William Goebel was a controversial American politician who served as
Governor of Kentucky for a few days in 1900 before being assassinated.
Goebel remains the only state governor in the United States to be
assassinated while in office. A skilled politician, Goebel was well
able to broker deals with fellow lawmakers, and equally able and
willing to break them if a better deal came along. His tendency to use
the state's political machinery to advance his personal agenda earned
him the nicknames "Boss Bill", "the Kenton King", "Kenton
Czar", "King
William I", and "William the Conqueror". Goebel's abrasive
personality
made him many political enemies, but his championing of populist
causes, like railroad regulation, won him many friends. This conflict
of opinions came to a head in the Kentucky gubernatorial election of
1900. Goebel, a Democrat, divided his party with self-serving
political tactics at a time when Kentucky Republicans were finally
gaining strength, having elected the party's first governor four years
previously. These dynamics led to a close contest between Goebel and
William S. Taylor. In the politically chaotic climate that resulted,
Goebel was assassinated.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Goebel
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1537:
The Honourable Artillery Company, currently the oldest surviving
regiment in the British Army, was formed by Royal Charter from King
Henry VIII.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honourable_Artillery_Company)
1609:
Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei demonstrated his first telescope,
a device that became known as a terrestrial or spyglass refracting
telescope, to Venetian lawmakers.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei)
1875:
Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English
Channel, traveling from Dover, England to Calais, France in less than
22 hours.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Webb)
1920:
Polish forces under Józef Piłsudski successfully forced the Russians
to withdraw from Warsaw at the Battle of Warsaw, the decisive battle
of the Polish-Soviet War.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Warsaw_%281920%29)
1945:
About ten days after World War II ended with Japan announcing its
surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China killed
Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by a portion of the American
right as the first victim of the Cold War.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_%28missionary%29)
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Wiktionary's Word of the day:
pandemonium: Chaos; tumultuous or lawless violence.
(
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pandemonium)
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Wikiquote of the day:
The humourless as a bunch don't just not know what's funny, they don't
know what's serious. They have no common sense, either, and shouldn't
be trusted with anything. -- Martin Amis
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Amis)