The Profumo affair was a 1963 British political scandal that originated
with a sexual liaison between John Profumo, the Secretary of State for
War in Harold Macmillan's government, and Christine Keeler, a 19-year-
old would-be model. Profumo originally denied any impropriety, but in
June 1963 admitted the truth and resigned from parliament in disgrace.
Concern was heightened by Keeler's alleged simultaneous involvement with
Yevgeny Ivanov, a suspected Soviet spy. Keeler knew both Profumo and
Ivanov through her mentor, Stephen Ward, an osteopath and socialite.
After the scandal broke, Ward's private life was investigated, and he
was convicted of immorality offences. He took a fatal overdose during
the final stages of his trial, which has since been perceived as an act
of Establishment revenge, rather than as serving justice. In January
2014 the case was under review by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Profumo redeemed himself by a long period as a volunteer worker in
London's East End; he died, honoured and respected, in 2006. The
repercussions of the affair contributed to Macmillan's resignation in
October 1963, and to the Conservative Party's defeat in the 1964 general
election.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profumo_affair>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1173:
The construction of a campanile, which would eventually become
the Leaning Tower of Pisa, began.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa>
1854:
Henry David Thoreau published Walden, his account of having
spent two years living mostly in isolation on the shores of Walden Pond
near Concord, Massachusetts, US.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden>
1914:
World War I: France launched its first attack of the war in an
ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover the province of Alsace from
Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mulhouse>
1965:
Malaysia expelled the state of Singapore from its federation
due to heated ideological conflict between their respective ruling
parties.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore>
1974:
In the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from
office due to the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the only
President of the United States to resign from office.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
pankration:
An Ancient Greek martial art combining aspects of boxing and wrestling,
introduced in the Greek Olympic games in 648 BC.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pankration>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
 We are all made of the same stuff, remember, we of the
Jungle, you of the City. The same substance composes us — the tree
overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star — we are
all one, all moving to the same end. Remember that when you no longer
remember me, my child.
--P. L. Travers
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/P._L._Travers>