist!" "However," replied the Universe, "the fact has not created in me a sense of obligation."
--Stephen Crane
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Crane)

Priestfield Stadium is a football stadium in Gillingham, Kent. It has been the home of Gillingham Football Club since the club's formation in 1893, and was also the temporary home of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club for two seasons during the 1990s. The stadium has also hosted women's and youth international matches. The stadium underwent extensive redevelopment during the late 1990s, which has brought its capacity down from nearly 20,000 to a current figure of 11,582. It has four all-seater stands, all constructed since 1997, although one is only of a temporary nature. There are also conference and banqueting facilities and a nightspot named the Blues Rock Café. Despite having invested heavily in its current stadium, Gillingham F.C. has plans to relocate to a new stadium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priestfield_Stadium

The Great Boston Fire began, eventually destroying over 750 buildings and causing US$73.5 million in damages in Boston, Massachusetts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Boston_Fire_of_1872)

German Emperor William II abdicated, Prince Maximilian of Baden resigned as Chancellor, and Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the Weimar Republic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic)

Cambodia gained independence from France and became a constitutional monarchy under King Norodom Sihanouk.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodia)

French comic book heroes Valérian and Laureline first appeared in the pages of Pilote magazine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val%C3%A9rian_and_Laureline)

Suicide bombers attacked three hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing a total of about 60 people and injuring at least 115 others.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Amman_bombings)

fiasco  (n)     1. A ludicrous or humiliating failure.
   2. A wine bottle in a (usually straw) jacket.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fiasco)

The battle of the sexes will never be won as long as we keep sleeping with the enemy.
--Emo Phillips
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emo_Phillips)

Volcanism on Io, a moon of Jupiter, produces lava flows, volcanic pits, and plumes of sulfur and sulfur dioxide hundreds of kilometres high. This volcanic activity was discovered in 1979 by Voyager 1 imaging scientists. Observations of Io by passing spacecraft and Earth-based astronomers have revealed more than 150 active volcanoes. Io's volcanism makes the satellite one of only four known volcanically active worlds in the Solar System. First predicted shortly before the Voyager 1 flyby, the heat source for Io's volcanism comes from tidal heating produced by Io's forced orbital eccentricity. Io's volcanism has led to the formation of hundreds of volcanic centres and extensive lava formations, making the moon the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Three different types of volcanic eruptions have been identified, differing in duration, intensity, lava effusion rate, and whether the eruption occurs within a volcanic pit. Lava flows on Io, tens or hundreds of kilometres long, have primarily basaltic composition, similar to lavas seen on Earth at shield volcanoes such as Kīlauea in Hawaii. As a result of the presence of significant quantities of sulfurous materials in Io's crust and on its surface, during some eruptions, sulfur, sulfur dioxide gas, and pyroclastic material are blown up to 500 kilometres (310 mi) into space, producing large, umbrella-shaped volcanic plumes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanism_on_Io

The Ottoman Empire under Sultan Murad II defeated the Polish and Hungarian armies under Władysław III of Poland and John Hunyadi at the Battle of Varna near Varna, Bulgaria in the final battle of the Crusade of Varna.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Varna)

"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" – Journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley located missing missionary and explorer David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika in present-day Tanzania.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morton_Stanley)

Hirohito was crowned the 124th Emperor of Japan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirohito)

The children's television series Sesame Street debuted on the National Educational Television network in the United States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_Street)

Playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People were executed by the Nigerian military government.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Saro-Wiwa)

vouchsafe   (v)     To condescendingly grant a right, benefit, outcome, etc.; to deign to acknowledge.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vouchsafe)

A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.
--Adlai Stevenson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson)