Simon Bolivar Buckner (1823–1914) was a soldier in the
Mexican–American War and a Confederate lieutenant general in the
American Civil War. He graduated from West Point and taught there for
five years, with an interlude during the Mexican–American War. He left
the army in 1855 to manage real estate he inherited in Chicago. In 1857,
he returned to his native state (Kentucky) and was appointed adjutant
general by Governor Beriah Magoffin. He attempted to enforce Kentucky's
neutrality policy during the early days of the Civil War, but enlisted
in the Confederate Army in September 1861. He was the first Confederate
general to surrender an army, doing so at the Battle of Fort Donelson in
1862. He also participated in Braxton Bragg's failed attempt to invade
Kentucky. On August 30, 1887, he was inaugurated governor of Kentucky.
As governor, he worked to suppress the Hatfield-McCoy feud and the Rowan
County War and ordered an audit that prompted state treasurer James W.
Tate to abscond with $250,000 from the state treasury. He unsuccessfully
sought a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1895 and the U.S. Vice-Presidency in
1896.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_B._Buckner>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1799:
Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland: A squadron of the navy of
the Batavian Republic surrendered to the Royal Navy without a fight near
Wieringen.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlieter_Incident>
1836:
Real estate entrepreneurs John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman
Allen founded the city of Houston on land near the banks of Buffalo
Bayou in present-day Texas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston>
1896:
Philippine Revolution: In the Battle of San Juan del Monte, the
first real battle of the war, a Katipunan force temporarily captured a
powder magazine before being beaten back by a Spanish garrison.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Juan_del_Monte>
1942:
Second World War: Erwin Rommel launched the last major Axis
offensive of the Western Desert Campaign, attacking the British Eighth
Army position near El Alamein, Egypt.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alam_el_Halfa>
1984:
Space Shuttle Discovery took off on its maiden voyage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Discovery>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
leech:
1. (transitive) To apply a leech medicinally, so that it sucks blood from
the patient.
2. (transitive) To drain (resources) without giving back.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/leech>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when
wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of
the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine.
--Mary Shelley
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley>