Robert of Jumièges (died 1052–1055?) was the first Norman Archbishop
of Canterbury. He had served as prior of the Abbey of St Ouen at Rouen
in Normandy, before becoming abbot of Jumièges Abbey (pictured), near
Rouen, in 1037. He was a friend and advisor to the king of England,
Edward the Confessor, who appointed him Bishop of London in 1044, and
then archbishop in 1051. Robert's time as archbishop lasted only about
eighteen months. He had already come into conflict with the powerful
Earl Godwin of Wessex, and had made attempts to recover lands lost to
Godwin and his family. He also refused to consecrate Spearhafoc,
Edward's choice to succeed Robert as Bishop of London. The rift between
Robert and Godwin culminated in Robert's deposition and exile in 1052,
and he died at Jumièges shortly after. Robert commissioned significant
building work at Jumièges and was probably involved in the first
Romanesque building in England, the church built in Westminster for
Edward the Confessor, now known as Westminster Abbey. Robert's treatment
by the English was used as one of the justifications of William the
Conqueror for his invasion of England.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_of_Jumi%C3%A8ges>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1659:
Russo-Polish War: The hetman of Ukraine Ivan Vyhovsky and his
allies defeated the armies of Russian Tsardom led by Aleksey Trubetskoy
at the Battle of Konotop in the present-day Sumy Oblast of Ukraine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Konotop>
1864:
Canada's worst railway accident took place when a passenger
train fell through an open swing bridge into the Richelieu River near
present-day Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Hilaire_train_disaster>
1974:
Isabel Perón was sworn in as the first female President of
Argentina, replacing her ill husband Juan Perón, who died two days
later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Mart%C3%ADnez_de_Per%C3%B3n>
2006:
The US Supreme Court delivered its decision in Hamdan v.
Rumsfeld, ruling that military commissions set up by the Bush
administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay violated both US and
international law.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamdan_v._Rumsfeld>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
bentwood:
1. (woodworking, countable and uncountable) Also attributive. Lengths of
wood that have been made pliable by heating with steam and then bent
into the appropriate shape (to make furniture, ships' hulls, etc.).
2. (countable) An object, especially a piece of furniture, made from
bentwood.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bentwood>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The machine does not isolate us from the great problems of nature
but plunges us more deeply into them.
--Antoine de Saint Exupéry
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Antoine_de_Saint_Exup%C3%A9ry>