Wiglaf (died 839) ruled the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia from 827 to
829 and again from 830 until his death. His ancestry is uncertain: the
820s were a period of dynastic conflict within Mercia, and the
genealogies of several of the kings of this time are unknown. He
succeeded Ludeca, who was killed campaigning against East Anglia.
Wiglaf's first reign coincided with the continued rise of the rival
kingdom of Wessex under Ecgberht. Ecgberht drove Wiglaf from the throne
in 829, and ruled Mercia directly for a year. Mercia never regained the
south-eastern kingdoms, but Berkshire and perhaps Essex came back into
Mercia's control. Although Wiglaf appears to have restored independence,
the recovery was short-lived, and later in the century Mercia was
divided between Wessex and the Vikings. Wiglaf died in about 839, and
was eventually succeeded by Beorhtwulf, though one tradition records his
son Wigmund as having reigned briefly. Wiglaf is buried at Repton, near
Derby (engraving of the crypt pictured).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiglaf_of_Mercia>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1510:
Afonso de Albuquerque, the governor of Portuguese India, led an
armada to conquer the city of Goa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_conquest_of_Goa>
1678:
Trunajaya rebellion: After a series of difficult marches, the
allied Mataram and Dutch troops successfully assaulted the rebel
stronghold of Kediri in eastern Java.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kediri_campaign_%281678%29>
1917:
World War I: German troops invaded Portuguese East Africa in an
attempt to escape superior British forces to the north and resupply from
captured Portuguese materiel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ngomano>
1940:
The de Havilland Mosquito (examples pictured) and the Martin
B-26 Marauder, two of the most successful military aircraft in World
War II, both made their first flights.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-26_Marauder>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
chatelaine:
1. (dated) The mistress of a castle or large household.
2. (historical) A chain or clasp worn at the waist by women with
handkerchief, keys, etc., attached, supposed to resemble the chain of
keys once worn by medieval chatelaines.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chatelaine>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I must mend the ways of my mind. This is a very big place, and I
do not know how it works. I am a member of a fragile species, still new
to the earth, the youngest creatures of any scale, here only a few
moments as evolutionary time is measured, a juvenile species, a child of
a species. We are only tentatively set in place, error prone, at risk of
fumbling, in real danger at the moment of leaving behind only a thin
layer of of our fossils, radioactive at that.
--Lewis Thomas
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_Thomas>