Joseph Johnson (1738–1809) was an influential 18th-century London bookseller. His publications covered a wide variety of genres and a broad spectrum of opinions on important issues. Johnson is best known for publishing the works of radical thinkers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, and Joel Barlow as well as religious Dissenters such as Joseph Priestley, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, and Gilbert Wakefield. Johnson's friend John Aikin eulogized him as "the father of the booktrade" and he has been called "the most important publisher in England from 1770 until 1810" for his appreciation and promotion of young writers, his emphasis on publishing cheap works directed at a growing middle-class readership, and his cultivation and advocacy of women writers at a time when they were viewed with scepticism.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1245:

Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, was granted resignation by Pope Innocent IV after having confessed to torture and forgery. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_%28Bishop_of_Finland%29

1543:

Battle of Wayna Daga: Led by the Emperor Galawdewos, the combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeated a Muslim army led by Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wayna_Daga

1919:

Bavarian socialist Kurt Eisner , who had organized the Socialist Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy and established Bavaria as a republic, was assassinated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Eisner

1971:

The Convention on Psychotropic Substances, a United Nations treaty designed to control psychoactive drugs, was signed at a conference of plenipotentiaries in Vienna. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Psychotropic_Substances

1995:

American aviator Steve Fossett landed in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, after taking off from South Korea, becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Fossett

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

summarily (adv): 1. In a summary manner. 2. Over a short period of time, briefly http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/summarily

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

All I have is a voice

To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street

And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State

And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police;

We must love one another or die. --W. H. Auden http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._H._Auden