[Daily article] September 12: Trigonometry

The qibla is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque,
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which is used by Muslims in various religious
contexts, including ritual prayer. Muslims believe the Kaaba to be a
sacred site built by the prophets Abraham and Ishmael, and that its use
was ordained by God in several verses of the Quran revealed in the
second Hijri year. Prior to this revelation, Muhammad and his followers
in Medina faced Jerusalem for prayers. Most mosques contain a mihrab or
a wall niche that indicates the direction of the qibla. Before the
development of astronomy in the Islamic world, Muslims used traditional
methods to determine the qibla. These methods included facing the
direction that the companions of Muhammad had used when in the same
place or using the setting and rising points of celestial objects. In
the late 9th and 10th centuries, Muslim astronomers developed methods to
find the exact direction of the qibla, and today it can be calculated
using a trigonometric formula..

Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonometry>

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1910:

Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, one of the largest-scale
choral works in the classical concert repertoire, was first performed in
Munich.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._8_%28Mahler%29>

1948:

The People's Liberation Army launched the Liaoshen campaign,
the first of the three major military campaigns during the late stage of
the Chinese Civil War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liaoshen_campaign>

1977:

South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died after
being beaten in police custody in Port Elizabeth.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Biko>

1992:

Aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, American Mae Jemison became the
first black woman to travel to space.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_Jemison>

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Wiktionary's word of the day:

connive:
1. (intransitive) Often followed by with: to secretly cooperate with
another person or persons in order to commit a crime or other
wrongdoing; to collude, to conspire.
2. (intransitive, botany, rare) Of parts of a plant: to be converging or
in close contact; to be connivent.
3. (intransitive, obsolete) Often followed by at: to pretend to be
ignorant of something in order to escape blame; to ignore or overlook a
fault deliberately.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To open and close the eyes rapidly; to wink.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/connive>

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Wikiquote quote of the day:

  He who must be what he is, may curse his fate, but cannot change
it; on the other hand, he who can transform himself has no one in the
world but himself to blame for his failings, no one but himself to hold
responsible for his dissatisfaction.  
--Stanisław Lem
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem>

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