Malkin Tower is the site of perhaps the best-known alleged witches' coven in English legal history. It was the home of Elizabeth Southerns and her granddaughter Alizon Device, two of the chief protagonists in the Lancashire witch trials of 1612. A pedlar collapsed soon after refusing to sell Alizon some pins. She and her grandmother were summoned to the home of local magistrate Roger Nowell on suspicion of causing harm by witchcraft, and were thereafter detained in the gaol at Lancaster Castle. Friends met at Malkin Tower on 6 April 1612 (Good Friday), allegedly to plot their escape by blowing up the castle. Nowell learned of the meeting and concluded that it had been the scene of a witches' coven. Eight of those attending were subsequently arrested and tried for causing harm by witchcraft, seven of whom were found guilty and executed; the house may have been demolished shortly after the trials. The only firm evidence for its location comes from the official account by the clerk to the court, who places it somewhere in the Forest of Pendle (pictured). Archaeological excavations in the area have failed to discover any confirmed remains of the building.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

475:

Romulus Augustulus took the throne as the last ruling emperor of the Western Roman Empire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_Augustulus

1822:

Emperor Agustín de Iturbide of the First Mexican Empire dissolved the Mexican Congress and replaced it with a military junta answerable only to him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agust%C3%ADn_de_Iturbide

1913:

Public transportation workers in Indianapolis, Indiana, US, went on strike, shutting down mass transit in the city and sparking riots when strikebreakers attempted to restart services. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_Streetcar_Strike_of_1913

1973:

Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin after a hijacked helicopter landed in the prison's exercise yard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountjoy_Prison_helicopter_escape

2011:

The United Nations declared that the world's population had exceeded seven billion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_Billion_Actions

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

cauldron: A large bowl-shaped pot used for boiling over an open flame. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cauldron

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The imagination may be compared to Adam's dream — he awoke and found it truth.   --John Keats https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Keats