100px|Sarah Trimmer

Sarah Trimmer (1741–1810) was a noted writer and critic of British children's literature in the eighteenth century. Her periodical, The Guardian of Education, helped to define the emerging genre by seriously reviewing children's literature for the first time; it also provided the first history of children's literature, establishing a canon of the early landmarks of the genre that scholars still use today. Trimmer's most popular children's book, Fabulous Histories, inspired numerous children's animal stories and remained in print for over a century. Trimmer was in many ways dedicated to maintaining the social and political status quo in her works. As a high church Anglican, she was intent on promoting the Established Church of Britain and on teaching young children and the poor the doctrines of Christianity. Her writings outlined the benefits of social hierarchies, arguing that each class should remain in its God-given position. Yet, while supporting many of the traditional political and social ideologies of her time, Trimmer questioned others, such as those surrounding gender and the family. (more...)

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1449:

Constantine XI Palaiologos was crowned Byzantine-Roman Emperor, the last one before the Fall of Constantinople. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_XI_Palaiologos

1838:

Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail successfully tested the electrical telegraph for the first time at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/electrical_telegraph

1912:

German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presented his theory of continental drift. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/continental_drift

1993:

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) units killed 55 Kashmiri civilians in Sopore, Jammu and Kashmir, in revenge after militants ambushed a BSF patrol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopore_massacre

1994:

Two-time American Olympic figure skating medalist Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right leg by an assailant hired by Jeff Gillooly, the ex-husband of her rival Tonya Harding. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Kerrigan

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

relegate (v): 1. (done to a person) Exile or banish to a particular place. 2. (Roman history, done to a person) Banish from proximity to Rome for a set time. 3. [[consign http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/relegate

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Your thought advocates fame and show. Mine counsels me and implores me to cast aside notoriety and treat it like a grain of sand cast upon the shore of eternity. Your thought instills in your heart arrogance and superiority. Mine plants within me love for peace and the desire for independence. Your thought begets dreams of palaces with furniture of sandalwood studded with jewels, and beds made of twisted silk threads. My thought speaks softly in my ears, "Be clean in body and spirit even if you have nowhere to lay your head." Your thought makes you aspire to titles and offices. Mine exhorts me to humble service. --Khalil Gibran http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Khalil_Gibran