The Cottingley Fairies appear in a series of five photographs taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins who lived in Cottingley, near Bradford in England. In 1917, when the first two photographs were taken, Elsie was 16 years old and Frances was 10. The pictures came to the attention of writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who used them to illustrate an article on fairies he had been commissioned to write for the Christmas 1920 edition of The Strand Magazine. Conan Doyle, as a Spiritualist, was enthusiastic about the photographs, and interpreted them as clear and visible evidence of psychic phenomena. Public reaction was mixed; some accepted that the images were genuine, but others believed they had been faked. Interest in the Cottingley Fairies gradually declined after 1921. Both girls grew up, married and lived abroad for a time. Yet the photographs continued to hold the public imagination; in 1966 a reporter from the Daily Express newspaper traced Elsie, who had by then returned to the UK. Elsie left open the possibility that she believed she had photographed her thoughts, and the media once again became interested in the story. In the early 1980s, both admitted that the photographs were faked using cardboard cutouts of fairies copied from a popular children's book of the time. But Frances continued to claim that the fifth and final photograph was genuine. The photographs and two of the cameras used are on display in the National Media Museum in Bradford.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1637:

The contract prices of rare tulip bulbs in the Dutch Republic, which had been steadily climbing for three months, abruptly dropped, marking the decline of tulip mania. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tulip_mania

1852:

The Argentine Confederation were defeated in the Battle of Caseros by an alliance consisting of the Empire of Brazil, Uruguay and the Argentine provinces of Entre Ríos and Corrientes, ending the Platine War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platine_War

1931:

New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster, the 7.9 M_W Hawke's Bay earthquake, struck, killing 256. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Hawke%27s_Bay_earthquake

1984:

A woman under the care of Dr. John Buster of the Harbor–UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, US, gave birth to a baby that resulted from the first successful embryo transfer from one person to another. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/embryo_transfer

2010:

A cast of L'Homme qui marche I by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti sold for £65 million (US$103.7 million), setting the record for most expensive sculpture sold at a public auction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Homme_qui_marche_I

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

sesquiquadrate (adj): {{astronomy http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sesquiquadrate

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Only he who has measured the dominion of force, and knows how not to respect it, is capable of love and justice. --Simone Weil http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_Weil