Carl Hans Lody (1877–1914) was a reserve officer of the Imperial German Navy who spied in the United Kingdom at the start of the First World War. While working for a shipping line, he agreed to spy for German naval intelligence, and was sent to Edinburgh in late August. He spoke fluent English, and spent a month posing as an American tourist while reporting on British naval movements and coastal defences. He had not been given any espionage training and was detected almost immediately, as he sent his communications in plain English and German to a known German intelligence address in Sweden. By the end of September 1914, a rising spy panic in Britain led to foreigners coming under suspicion; he attempted to go into hiding in Ireland but was quickly caught. Tried in a public court martial in London, he made no attempt to deny his guilt, declaring that he had acted out of patriotic motives. His courage on the witness stand attracted admiration in Britain and Germany. He was sentenced to death by firing squad and on 6 November 1914 he became the first person in nearly 170 years to be executed at the Tower of London. Under the Nazi regime, he was acclaimed as a German national hero.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Hans_Lody
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1789:
Pope Pius VI appointed Father John Carroll as the first Catholic bishop in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carroll_(bishop)
1856:
Scenes of Clerical Life, the first work by English author George Eliot (pictured), was submitted for publication. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenes_of_Clerical_Life
1939:
As part of their plan to eradicate the Polish intellectual elite, the Gestapo arrested 184 professors, students and employees of Jagiellonian University in Kraków. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderaktion_Krakau
1944:
The Hanford Atomic Facility in the U.S. state of Washington produced its first plutonium, and it would go on to create more for almost the entire American nuclear arsenal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site
2004:
A man attempting to commit suicide parked his car on the railway tracks in Ufton Nervet, Berkshire, England, causing a derailment that killed seven people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufton_Nervet_rail_crash
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
isomorphic: 1. (mathematics) Having a one-to-one correspondence. 2. (biology) Having a similar structure or function to something that is not related genetically or through evolution. 3. Having identical relevant structure. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/isomorphic
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes. --Zig Ziglar https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar
daily-article-l@lists.wikimedia.org