Qalaherriaq (c. 1834 – 1856) was an Inughuit hunter from Cape York in northwestern Greenland. Born around 1834 and baptized Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua, he was taken aboard the British barque HMS Assistance in 1850 as an interpreter during the search for Franklin's lost expedition. He guided the ship to Wolstenholme Fjord to investigate rumors of a massacre of Franklin's crew, but found the corpses of local Inughuit and crew from an unrelated British vessel. Poor sea conditions prevented the Assistance from returning to Qalaherriaq's family, and he was instead taken to England and placed in the custody of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He was enrolled in St Augustine's College at Canterbury and studied English and Christianity. In 1855, he was tasked by Edward Feild, Bishop of Newfoundland, to join him on a mission to the Labrador Inuit. Qalaherriaq's health problems, which he had developed during his service as an interpreter, worsened after his arrival in Newfoundland, and he died at St. John's in 1856 around 22 years old.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qalaherriaq
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1789:
The office of United States Postmaster General was formally established. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postmaster_General
1957:
François Duvalier, nicknamed Papa Doc, was elected President of Haiti as a populist before consolidating power and ruling as a dictator for the rest of his life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Duvalier
2003:
Dolphin, the first emulator for the GameCube that could run commercial video games, was released. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_%28emulator%29
2013:
Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, was attacked by two suicide bombers who killed 127 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshawar_church_bombing
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
abjure: 1. (transitive) 2. To solemnly reject (someone or something); to abandon (someone or something) forever; to disavow, to disclaim, to repudiate. 3. (historical) To renounce (something) upon oath; to forswear; specifically, to recant or retract (a heresy or some other opinion); to withdraw. 4. (historical) To cause (someone) to recant or retract (a heresy or some other opinion). 5. (chiefly law, historical) 6. Especially in abjure the realm: to swear an oath to leave (a place) forever. 7. (obsolete, rare) To cause or compel (someone) to leave a place forever; to banish. 8. (intransitive) 9. To solemnly reject; to abandon forever. 10. (historical) To recant or retract a heresy on oath. 11. (chiefly law, historical) To swear an oath to leave a place forever. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/abjure
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The manner is often as important as the matter, sometimes more so. --Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Stanhope,_4th_Earl_of_Chesterfield