Juan Manuel de Rosas (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877) was an army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confederation. Like other wealthy provincial warlords, Rosas enlisted rural workers from his landholdings in a private militia, and took part in the numerous disputes and civil wars in his country. He eventually became the undisputed leader of the Argentine army and the Federalist Party. In 1831, he signed the Federal Pact, recognizing provincial autonomy and creating the Argentine Confederation. He established a dictatorship and formed the repressive Mazorca, an armed parapolice that killed thousands of citizens. By 1848, after a war against the Peru–Bolivian Confederation, a blockade by France, and a revolt in his own province, he ruled all of Argentina, and was attempting to annex the neighboring nations of Uruguay and Paraguay. When the Empire of Brazil came to Uruguay's aid, Rosas declared war in August 1851. The short Platine War ended with the defeat of Rosas and his flight to Britain. His last years were spent in exile living as a tenant farmer.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Manuel_de_Rosas
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1867:
U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska for US$7.2 million from Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Purchase
1899:
A committee of the German Society of Chemistry invited other national scientific organizations to appoint delegates to form the International Committee on Atomic Weights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_on_Isotopic_Abundances_and_Atomic_Weights
1918:
Fighting began during the March Days revolt in Baku, Azerbaijan, resulting in up to 12,000 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Days
1950:
Usmar Ismail began filming Darah dan Doa, formally recognised as the first Indonesian film. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darah_dan_Doa
2009:
Twelve gunmen attacked the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan, and held it for several hours before security forces could retake it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Lahore_police_academy_attacks
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
baked Alaska: A dessert consisting of ice cream encased in cake and meringue and briefly baked. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/baked_Alaska
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
When I have a difficult subject before me — when I find the road narrow, and can see no other way of teaching a well established truth except by pleasing one intelligent man and displeasing ten thousand fools — I prefer to address myself to the one man, and to take no notice whatever of the condemnation of the multitude; I prefer to extricate that intelligent man from his embarrassment and show him the cause of his perplexity, so that he may attain perfection and be at peace. --Maimonides https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maimonides