By Lady Williamson
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Sir Halford John Mackinder (15 February 1861 – 6 March 1947) was an English geographer, academic and politician, who is regarded as one of the founding fathers of both geopolitics and geostrategy. He was the first Principal of University Extension College, Reading (which became the University of Reading) from 1892 to 1903, and Director of the London School of Economics from 1903 to 1908. While continuing his academic career part-time, he was also the Member of Parliament for Glasgow Camlachie from 1910 to 1922. From 1923, he was Professor of Geography at the London School of Economics.
In 1895, he was one of the founders of the London School of Economics. At Oxford, Mackinder was the driving force behind the creation of a School of Geography in 1899. In the same year, he led an expedition of the first Europeans to climb Mount Kenya. It was during this expedition that eight of his African porters were killed; it is disputed as to who killed them, as both Mackinder and another man, Edward Saunders were recorded issuing death threats. In 1902, he published Britain and the British Seas, which included the first comprehensive geomorphology of the British Isles and which became a classic in regional geography. He was a member of the Coefficients dining club, set up in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb, which brought together social reformers and advocates of national efficiency.
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Mount Kenya (Kikuyu: Kĩrĩnyaga, Kamba, Ki Nyaa) is an extinct stratovolcano in Kenya and the second-highest peak in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian (5,199 metres or 17,057 feet), Nelion (5,188 m or 17,021 ft) and Point Lenana (4,985 m or 16,355 ft). Mount Kenya is located in the former Eastern and Central provinces of Kenya; its peak is now the intersection of Meru, Embu, Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Tharaka Nithi counties, about 16.5 kilometres (10.3 miles) south of the equator, around 150 km (90 mi) north-northeast of the capital Nairobi. Mount Kenya is the source of the name of the Republic of Kenya.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Complete, I am an ill-placed zephyr; behead me, and I am floating logs; behead me again, and I am part of a ship. (What word fits the first clue? Follow the directions to form new words from it.)
Draft – raft – aft
Born
- Oliver Evans (inventor) –
- Clara Schumann (pianist & composer) –
- Milton Hershey (founder of Hershey Chocolate Company) –
- Adolf Meyer (psychiatrist) –
- Sherwood Anderson (writer) –
- Leland Hayward (producer) –
- Claudette Colbert (actress) –
- Horace Babcock (astronomer) –
- Roald Dahl (author) –
- Else Holmelund Minarik (children’s author; Little Bear” series”) –
- Mel Torme (singer) –
- Jacqueline Bisset (actress) –
- Peter Cetera (musician) –
- Nell Carter (actress & singer) –
- Anne Geddes (photographer) –
- Michael Johnson (Olympic athlete) –
- Tyler Perry (actor and screenwriter) –
- Stella McCartney (fashion designer) –
- Fiona Apple (singer) –
- Ben Savage (actor) –
Died
- John Barry (commodore, father of the American navy) –
- Richard Merrell (television writer & actor) –
- George Wallace (politician) –
- Dorothy McGuire (actress) –
- Dilhan Eryurt (Turkish astrophysicist) –
- Frank Vincent (actor) –
- Eddie Money (singer) –
Events
- Halford Mackinder’s team became the first Europeans to summit Mount Kenya–
- Henry Bliss walked off a trolley and was hit by a speeding driver. The following day when he died from his injuries, he became the first pedestrian to be killed by an automobile–
- The Chocolate Soldier opened in N.Y.C.–
- Chiang Kai-shek became president of China–
- Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress–
- IBM introduced the first computer with a disk storage system–
- A protester dressed as Batman scaled the front wall of Buckingham Palace–
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