The Benty Grange helmet is a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet from the
7th century. It was excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1848 from a burial
mound at the Benty Grange farm in Monyash in western Derbyshire. The
grave had likely been looted by the time of Bateman's excavation, but
still contained other high-status objects suggestive of a richly
furnished burial, such as the fragmentary remains of a hanging bowl. The
ornate helmet was constructed by covering the outside of an iron
framework with plates of horn and the inside with cloth or leather, now
decayed. It would have provided some protection against weapons, but may
have also been intended for ceremonial use. It was the first Anglo-Saxon
helmet to be discovered; others have been found at Sutton Hoo, York,
Wollaston, Shorwell, and Staffordshire. The helmet is displayed at
Sheffield's Weston Park Museum, which purchased it from Bateman's estate
in 1893.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benty_Grange_helmet>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
American Revolutionary War: Sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington
(statue pictured) rode forty miles through the night to warn militiamen
under the control of her father that British troops were planning to
invade Danbury, Connecticut.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_Ludington>
1944:
World War II: U.S. Navy submarines began attacks on Japan's
Take Ichi convoy as it sailed in waters between Taiwan and the
Philippines, eventually sinking four vessels and killing more than 4,000
troops.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Ichi_convoy>
1989:
A tornado struck the Manikganj District of Bangladesh, killing
an estimated 1,300 people, making it the deadliest tornado in history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daulatpur%E2%80%93Saturia_tornado>
2002:
Expelled student Robert Steinhäuser murdered sixteen people
and wounded seven others before committing suicide at the Gutenberg-
Gymnasium Erfurt in Erfurt, Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_school_massacre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
prozymite:
(Roman Catholicism, historical, derogatory) One who administers the
Eucharist with leavened bread, in particular a member of the Eastern
Orthodox Church.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prozymite>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
There was an idea … called the Avengers Initiative. The idea
was to bring together a group of remarkable people — see if they could
become something more — see if they could work together when we needed
them to to fight the battles we never could.
--The Avengers
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Avengers_%282012_film%29>