The Private Case is a collection of erotica and pornography held initially by the British Museum and, from 1973, by the British Library. The collection began between 1836 and 1870 and grew from the receipt of books from legal deposit, and from requests made to the police following seizures of obscene material. Access to the material in the Private Case was restricted. At its height numbering some 4,000 items, the contents of the Private Case shrank as works were moved to the general collection, and grew with the arrival of bequests and donations from collectors. From 1964, reflecting the changing social mores of the time, the library began to review the Private Case, allowing public access to its contents, a process that was completed in 1983. There have been no new entries since 1990 and all new erotic and pornographic material is put on open access in the general collection. There is no restriction on access to Private Case material, except for some items which are in a fragile condition.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Case
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1890:
The Uddevalla Suffrage Association was founded in Uddevalla, Sweden, with the purpose of bringing about universal suffrage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uddevalla_Suffrage_Association
1928:
The iron lung (example pictured), a type of medical ventilator, was used for the first time, to treat an eight-year-old girl paralyzed by polio. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_lung
1933:
The United States Department of Justice acquired a military prison on Alcatraz Island, transforming it over the next year into the last-resort Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Federal_Penitentiary
1960:
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev reportedly pounded his shoe on a desk during a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in protest at a speech by Philippine delegate Lorenzo Sumulong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-banging_incident
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
winker: 1. A person or an animal that winks (“blinks with one eye; blinks with one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy”). 2. A person who connives with another; a conniver. 3. A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. 4. (automotive, informal) Synonym of turn signal (“each of the flashing lights on each side of a vehicle which is used to indicate that the vehicle is moving left or right”); a blinker, an indicator. 5. (equestrianism, also attributive and figurative) Chiefly in the plural: synonym of blinker (“a shield attached to the bridle of a horse or other domesticated animal to prevent it from seeing things behind it and to its side”) 6. (music) A small bellows in an organ, regulated by a spring, which controls variations of wind pressure. 7. (ornithology) The nictitating membrane (“transparent protective fold of skin acting as an inner eyelid”) of a birds's eye. 8. (Britain, dialectal or slang) An eye. 9. (Britain, US, dialectal or slang) An eyelash. [...] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/winker
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
No one can ever forget what the terrorists did in Israel. Thousands of missiles against peaceful cities. Shooting people in cars on the roads. Men, women, children. No one was spared. Streets covered in blood. Hostages. The terrorists themselves gave the world footage of the atrocities, and were proud of them. Women who were beaten. Elderly people who were kidnapped from their homes. Abducted children. And we do not yet know how many people were captured and brutally taken away by the terrorists. They even tried to humiliate the dead by mocking their bodies. We saw all of this in Israel. And the Israelis themselves — Israeli journalists who were here in Ukraine, who were in Bucha, are now saying that they saw the same evil where Russia came. The same evil, and the only difference is that there is a terrorist organization that attacked Israel, and here is a terrorist state that attacked Ukraine. The intentions declared are different, but the essence is the same. You see it. You see the same blood on the streets. You see the same civilian cars shot up. You see the same bodies of people who have been tortured. --Volodymyr Zelenskyy https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy