Myles Standish (c. 1584 – 1656) was an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military advisor for the Plymouth Colony. One of the Mayflower passengers, Standish played a leading role in the administration and defense of the colony from its inception. On February 17, 1621, the colony militia elected him as its first commander and continued to re-elect him to that position for the remainder of his life. He served as an agent of Plymouth Colony in England, and as assistant governor and treasurer of the colony. He was also one of the first settlers and founders of the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. As a military leader, Standish favored preemptive action, sometimes angering Native Americans and disturbing more moderate members of the colony. By the 1640s, he relinquished his role as an active soldier and settled into a quieter life on his Duxbury farm. Several towns and military installations have been named for Standish, and monuments have been built in his memory. The popularity of the fictionalized book The Courtship of Miles Standish by H.W. Longfellow helped to cement the Pilgrim story in US culture.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1801:

The U.S. House of Representatives elected Thomas Jefferson as President and Aaron Burr as Vice President, resolving an electoral tie in the 1800 presidential election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1800

1859:

The French Navy captured the Citadel of Saigon, a fortress that was manned by 1,000 Nguyễn Dynasty soldiers, en route to conquering Saigon and other regions of southern Vietnam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadel_of_Saigon

1904:

Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Geraldine Farrar in the title role pictured) premiered at La Scala in Milan, generating negative reviews that forced him to rewrite the opera. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama_Butterfly

1959:

Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite, was launched to measure cloud cover distribution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_2

2006:

A massive landslide in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte killed over 1,000 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Southern_Leyte_mudslide

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

suzerainty: 1. A relation between states in which a subservient nation has its own government, but is unable to take international action independent of the superior state; a similar relationship between other entities. 2. The status or power of a suzerain. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/suzerainty

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

While the broad principles of democracy are universal, the fact remains that their application varies considerably … We are at the beginning of the road, at the very beginning. We still have a long way to go.   --Boutros Boutros-Ghali https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Boutros_Boutros-Ghali