Neal Dow (March 20, 1804 – October 2, 1897) was an American prohibition advocate and politician. He was elected president of the Maine Temperance Union in 1850, and mayor of Portland the next year. Soon after, largely due to his efforts, the state legislature banned the sale and production of alcohol in what became known as the Maine Law. As mayor, Dow enforced the law with vigor and called for increasingly harsh penalties for violators. In 1855, his opponents rioted and he ordered the state militia to fire on the crowd. One man was killed and several were wounded. After public reaction to the violence turned against him, he chose not to run again for mayor. He was later elected to two terms in the state legislature, but retired after a financial scandal. He joined the Union Army shortly after the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 and became a brigadier general. He was wounded at the siege of Port Hudson and later captured. After being exchanged for another officer in 1864, Dow resigned from the military and devoted himself once more to prohibition. In 1880, he headed the Prohibition Party ticket for President of the United States.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Dow

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1556:

Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, one of the founders of Anglicanism, was burnt at the stake in Oxford, England, for heresy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cranmer

1937:

The Papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, condemning antisemitism and criticizing Nazism, was read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mit_brennender_Sorge

1963:

Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, California—one of the world's most notorious and best known prisons—was closed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Federal_Penitentiary

1968:

War of Attrition: The Israel Defense Forces clashed with the combined forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Royal Jordanian Army in the Battle of Karameh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karameh

1980:

Dallas aired its "A House Divided" episode which led to eight months of international speculation regarding "Who shot J.R.?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_House_Divided_(Dallas)

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

greenwood: 1. A forest in full leaf, as in summer. 2. Wood that is green; in other words, not seasoned. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/greenwood

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Art is something absolute, something positive, which gives power just as food gives power. While creative science is a mental food, art is the satisfaction of the soul.   --Hans Hofmann https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hans_Hofmann