Louis XIV reigned as King of France and King of Navarre from 14 May 1643 until his death. He was a minor when he inherited the Crown; he did not actually assume personal control of the government until the death of his chief minister, Jules Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661. Louis, who is known as "The Sun King" and as "Louis the Great", ruled France for seventy-two years - a longer reign than any other French or other major European monarch. Louis attempted to increase the power of France in Europe, fighting four major wars - the War of Devolution, the Dutch War, the War of the Grand Alliance and the War of the Spanish Succession. He worked successfully to create an absolutist and centralised state; he is often cited as an example of an enlightened despot. He is supposed to have once remarked, "L'état, c'est moi!" (I am the state!), but this quotation is most likely apocryphal.

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

Today's selected anniversaries:

1470 The Earl of Warwick restored Henry VI of England to the throne during the Wars of the Roses. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neville%2c_16th_Earl_of_Warwick)

1831 After months of hiding, African American slave Nat Turner was captured and arrested for leading a brutally suppressed slave rebellion. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Turner)

1961 Tsar Bomba, a Soviet hydrogen bomb, was detonated over Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Sea; it was the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba)

1974 At the Rumble in The Jungle, Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle)

1995 In a referendum, the province of Quebec voted 50.6% in favour of remaining a part of Canada. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Quebec_referendum)

Wikiquote of the day:

"The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, - and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination." ~ John Schaar (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Schaar)