Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville (29 August 1785 – 25 November 1862), was a British society hostess and writer. The younger daughter of Lady Georgiana Spencer and the 5th Duke of Devonshire, she was a member of the wealthy Cavendish and Spencer families. In 1809, Harriet married Granville Leveson-Gower, a diplomat who had been her maternal aunt's lover for seventeen years. During intermittent periods between 1824 and 1841, Granville served as the British ambassador to France, requiring Harriet to perform an array of social duties in Paris that she often found exhausting. A prolific writer of letters, Harriet corresponded with others for most of her life, often describing her observations of those around her. Historians have since found her detailed accounts to be a valuable source of information on life as an ambassadress as well as life in the 19th- century aristocracy. Between 1894 and 1990, four edited collections of Harriet's correspondence were published.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Leveson-Gower,_Countess_Granville

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1885:

Gottlieb Daimler patented the world's first internal-combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen (replica pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimler_Reitwagen

1911:

The last member of the Yahi, known as Ishi, emerged from the wilderness near Oroville, California, to join European American society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishi

1959:

Mona Best opened the Casbah Coffee Club with a performance by the Quarrymen, the precursor of the Beatles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casbah_Coffee_Club

1960:

Air France Flight 343 crashed while attempting to land at Yoff Airport, Dakar, killing all 63 occupants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_343

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

pablum: 1. (uncountable) Alternative letter-case form of Pablum (“a type of cereal for infants made from cornmeal, oat, and wheat”). 2. (by extension, uncountable) Mushy, easily digested food; pap; (countable) a specific type of such food. 3. (countable, uncountable, figurative, derogatory) Something overly bland or simplistic, especially speech or writing. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pablum

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

All I wanna say is that they don't really care about us. Some things in life they just don't wanna see But if Martin Luther was livin' He wouldn't let this be.   --Michael Jackson https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson