Margaret Murray (13 July 1863 – 13 November 1963) was an Anglo-Indian Egyptologist, archaeologist, historian, and folklorist. The first female archaeology lecturer in the United Kingdom, she worked at University College London and served as president of the Folklore Society. Encouraged in her research by the department head Flinders Petrie, she established a reputation in Egyptology for her excavations of the Osireion temple and Saqqara cemetery. She taught at the British Museum and also the Manchester Museum, where she led the unwrapping of one of the mummies from the Tomb of the Two Brothers. A first-wave feminist, Murray joined the Women's Social and Political Union. She also focused her research on the witch-cult hypothesis, a theory that the witch trials of early modern Christendom were targeted at a pre-Christian religion devoted to a Horned God; this theory was later discredited, but it gained widespread attention and provided the basis for Wicca.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Murray
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1643:
English Civil War: Royalist forces defeated the Parliamentarians at the Battle of Roundway Down near Devizes, Wiltshire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Roundway_Down
1913:
While on a campaign in Bulgaria, the Romanian Army suffered a cholera outbreak that led to 1,600 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_Romanian_Army_cholera_outbreak
1973:
Watergate scandal: Under questioning by Senate investigators, White House deputy chief of staff Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret taping system (tape recorder pictured) in the Oval Office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_White_House_tapes
2003:
French Directorate-General for External Security personnel aborted an operation to rescue Colombian politician Íngrid Betancourt from FARC guerrillas, resulting in a political scandal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ration_14_juillet
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
evil eye: 1. A wicked look conveying dislike or envy that in many cultures is believed to be able to cause bad luck or injury; also, the ability to cause bad luck or injury through such a look, supposed to be possessed by some people. 2. (often humorous) A look conveying disapproval, envy, hostility, etc. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/evil_eye
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
No act is of itself either good or bad. Only its place in the order of things makes it good or bad. --Milan Kundera https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Milan_Kundera