Bessie Braddock (1899–1970) was a British Labour Party politician who
served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Liverpool Exchange division
from 1945 to 1970. She was a member of Liverpool County Borough Council
from 1930 to 1961. Although she never held office in government, she won
a national reputation for her campaigns in connection with housing,
public health and other social issues. Braddock supported the 1945–51
Attlee ministry's reform agenda, particularly the establishment of the
National Health Service in 1948. She served on Labour's National
Executive Committee between 1947 and 1969. For most of her parliamentary
career she was a member of Liverpool's council, and was a central figure
in a controversy in the 1950s over the city's flooding of the Tryweryn
Valley to construct a reservoir. When Labour won the 1964 general
election she refused office on the grounds of age and health; thereafter
her parliamentary contributions dwindled as her health worsened. Towards
the end of her life she became Liverpool's first woman freeman. Her
Guardian obituarist hailed her as "one of the most distinctive political
personalities of the century".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Braddock>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1576:
A letter to King Philip II of Spain contained the first
European mention of the Mayan ruins of Copán in modern Honduras.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop%C3%A1n>
1702:
Princess Anne of Denmark and Norway became the Queen of
England, Scotland and Ireland, succeeding William III.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne,_Queen_of_Great_Britain>
1919:
During the Egyptian revolution of 1919, British authorities
arrested Saad Zaghloul and two others, exiling them to Malta.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_revolution_of_1919>
1966:
Nelson's Pillar, a large granite pillar with a statue of Lord
Nelson on top in Dublin, Ireland, was severely damaged by a bomb.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson%27s_Pillar>
1978:
BBC Radio 4 began transmitting Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy, a science fiction radio series that was later
adapted into novels, a television series, and other media formats.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(radio_series)>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
intersectionality:
A feminist sociological methodology of studying overlapping or
intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression,
domination, or discrimination.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/intersectionality>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The computer and its information cannot answer any of the
fundamental questions we need to address to make our lives more
meaningful and humane. The computer cannot provide an organizing moral
framework. It cannot tell us what questions are worth asking. It cannot
provide a means of understanding why we are here or why we fight each
other or why decency eludes us so often, especially when we need it the
most. The computer is... a magnificent toy that distracts us from facing
what we most need to confront — spiritual emptiness, knowledge of
ourselves, usable conceptions of the past and future.
--Neil Postman
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman>