The lynching of Jesse Washington, a teenage African-American farmhand,
in Waco, Texas, in 1916 became a well-known example of such attacks.
After being accused of raping and murdering his employer's wife, he
entered a guilty plea and was quickly sentenced to death. After his
sentence was pronounced, he was dragged out of the court by observers
and lynched in front of Waco's city hall. Over 10,000 spectators,
including city officials and police, gathered to watch the attack.
Members of the mob castrated Washington, cut off his fingers, and hung
him over a bonfire. A professional photographer took pictures as the
event unfolded, providing rare imagery of a lynching in progress. The
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People investigated
the event and subsequently featured Washington's death in their anti-
lynching campaign. Historians have noted that Washington's death helped
alter the way that lynching was viewed; the publicity it received curbed
public support for the practice, which became viewed as barbarism rather
than an acceptable form of justice.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Jesse_Washington>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
275:
After the assassination of Aurelian, Tacitus was chosen by the
Senate to succeed him as Roman emperor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Claudius_Tacitus>
1775:
Ethan Allen and a small force of American and Quebec militia
failed in their attempt to capture Montreal from British forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Longue-Pointe>
1911:
An explosion of badly degraded propellant charges on board the
French battleship Liberté detonated the forward ammunition magazines
and destroyed the ship.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Libert%C3%A9>
1962:
The North Yemen Civil War began when Abdullah as-Sallal
dethroned the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declared Yemen a republic
under his presidency.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Yemen_Civil_War>
2008:
Shenzhou 7, the third spaceflight of the Chinese space program
and their first to include a spacewalk, launched from the Jiuquan
Satellite Launch Center.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_7>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
lampoon:
To satirize or poke fun at.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lampoon>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
When the first Superman movie came out, I gave dozens of interviews to
promote it. The most frequent question was: What is a hero? My answer
was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action without
considering the consequences. Now my definition is completely different.
I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to
persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. They are the
real heroes, and so are the families and friends who have stood by them.
--Christopher Reeve
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Reeve>