Elizabeth Needham was an English procuress and brothel-keeper of
18th-century London, who has been identified as the bawd greeting Moll
Hackabout in the first plate of William Hogarth's series of satirical
etchings, A Harlot's Progress. Although Needham was notorious in London at
the time, little is recorded of her life, and no genuine portraits of her
survive. Her house was the most exclusive in London and her customers came
from the highest strata of fashionable society, but she eventually fell foul
of the moral reformers of the day and died as a result of the severe
treatment she received after being sentenced to stand in the pillory.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Needham
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1065:
London's Westminster Abbey, built by Edward the Confessor between 1045 and
1050, was consecrated.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Abbey)
1836:
At the Old Gum Tree near present-day Adelaide, Royal Navy Rear–Admiral John
Hindmarsh read a proclamation establishing the British province of South
Australia.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Australia)
1879:
The Tay Bridge, spannning the Firth of Tay in Scotland between Dundee and
the Wormit, collapsed as a train passed over it, killing all on board.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Rail_Bridge)
1895:
History of film: Using their cinematograph in Paris, the Lumière brothers
showed motion pictures to a paying audience for the first time.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re)
1948:
The Douglas DC-3 airliner NC16002, en route from San Juan, Puerto Rico to
Miami, Florida, USA, inexplicably disappeared in the area known as the
Bermuda Triangle.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NC16002_disappearance)
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
querulously (adv) With grumbling, complaining, or whining.
(
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/querulously)
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The forces of moderation and democracy must, and will, prevail against
extremism and dictatorship. I will not be intimidated. ... Despite threats
of death, I will not acquiesce to tyranny, but rather lead the fight against
it. --Benazir Bhutto
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benazir_Bhutto)