Mary Shelley (1797–1851) was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. In 1814, Mary Godwin fell in love with one of her father's political followers, the married Percy Bysshe Shelley. Together with Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, they left for France and travelled through Europe; upon their return to England, Mary was pregnant. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt, and the death of their prematurely born daughter. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm in the Bay of La Spezia. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author. The last decade of her life was dogged by illness, probably caused by the brain tumour that was to kill her at the age of 53.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley

_________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1470:

Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, restored Henry VI as the King of England during the Wars of the Roses. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neville,_16th_Earl_of_Warwick)

1938:

The radio drama The War of the Worlds, based on the science fiction novella by English writer H. G. Wells, frightened many listeners in the United States into believing that an actual Martian invasion was in progress. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_%28radio%29 )

1960:

Surgeon and scientist Michael Woodruff performed the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Woodruff)

1961:

The Soviet hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba was detonated over Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Sea as a test. With a yield of around 50 megatons, it was the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated to date. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba)

1975:

Prince Juan Carlos became Spain's acting head of state, taking over for the country's ailing dictator General Francisco Franco. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco)

_______________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

saucy: (adj) 1. Impertinent or disrespectful, often in a way that is regarded as entertaining or amusing; smart. 2. Impudently bold; pert; piquant. 3. Mildly erotic. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/saucy)

______________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. --John Adams (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Adams)