John Neal (1793–1876) was an American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist. He delivered speeches and published essays, novels, poems, and short stories between the 1810s and 1870s. Neal advanced American art, advocated the end of slavery and racial prejudice, and helped establish the American gymnastics movement. The first American author to use natural diction, he was also the first to use "son-of-a-bitch" in a work of fiction. He attained his greatest literary achievements between 1817 and 1835 as the first American published in British literary journals, author of the first history of American literature, America's first art critic, and a forerunner of the American Renaissance. One of the first men to advocate women's rights in the US, he affirmed intellectual equality between men and women, fought coverture laws, and demanded equal pay, better education and suffrage for women, declaring "I tell you there is no hope for woman, till she has a hand in making the law".
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Neal_%28writer%29
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1877:
The Constantinople Conference concluded with the Great Powers declaring the need for political reforms, which the Ottoman Empire refused to undertake and later resulting in the Russo-Turkish War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople_Conference
1969:
Bengali student activist Amanullah Asaduzzaman was shot and killed by East Pakistani police, an event that led to the Bangladesh Liberation War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanullah_Asaduzzaman
2009:
During a national financial crisis, thousands of people protested at the Icelandic parliament in Reykjavík. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Icelandic_financial_crisis_protests
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
acquit: 1. (transitive) To declare or find innocent or not guilty. 2. (transitive) To discharge (for example, a claim or debt); to clear off, to pay off; to fulfil. 3. (transitive) Followed by of (and formerly by from): to discharge, release, or set free from a burden, duty, liability, or obligation, or from an accusation or charge. 4. (reflexive) To bear or conduct oneself; to perform one's part. 5. (reflexive) To clear oneself. 6. (transitive, archaic) past participle of acquit. 7. (transitive, obsolete) To release, to rescue, to set free. 8. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To pay for; to atone for. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/acquit
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
We must restore the soul of America. Our nation is shaped by the constant battle between our better angels and our darkest impulses. It is time for our better angels to prevail. Tonight, the whole world is watching America. I believe at our best America is a beacon for the globe. And we lead not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. … Now, together — on eagle's wings — we embark on the work that God and history have called upon us to do. With full hearts and steady hands, with faith in America and in each other, with a love of country — and a thirst for justice — let us be the nation that we know we can be. A nation united. A nation strengthened. A nation healed. The United States of America. --Joe Biden https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joe_Biden