Dan Leno (1860–1904) was a leading English music hall comedian and
musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was perhaps best
known, aside from his music hall act, for his dame roles in the annual
pantomimes that were popular at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane from
1888 to 1904. As a youth, he was famous for his clog dancing, and in his
teen years, he became the star of his family's act. As a solo artist, he
became increasingly popular during the late 1880s and 1890s, when he was
one of the highest-paid comedians in the world. He developed a music
hall act of talking about life's mundane subjects, mixed with comic
songs and surreal observations, and created a host of mostly working-
class characters to illustrate his stories. In 1901, still at the peak
of his career, he performed his "Huntsman" sketch for Edward VII at
Sandringham. The monarch was so impressed that Leno became publicly
known as "the king's jester". Leno continued to appear in musical
comedies and his own music hall routines until 1902, although he
suffered increasingly from alcoholism. This, together with his long
association with dame and low comedy roles, prevented him from being
taken seriously as a dramatic actor. He suffered a mental breakdown in
early 1903 and was committed to a mental asylum, but was discharged
later that year. After one more show, his health declined, and he died
aged 43.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Leno>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
217 BC:
Second Punic War: The Carthaginians under Hannibal executed
one of the largest military ambushes in history when they overwhelmingly
defeated the Romans.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_Trasimene>
1898:
In a bloodless event during the Spanish–American War, the
United States captured Guam from Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Guam>
1919:
Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttled the German High Seas Fleet
in Scapa Flow to prevent the ships from being seized and divided amongst
the Allied Powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuttling_of_the_German_fleet_in_Scapa_Flow>
1948:
The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, the world's
first stored-program computer, ran its first computer program.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Small-Scale_Experimental_Machine>
1963:
Italian cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini was elected as Pope
Paul VI (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Paul_VI>
1964:
Three civil rights workers were lynched by members of the Ku
Klux Klan near Philadelphia, Mississippi, US.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_civil_rights_workers_murders>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
angst:
1. A feeling of acute but vague anxiety or apprehension often accompanied
by depression, especially philosophical anxiety.
2. More commonly, painful sadness or emotional turmoil, as teen angst.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/angst>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's
inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
--Reinhold Niebuhr
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr>
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