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>
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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>
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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>
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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>