George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632), was a Member of
Parliament and later Secretary of State under King James I. He lost much
of his political power after his support for a failed marriage alliance
between Prince Charles and the Spanish House of Habsburg royal family,
and resigned all his offices in 1625 except for his position on the
Privy Council. After declaring his Catholicism publicly, he was created
Baron Baltimore in the Irish peerage. He took an interest in the British
colonisation of the Americas, at first for commercial reasons and later
to create a refuge for English Catholics. He became the proprietor of
Avalon, the first sustained English settlement on the southeastern
peninsula of the island of Newfoundland. Discouraged by its cold climate
and the sufferings of the settlers, he looked for a more suitable spot
and sought a new royal charter to settle what would become the state of
Maryland. Calvert died five weeks before the new Charter was sealed,
leaving the settlement of the Maryland colony to his son Cecil. His
second son Leonard was the first colonial governor of the Province of
Maryland.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Calvert,_1st_Baron_Baltimore>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
775:
Forces of the Abbasid Caliphate won a decisive victory over
rebelling Armenian princes in the Battle of Bagrevand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bagrevand>
1644:
The Ming dynasty of China fell when the Chongzhen Emperor
committed suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_dynasty>
1849:
After Lord Elgin, the Governor General of Canada, signed the
Rebellion Losses Bill into law to compensate the residents of Lower
Canada for losses incurred in Rebellions of 1837, protestors rioted and
burned down the Parliament buildings in Montreal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_the_Parliament_Buildings_in_Montreal>
1920:
At the San Remo conference, the principal Allied Powers of
World War I decided upon the League of Nations mandates for
administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Remo_conference>
1990:
Violeta Chamorro took office as the President of Nicaragua, the
first woman elected in her own right as a head of state in the Americas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violeta_Chamorro>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
fishy:
1. Of, from, or similar to fish.
2. Suspicious; inspiring doubt.
3. (LGBT slang) Of drag queens: appearing feminine.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fishy>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.
--Tertullian
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tertullian>