Æthelberht was King of Kent from about 589 until his death on 24 February 616. Bede lists him in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People as the third king to hold imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and he is called a bretwalda or "Britain-ruler" in the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle. Æthelberht's law, the earliest written code in any Germanic language, instituted a complex system of fines. Coins may have begun to circulate in Kent during his reign for the first time since the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. His marriage to Bertha, the Christian daughter of Charibert, king of the Franks, built an alliance with the most powerful Western European state. Æthelberht became the first English king to convert to Christianity, shortly after the arrival of Pope Gregory I's missionary Augustine in 597. Churches were established, and wider-scale conversion to the religion began in the kingdom. Æthelberht provided the new church with land in Canterbury, thus establishing one of the foundation stones of what ultimately became the Anglican church. He later came to be regarded as a saint; his feast day is 25 February.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelberht_of_Kent
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1525:
A Spanish-Imperial army defeated a French force in the Battle of Pavia, the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–26. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pavia
1711:
George Frideric Handel's Rinaldo, the first Italian language opera written specifically for the London stage, premiered. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinaldo_(opera)
1822:
The first Swaminarayan temple, Swaminarayan Mandir in present- day Ahmedabad, India, was inaugurated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalupur_Swaminarayan_Mandir
1946:
Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that became known as Peronism, was elected to his first term as President of Argentina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Per%C3%B3n
2006:
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a state of emergency in an attempt to subdue a possible military coup. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_state_of_emergency_in_the_Philippines
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
riven: 1. Torn apart. 2. Broken into pieces; split asunder. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/riven
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The United States was made by men of all races and colors, not for white men, but for the refuge and defense of man. If it does not rest upon the natural rights of man, it rests nowhere. If it does not exist by the consent of governed then any exclusion is possible, and it is a shorter step from an exclusive white man's government to an exclusively rich white man's government, than it is from a system for mankind to one for white men. The spirit which excludes some men today because they are of a certain color, may exclude others tomorrow because they are of a certain poverty or a certain church or a certain birthplace. There is no safety, no guarantee, no security in a prejudice. If we build strong and long, we must build upon moral principle. --George William Curtis https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_William_Curtis