Harriet Tubman (c. 1820 – March 10, 1913) was an African-American
abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the U.S. Civil War.
After escaping from slavery, into which she was born, she made thirteen
missions to rescue over seventy slaves using the network of antislavery
activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. In 1849,
Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, then immediately returned to Maryland
to rescue her family. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought
relatives with her out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of
other slaves to freedom. Traveling by night and in extreme secrecy,
Tubman (or "Moses", as she was called) "never lost a passenger". Large
rewards were offered for the capture and return of many of the people
she helped escape, but no one ever knew it was Harriet Tubman who was
helping them. When a far-reaching United States Fugitive Slave Law was
passed in 1850, she helped guide fugitives further north into Canada,
and helped newly-freed slaves find work. When the American Civil War
began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and
then as an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed
expedition in the war, she guided the raid on the Combahee River, which
liberated more than seven hundred slaves. After the war, she retired to
the family home in Auburn, New York, where she cared for her aging
parents.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1702:
Princess Anne of Denmark and Norway became the Queen of England,
Scotland and Ireland, succeeding William III.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Great_Britain>
1782:
American Revolutionary War: Almost 100 Native Americans in
Gnadenhutten, Ohio died at the hands of Pennsylvanian militiamen in a
mass murder known as the Gnadenhutten massacre.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnadenhutten_massacre>
1966:
Nelson's Pillar, a large granite pillar with a statue of Lord Nelson on
top in Dublin, Ireland, was destroyed by a bomb.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson%27s_Pillar>
1978:
BBC Radio 4 transmitted the first episode of English author and
dramatist Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a
science fiction radio series that was later adapted into novels, a
television series, and other media formats.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_%28radio_series%29>
1983:
The Cold War: During a speech to the National Association of
Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Ronald Reagan
described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/evil_empire>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
pulsate (v):
1. To expand and contract rhythmically; to throb or to beat.
2. To quiver, vibrate, thrill.
3. To produce a recurring increase and
decrease of some quantity
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pulsate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is
their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought
not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the
heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the
treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the
human mind shall never be lacking in fresh enrichment.
--Johannes Kepler
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johannes_Kepler>