"Temporary gentlemen" is a colloquial term referring to male officers of
the British Army who held temporary (or war-duration) commissions,
particularly when such men came from outside the traditional officer
class. Historically the officers of the British Army were drawn from the
gentry and upper middle classes. The First World War required a rapid
expansion of the officer corps and more than 200,000 additional officers
were recruited, many on temporary commissions. Many of these were drawn
from the lower middle and working classes. They came to be referred to
as "temporary gentlemen" with the expectation that they would revert to
their former social standing after the war. The term was revived in the
Second World War, which saw a similar increase in the number of officers
holding temporary commissions. The term continued to see use for
officers commissioned from those conscripted for National Service, which
lasted until 1963.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_gentlemen>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1841:
Pedro II, the last Emperor of Brazil, having reigned in
minority since 1831, was acclaimed, crowned and consecrated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_II_of_Brazil>
1949:
Francisco Javier Arana, Chief of the Armed Forces of Guatemala,
was killed in a shootout with supporters of President Juan José
Arévalo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Javier_Arana>
1976:
At the Olympic Games in Montreal, Nadia Comăneci became the
first person to score a perfect 10 in a modern Olympics gymnastics
event.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Com%C4%83neci>
1989:
American actress Rebecca Schaeffer was shot and killed by
Robert John Bardo, eventually prompting the passage of anti-stalking
laws in California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Schaeffer>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
get someone's goat:
(informal) To annoy or infuriate someone.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get_someone%27s_goat>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist,
you have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know
the material you're writing about before you alter it.
--Hunter S. Thompson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson>
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