Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West
End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. On the north side are
shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials; the south side holds the
Royal Opera House (also called Covent Garden), the Drury Lane theatre,
the London Transport Museum, and other cultural and entertainment
venues. Its central square (pictured) is a popular shopping and tourist
site. The area was originally the "garden of the Abbey and Convent",
with orchards for Westminster Abbey, around 1200. In 1630 the 4th Earl
of Bedford commissioned Inigo Jones to design the Italianate arcaded
square, which served as a prototype for other estates as London grew. A
small open-air market and its neighbourhood fell into disrepute as
taverns, theatres and brothels opened up; the gentry moved away, and
rakes, wits and playwrights moved in. Charles Fowler's neo-classical
building was erected in 1830 to cover and organise the market. Further
buildings were added: the Floral Hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the
Jubilee Market. The central building reopened as a shopping centre in
1980 with cafes, pubs, small shops and a craft market.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covent_Garden>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1559:
During a jousting match, Gabriel Montgomery of the Garde
Écossaise mortally wounded King Henry II of France, piercing him in the
eye with his lance.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_II_of_France>
1860:
Seven months after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the
Origin of Species, several prominent British scientists and philosophers
participated in an evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum in
Oxford, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Oxford_evolution_debate>
1908:
A massive explosion occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska
River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, knocking over 80 million
trees over 2,150 square kilometres (830 sq mi).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event>
1966:
The National Organization for Women, one of the United States'
leading feminist organizations, was founded in Washington, D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Organization_for_Women>
2009:
Schoolgirl Bahia Bakari was the sole survivor when Yemenia
Flight 626 crashed into the Indian Ocean killing 152 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenia_Flight_626>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
coop:
1. A basket, pen or enclosure for birds.
2. A wickerwork basket (kipe) or other enclosure for catching fish.
3. (figuratively, slang) A narrow place of confinement, a cage; a jail, a
prison. […]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coop>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
There was a time when only wise books were read helping us to bear
our pain and misery. This, after all, is not quite the same as leafing
through a thousand works fresh from psychiatric clinics. And yet the
world is different from what it seems to be and we are other than how we
see ourselves in our ravings.
--Czesław Miłosz
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82aw_Mi%C5%82osz>