Princess Helena of the United Kingdom (25 May 1846 – 9 June 1923) was
the fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She was educated by
private tutors chosen by her father and his close friend and adviser,
Baron Stockmar. Her childhood was spent with her parents, travelling
between royal residences in Britain. In 1866 she married the
impoverished German Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. She was the
most active member of the royal family, carrying out an extensive
programme of royal engagements at a time when royalty was not expected
to appear often in public. An active patron of charities, she was one of
the founding members of the British Red Cross. She was founding
president of the Royal School of Needlework, and president of the
Workhouse Infirmary Nursing Association. As president of the Royal
British Nurses' Association, she was a strong supporter of nurse
registration against the advice of Florence Nightingale.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Helena_of_the_United_Kingdom>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1644:
Ming general Wu Sangui let the invading Manchus pass through
the Great Wall of China, allowing them to capture Beijing, leading to
the foundation of the Qing dynasty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China>
1738:
King George II of Great Britain negotiated a cease-fire between
the British colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania, ending Cresap's War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cresap%27s_War>
1816:
The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge published one of his
most famous poems, "Kubla Khan".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubla_Khan>
1979:
Six-year-old Etan Patz disappeared on his way to school in New
York City, and later became one of the first missing children to have
his picture featured on milk cartons.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Etan_Patz>
2013:
Naxalite insurgents of the Communist Party of India (Maoist)
attacked a convoy of Indian National Congress leaders in the state of
Chhattisgarh, causing at least 27 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Naxal_attack_in_Darbha_valley>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
overthrow:
1. (transitive, now rare) To throw down to the ground, to overturn.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/overthrow>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It will never make any difference to a hero what the laws are.
His greatness will shine and accomplish itself unto the end, whether
they second him or not. If he have earned his bread by drudgery, and in
the narrow and crooked ways which were all an evil law had left him, he
will make it at least honorable by his expenditure. Of the past he will
take no heed; for its wrongs he will not hold himself responsible: he
will say, All the meanness of my progenitors shall not bereave me of the
power to make this hour and company fair and fortunate. Whatsoever
streams of power and commodity flow to me, shall of me acquire healing
virtue, and become fountains of safety. Cannot I too descend a Redeemer
into nature? Whosoever hereafter shall name my name, shall not record a
malefactor, but a benefactor in the earth. If there be power in good
intention, in fidelity, and in toil, the north wind shall be purer, the
stars in heaven shall glow with a kindlier beam, that I have lived. I am
primarily engaged to myself to be a public servant of all the gods, to
demonstrate to all men that there is intelligence and good will at the
heart of things, and ever higher and yet higher leadings. These are my
engagements; how can your law further or hinder me in what I shall do to
men? On the other hand, these dispositions establish their relations to
me. Wherever there is worth, I shall be greeted. Wherever there are men,
are the objects of my study and love. Sooner of later all men will be my
friends, and will testify in all methods the energy of their regard. I
cannot thank your law for my protection. I protect it. It is not in its
power to protect me. It is my business to make myself revered. I depend
on my honor, my labor, and my dispositions for my place in the
affections of mankind, and not on any conventions or parchments of
yours.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson>