The John Brownlee sex scandal occurred in 1934 in Alberta, Canada, and
forced the resignation of Premier John Edward Brownlee. Brownlee was
accused of seducing Vivian MacMillan, a family friend and a secretary
for Brownlee's attorney-general, in 1930 when she was eighteen years
old, and continuing the affair for three years. MacMillan claimed that
the married premier had told her that she must have sex with him for
his own sake and that of his invalid wife. She had, she testified,
relented after physical and emotional pressure. Brownlee called her
story a fabrication, and suggested that it was the result of a
conspiracy by MacMillan, her would-be fiancé, and several of Brownlee's
political opponents in the Alberta Liberal Party. MacMillan and her
father sued Brownlee for seduction. After a sensational trial in June
1934, the six man jury found in favour of the plaintiffs, awarding them
$10,000 and $5,000, respectively. In an unusual move, trial judge
William Ives disregarded the jury's finding and dismissed the case. The
Supreme Court of Canada eventually overturned the decision and awarded
MacMillan $10,000 in damages. This award was affirmed by the Judicial
Committee of the British Privy Council, Canada's highest court of
appeal at the time. All of this, however, was largely academic to
Brownlee, who resigned after the jury's finding. During the next
election, his United Farmers of Alberta were wiped out of the
legislature, failing to retain a single seat.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brownlee_sex_scandal>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1789:
French Revolution: Jacques Necker was dismissed as Director-General of
Finances of France, sparking public demonstrations in Paris that led to
the Storming of the Bastille three days later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Necker>
1804:
U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former U.S. Treasury
Secretary Alexander Hamilton during a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr-Hamilton_duel>
1921:
The Irish War of Independence ended with a truce between the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Irish Republican Army,
resulting in negotiations that eventually led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty
and the establishment of the Irish Free State.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_War_of_Independence>
1943:
In a massive ethnic cleansing operation, units of the Ukrainian
Insurgent Army attacked various Polish villages in the Volhynia region
of present-day Ukraine, killing the Polish civilians and burning those
settlements to the ground.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia>
1960:
American author Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, featuring
themes of racial injustice and the destruction of innocence in the
American Deep South, was first published.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
aflutter (adj):
In a state of excited anticipation or confusion
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aflutter>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the weather is a
great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things
can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed.
--E. B. White
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._B._White>
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