16 April 2016

oblast

[ob-last, -lahst; Russian aw-bluh st]

noun, plural oblasts Russian, oblasti [aw-bluh-styee] (Show IPA)

1. (in Russia and the Soviet Union) an administrative division corresponding to an autonomous province.
2. region; province.

Origin of oblast

1885-1890; < Russian óblast’, Old Russian oblastĭ, equivalent to ob- against, on + vlastĭ authority, power; see volost

Dictionary.com

Anagram

a bolts
lot abs
bloats

Today’s quote

No artist tolerates reality.

– Friedrich Nietzsche

On this day

16 April – Panda Appreciation Day. It was on this day in 1972, that the People’s Republic of China presented US President Richard Nixon with two pandas, Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing.

16 April 73AD – The Great Jewish Revolt ends when the fortress Masada falls to the Romans.

16 April 1850 – death of Marie Tussaud, French-English sculptor, founder of Madam Tussaud’s wax museum. Born 1 December 1761.

16 April 1917 – Vladimir Lenin returns to Petrograd, Russia following exile in Switzerland.

16 April 1947 – Bernard Baruch coins the term ‘Cold War’ to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.

16 April 1990 – Dr Jack Kevorkian, (euthanasia activist, otherwise known as the Doctor of Death) participates in his first assisted suicide.