Charles Richardson (c. 10 March 1769 – 10 November 1850) was an
English Royal Navy officer. He joined HMS Vestal in 1787, where he made
an aborted journey to China before serving on the East Indies Station.
He transferred to HMS Phoenix and fought in the Battle of Tellicherry.
With HMS Circe he combated the Nore mutiny and fought in the Battle of
Camperdown, capturing Jan Willem de Winter. He fought in the Battle of
Callantsoog and the Vlieter incident, sailed to Egypt, and fought in the
battles of Abukir, Mandora, and Alexandria. Commanding HMS Alligator,
he was sent to the Leeward Islands Station during the Napoleonic Wars,
where he captured three Dutch settlements. He transferred to HMS Topaze
in 1821 and sailed to China, where his crew killed two locals in self-
defence. The resulting diplomatic incident strained Richardson's health
and he was invalided home, where he was appointed Knight Commander of
the Order of the Bath and promoted to vice-admiral. He died of influenza
in Painsthorpe.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Richardson_%28Royal_Navy_officer%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1959:
An anti-Chinese uprising began as thousands of Tibetans
surrounded the Potala Palace in Lhasa to prevent the Dalai Lama from
leaving or being removed by the Chinese army.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Tibetan_uprising>
1968:
Vietnam War/Laotian Civil War: North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao
forces overwhelmed the American, Laotian, Thai, and Hmong defenders of
Lima Site 85.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lima_Site_85>
1977:
Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory discovered
a faint ring system around Uranus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Uranus>
2008:
The New York Times revealed that Eliot Spitzer, Governor of New
York, had patronized a prostitution ring.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Spitzer_prostitution_scandal>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
spring forward, fall back:
(US, mnemonic) Used to recall how clocks, watches, and other
chronometers are adjusted for daylight saving time: local time goes
forward in the spring (usually by one hour), and back in fall (autumn).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spring_forward%2C_fall_back>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The artist should have as little desire to rule as to serve. He
can only create, do nothing but create, and so help the state only by
… exalting politicians and economists into artists.
--Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Wilhelm_Friedrich_Schlegel>
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