John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (b. 18 December 1934), known as Lord Lucan, disappeared without trace in 1974. Born in Marylebone, he attended Eton College and served with the Coldstream Guards, later becoming a professional gambler. Lucan had expensive tastes; he raced power boats and drove an Aston Martin. In 1963 he married Veronica Duncan, with whom he had three children, but the marriage collapsed in 1972 and he moved out of the family home in Belgravia. He lost a bitter custody battle, began to spy on his wife and children, and incurred gambling losses. In November 1974 the children's nanny, Sandra Rivett, was murdered in the basement of the Lucan family home. Lady Lucan was also attacked and she identified Lucan as her assailant. As the police investigated, Lucan drove to a friend's house in East Sussex; hours later, he left and was never seen again. The car was found with a blood- stained interior and a lead pipe similar to one found at the crime scene in its boot. A warrant for his arrest was issued, but despite hundreds of reported sightings, he has not been found and as of 2016 is legally presumed dead.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bingham,_7th_Earl_of_Lucan
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1867:
In Angola, New York, U.S., the last coach of a Lake Shore Railway train derailed, plunged 40 ft (12 m) down a gully, and caught fire, resulting in 49 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angola_Horror
1916:
The French defeated German forces around the city of Verdun- sur-Meuse in northeast France, ending the longest and one of the bloodiest battles in the First World War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun
1939:
Second World War: The Luftwaffe victory over the Royal Air Force in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight greatly influenced both sides' future air strategy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Heligoland_Bight_(1939)
1966:
Epimetheus, one of the moons of Saturn, was discovered, but was mistaken for Janus. It took twelve years to determine that they are two distinct objects sharing the same orbit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epimetheus_(moon)
1996:
The school board of Oakland, California, passed a controversial resolution officially declaring African American Vernacular English as a separate language or dialect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Ebonics_resolution
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
patroon: (US) One of the landowning Dutch grandees of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, especially after it became a British possession renamed as New York. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/patroon
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The animal which the Egyptians worshipped as divine, which the Romans venerated as a symbol of liberty, which Europeans in the ignorant Middle Ages anathematised as an agent of demonology, has displayed to all ages two closely blended characteristics — courage and self- respect. No matter how unfavourable the circumstances, both qualities are always to the fore. Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission to the impending visitation, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance. … The cat of the slums and alleys, starved, outcast, harried, still keeps amid the prowlings of its adversity the bold, free, panther-tread with which it paced of yore the temple courts of Thebes, still displays the self- reliant watchfulness which man has never taught it to lay aside. --Saki https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Saki