Carl Hans Lody (1877–1914) was a reserve officer of the Imperial
German Navy who spied in the United Kingdom at the start of the First
World War. While working for a shipping line, he agreed to spy for
German naval intelligence, and was sent to Edinburgh in late August. He
spoke fluent English, and spent a month posing as an American tourist
while reporting on British naval movements and coastal defences. He had
not been given any espionage training and was detected almost
immediately, as he sent his communications in plain English and German
to a known German intelligence address in Sweden. By the end of
September 1914, a rising spy panic in Britain led to foreigners coming
under suspicion; he attempted to go into hiding in Ireland but was
quickly caught. Tried in a public court martial in London, he made no
attempt to deny his guilt, declaring that he had acted out of patriotic
motives. His courage on the witness stand attracted admiration in
Britain and Germany. He was sentenced to death by firing squad and on 6
November 1914 he became the first person in nearly 170 years to be
executed at the Tower of London. Under the Nazi regime, he was acclaimed
as a German national hero.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Hans_Lody>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1789:
Pope Pius VI appointed Father John Carroll as the first
Catholic bishop in the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carroll_(bishop)>
1856:
Scenes of Clerical Life, the first work by English author
George Eliot (pictured), was submitted for publication.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenes_of_Clerical_Life>
1939:
As part of their plan to eradicate the Polish intellectual
elite, the Gestapo arrested 184 professors, students and employees of
Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderaktion_Krakau>
1944:
The Hanford Atomic Facility in the U.S. state of Washington
produced its first plutonium, and it would go on to create more for
almost the entire American nuclear arsenal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site>
2004:
A man attempting to commit suicide parked his car on the
railway tracks in Ufton Nervet, Berkshire, England, causing a derailment
that killed seven people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufton_Nervet_rail_crash>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
isomorphic:
1. (mathematics) Having a one-to-one correspondence.
2. (biology) Having a similar structure or function to something that is
not related genetically or through evolution.
3. Having identical relevant structure.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/isomorphic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what
comes.
--Zig Ziglar
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar>