Ælle is recorded in early sources as the first king of the South Saxons, reigning in what is now Sussex, England from 477 to perhaps as late as 514. The information about him is so limited that it cannot be said with certainty that Ælle even existed. Ælle and three of his sons are reported to have landed near what is now Selsey Bill—the exact location is under the sea, and is probably what is now a sandbank known as the Owers—and fought with the British. A victory in 491 at what is now Pevensey is reported to have ended with the Saxons slaughtering their opponents to the last man. Although the details of these traditions cannot be verified, evidence from the place names of Sussex does make it clear that it was an area with extensive and early settlement by the Saxons, supporting the idea that this was one of their early conquests. Ælle was the first king recorded by the eighth century chronicler Bede to have held "imperium", or overlordship, over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In the late ninth century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (around four hundred years after his time) Ælle is recorded as being the first bretwalda, or "Britain-ruler", though there is no evidence that this was a contemporary title. Ælle's death is not recorded, and it is not known who succeeded him as king of the South Saxons.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lle_of_Sussex

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1558: Francis, Duke of Guise retook Calais, England's last continental possession, for France. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calais)

1610: Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first observed three of Jupiter's natural satellites through his telescope: Io, Europa, and Callisto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_%28moon%29)

1785: Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries became the first to cross the English Channel by balloon. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Channel)

1924: The International Hockey Federation, the global governing body for field hockey, was founded in Paris in response to the sport's omission from the 1924 Summer Olympics. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Hockey_Federation)

1979: Phnom Penh, Cambodia fell to the People's Army of Vietnam, effectively ending the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

perspicacious: Of acute discernment; having keen insight; mentally perceptive. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perspicacious)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is not only vital for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself — a point that seems to escape many people. -- Gerald Durrell (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gerald_Durrell)