The Guilden Morden boar is a sixth- or seventh-century Anglo-Saxon
copper alloy figure of a boar that may have once served as the crest of
a helmet. It was found around 1864 or 1865 in a grave in the village of
Guilden Morden in Cambridgeshire. Herbert George Fordham, whose father
discovered the boar, donated it to the British Museum in 1904, where it
is now displayed. It is simply designed, with a prominent mane; eyes,
eyebrows, nostrils and tusks are only faintly present. A pin and socket
design formed by the front and hind legs suggests that the boar was
mounted on another object, such as a helmet. Boar-crested helmets are a
staple of Anglo-Saxon imagery, evidence of a Germanic tradition in which
the boar invoked the protection of the gods. They may have been common,
and in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, boar-adorned helmets are mentioned
five times. The Guilden Morden boar is one of three known to have
survived to the present, together with the ones on helmets from Benty
Grange and Wollaston.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilden_Morden_boar>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1860:
South Carolina became the first of eleven slave states to
secede from the United States, leading to the eventual creation of the
Confederate States of America and later the American Civil War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America>
1951:
Experimental Breeder Reactor I near Arco, Idaho, United States,
became the world's first electricity-generating nuclear power plant when
it produced sufficient electricity to illuminate four 200-watt light
bulbs.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I>
1987:
The deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history occurred
when the MV Doña Paz sank after colliding with an oil tanker on the
Tablas Strait in the Philippines, resulting in an estimated 4,000
deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Do%C3%B1a_Paz>
1995:
As per the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War, the
NATO-led IFOR began peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implementation_Force>
2007:
Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch was stolen from the
São Paulo Museum of Art and recovered about three weeks later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Suzanne_Bloch>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Shangri-La:
A place of complete bliss, delight, and peace, especially one seen as an
escape from ordinary life; a paradise.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Shangri-La>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ
מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ
בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק
נֵר חֲנֻכָּה. Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the
universe, who has sanctified us by His commandments, and has commanded
us to kindle the lights of Hanukkah.
--Hanukkah
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hanukkah>