St Donat's Castle in St Donats, Wales, is a medieval castle in the Vale
of Glamorgan, about 16 miles (26 km) west of Cardiff, and about 1.5
miles (2.4 km) east of Llantwit Major. The site, on cliffs overlooking
the Bristol Channel, has been occupied since the Iron Age, and was by
tradition the home of the Celtic chieftain Caradog. In the 12th century,
the de Haweys began the present castle's development, followed by Peter
de Stradling. The Stradlings held the castle for 400 years, until the
death of Sir Thomas Stradling in a duel in 1738. By the early 19th
century it was only partly habitable. William Randolph Hearst, the
American newspaper tycoon, bought it in 1925 and expanded it with
elements from other ancient structures, such as the roofs of Bradenstoke
Priory in Wiltshire and St Botolph's Church in Lincolnshire. Bernard
Shaw described the castle after Hearst's reconstruction as "what God
would have built if he had had the money".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Donat%27s_Castle>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
Marie Antoinette, queen consort of Louis XVI, was guillotined
at the Place de la Révolution in Paris at the height of the French
Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette>
1875:
Brigham Young University, the United States' largest religious
university, was founded in Provo, Utah.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Young_University>
1923:
Roy and Walt Disney founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio
in Hollywood that eventually grew to become one of the largest media and
entertainment corporations in the world.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company>
1978:
Polish Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II,
the first non-Italian pope in over 450 years and the first ever from a
Slavic country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
aquaponics:
(agriculture) A sustainable food production system that combines
traditional aquaculture with hydroponics, with effluent from the water
in which fish are reared being used as nutrition for plants.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aquaponics>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
One may not give one's soul to a devil of hate — and remain
forever scatheless.
--Eugene O'Neill
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_O%27Neill>