Empress Matilda (1102–1167) was the claimant to the English throne
during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The daughter of King Henry I
of England, she moved to Germany to marry the future Holy Roman Emperor
Henry V. Her younger brother, William Adelin, died in 1120, leaving a
succession crisis, and on Henry V's death in 1125, her father arranged
for her to marry Geoffrey of Anjou in a strategic alliance. Henry I
nominated Matilda as his heir before his death in 1135, but Matilda and
Geoffrey faced opposition from the Norman barons and the throne was
instead taken by her cousin Stephen of Blois. In 1139 Matilda crossed to
England to take the kingdom by force. She captured Stephen at the Battle
of Lincoln in 1141, but London crowds blocked her attempt to be crowned
and she was never formally declared Queen of England. Robert of
Gloucester, her half-brother, was captured, and Matilda exchanged him
for Stephen. A stalemate developed. Matilda returned to Normandy in
1148, leaving her eldest son (later Henry II) to continue the campaign.
Thereafter she focused on the administration of Normandy, provided her
son with political advice, and worked extensively with the Church.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Matilda>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
706:
In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang interred the final bodies in
the Qianling Mausoleum, which remained unopened until the 1960s.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qianling_Mausoleum>
1644:
The combined forces of the Scottish Covenanters and the English
Parliamentarians defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor,
one of the decisive encounters of the English Civil War, near York.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marston_Moor>
1881:
U.S. President James A. Garfield was fatally shot at the
Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_James_A._Garfield>
1964:
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act
into law (pictured), outlawing segregation in schools, at the workplace,
and other facilities that served the general public.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964>
2000:
In the Mexican general election, Vicente Fox was elected to be
the first President of Mexico from an opposition party in 71 years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicente_Fox>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
geodesy:
Scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation
of earth, its gravitational field and geodynamic phenomena (polar
motion, earth tides, and crustal motion) in three‐dimensional,
time‐varying space.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/geodesy>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
 Whether you and I and a few others will renew the world
someday remains to be seen. But within ourselves we must renew it each
day, otherwise we just aren't serious. Don't forget that!
--Hermann Hesse
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hermann_Hesse>