Sir Frederick "Boy" Browning (1896–1965) was a British Army general who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He was also an Olympic bobsleigh competitor, and the husband of author Daphne du Maurier. Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in 1915 and served on the Western Front in the First World War. During the Second World War, Browning commanded the I Airborne Corps in Operation Market Garden in September 1944. During the planning for this operation, he was alleged to have said: "I think we might be going a bridge too far." In December 1944 he became chief of staff of Admiral Lord Mountbatten's South East Asia Command. After the war Browning was comptroller and treasurer to Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh. After she ascended to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, Browning became treasurer in the Office of the Duke of Edinburgh.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Browning

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1382:

Following Louis I's death without a male heir, his daughter Mary was crowned with the title of King of Hungary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Queen_of_Hungary

1859:

Disgruntled with the legal and political structures of the United States, Joshua Norton distributed letters to various newspapers in San Francisco proclaiming himself to be Emperor Norton. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton

1894:

John Hyrum Koyle, a controversial Mormon bishop, began excavating the Dream Mine, which he believed would provide financial support to members of the LDS Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Mine

1914:

Andrew Fisher, who in his previous term as premier oversaw a period of reform unmatched in the Commonwealth until the 1940s, became Prime Minister of Australia for the third time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Fisher

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

spavin: 1. (farriery, veterinary medicine) 2. A bony swelling which develops in a horse's leg where the shank and splint bone meet, caused by inflammation of the cartilage connecting those bones; also, a similar swelling caused by inflammation of the hock bones. 3. A disease of horses caused by this bony swelling (sense 1.1). 4. (by extension) A similar disease causing a person's leg to be lame. 5. (farriery, veterinary medicine) To cause (a horse or its leg) to have spavin (noun sense 1.2). 6. (figurative) To impair or injure (someone or something). [...] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spavin

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The job of the writer is to kiss no ass, no matter how big and holy and white and tempting and powerful.   --Ken Kesey https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey