Marcel Lihau (1931–1999) was a Congolese jurist, law professor, and politician who helped create two constitutions for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He attended the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium, becoming one of the first Congolese to study law, and was made dean of the law faculty at Lovanium University in 1963. The following year, he helped deliver the Luluabourg Constitution, which the Congolese adopted by referendum. In 1965, Joseph-Desiré Mobutu seized control of the country and directed him to produce a new constitution. Lihau was First President of the new Supreme Court of Justice of the Congo from 1968 until 1975, when Mobutu summarily removed him from his post and placed him under house arrest. After Lihau helped found the reform-oriented Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social, Mobutu suspended his rights and banished him to a rural village. Lihau eventually moved to the United States, where he continued to advocate for political reform in the Congo until his death.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Lihau
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1703:
English writer Daniel Defoe was imprisoned for seditious libel after publishing a pamphlet that was perceived to satirise the Tories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shortest_Way_with_the_Dissenters
1851:
The Congress of Colombia passed a law abolishing slavery in the country, to take effect at the beginning of the new year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Colombia
1924:
University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb (both pictured) murdered a 14-year-old boy in a thrill killing out of a desire to commit a "perfect crime". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_and_Loeb
1998:
Indonesian president Suharto resigned following the collapse of support for his presidency amid economic and political crises. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suharto
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
orature: The oral equivalent of literature: a collection of traditional folk songs, stories, etc., that is communicated orally rather than in writing. […] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/orature
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Teach me to feel another's woe, To right the fault I see; That mercy I to others show, That mercy show to me. --Alexander Pope https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Pope