Kyriakos Pittakis (1798–1863) was a Greek archaeologist. The first Greek to serve as the head of the country's archaeological service, he carried out the conservation and restoration of monuments on the Acropolis of Athens. Largely self-taught as an archaeologist, he was one of the few native Greeks active in the field during the late Ottoman period and the early years of the Kingdom of Greece, playing an influential role in the early years of the archaeological service. A founding member of the Archaeological Society of Athens, he was prolific both as an excavator and as a writer, publishing by his own estimation more than 4,000 inscriptions. He has been praised for his extensive efforts to uncover and protect Greece's classical heritage, particularly in Athens and the adjacent islands, but criticised for his unsystematic and incautious approach. His reconstructions of ancient monuments often prioritised aesthetics over fidelity to the original, and were largely reverted after his death.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyriakos_Pittakis
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1888:
George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee in London, received the "From Hell" letter, allegedly from Jack the Ripper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Hell_letter
1965:
Vietnam War protests: At an anti-war rally in New York City, David J. Miller burned his draft card (example pictured), the first such act to result in arrest under a new amendment to the Selective Service Act. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft-card_burning
1979:
President Carlos Humberto Romero of El Salvador was overthrown and exiled in a military coup d'état. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Salvadoran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
dictionaryese: (informal) The style of language used in dictionary definitions, characterized by dry, straightforward, and occasionally awkward phrasing. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dictionaryese
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Few things in life can be so appalling as the difference between a dry antiseptic statement of a principle by a well spoken man in a quiet office, and what happens to people when that principle is put into practice. --John Kenneth Galbraith https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith