Malkin Tower is the site of perhaps the best-known alleged witches'
coven in English legal history. It was the home of Elizabeth Southerns
and her granddaughter Alizon Device, two of the chief protagonists in
the Lancashire witch trials of 1612. A pedlar collapsed soon after
refusing to sell Alizon some pins. She and her grandmother were summoned
to the home of local magistrate Roger Nowell on suspicion of causing
harm by witchcraft, and were thereafter detained in the gaol at
Lancaster Castle. Friends met at Malkin Tower on 6 April 1612 (Good
Friday), allegedly to plot their escape by blowing up the castle. Nowell
learned of the meeting and concluded that it had been the scene of a
witches' coven. Eight of those attending were subsequently arrested and
tried for causing harm by witchcraft, seven of whom were found guilty
and executed; the house may have been demolished shortly after the
trials. The only firm evidence for its location comes from the official
account by the clerk to the court, who places it somewhere in the Forest
of Pendle (pictured). Archaeological excavations in the area have failed
to discover any confirmed remains of the building.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malkin_Tower>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
475:
Romulus Augustulus took the throne as the last ruling emperor of
the Western Roman Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_Augustulus>
1822:
Emperor Agustín de Iturbide of the First Mexican Empire
dissolved the Mexican Congress and replaced it with a military junta
answerable only to him.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agust%C3%ADn_de_Iturbide>
1913:
Public transportation workers in Indianapolis, Indiana, US,
went on strike, shutting down mass transit in the city and sparking
riots when strikebreakers attempted to restart services.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_Streetcar_Strike_of_1913>
1973:
Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped from
Mountjoy Prison in Dublin after a hijacked helicopter landed in the
prison's exercise yard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountjoy_Prison_helicopter_escape>
2011:
The United Nations declared that the world's population had
exceeded seven billion.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_Billion_Actions>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
cauldron:
A large bowl-shaped pot used for boiling over an open flame.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cauldron>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The imagination may be compared to Adam's dream — he awoke and
found it truth.
--John Keats
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Keats>