William Anderson (1840 – October 26, 1864), known as "Bloody Bill"
Anderson, was one of the deadliest pro-Confederate guerrilla leaders of
the American Civil War, leading a band of volunteer partisans who
targeted Union loyalists and federal soldiers in Missouri and Kansas.
After his father was killed by a Union loyalist judge during the war,
Anderson killed the judge and fled to Missouri where he robbed travelers
and killed several Union soldiers. In 1863 he took a leading role in the
Lawrence massacre and later participated in the Battle of Baxter
Springs. By 1864 Anderson was the leader of a group of raiders in
Missouri. In September 1864, he led a raid on the town of Centralia,
where his men captured a passenger train; they executed 24 unarmed Union
soldiers in the Centralia Massacre. Later that day they killed more than
a hundred Union militiamen in an ambush. Anderson died in battle a month
later.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Anderson>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1892:
Ida B. Wells began to publish her research on lynching in the
United States, for which she was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize
in 2020.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_B._Wells>
1955:
Ngô Đình Diệm proclaimed himself president of the newly
created Republic of Vietnam after defeating former emperor Bảo Đại
in a fraudulent referendum supervised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_State_of_Vietnam_referendum>
1994:
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty, settling relations
between the two countries and pledging that neither would allow its
territory to become a staging ground for military strikes by a third
country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Jordan_peace_treaty>
2000:
Following protests against military leader Robert Guéï,
Laurent Gbagbo became the first elected president of Ivory Coast.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Gbagbo>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
sheepshank:
(nautical) A type of knot which is useful for shortening a rope or
taking up slack without cutting it.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sheepshank>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Simply caring is not enough. To drive real progress, you have to
change both hearts and laws. You need both understanding and action.
--Hillary Clinton
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton>