Anne became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. Anne's life was marked by many crises relating to succession to the Crown. Her Roman Catholic father, James II, had been forcefully deposed in 1688; her sister and brother-in-law then became Queen and King as Mary II and William III. The failure of Anne and of her sister to produce a child who could survive into adulthood precipitated a succession crisis, which ultimately produced the Act of Union 1707. When, on 1 May 1707, England and Scotland combined into a single Kingdom, Anne became the first Sovereign of Great Britain. Anne was the last British monarch of the House of Stuart; she was succeeded by a distant cousin, George I, of the House of Hanover. Anne's reign was also marked by the development of the two-party system. Anne personally preferred the Tory Party, but endured the Whigs. Her closest friend, and perhaps her most influential advisor, was Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, whose husband, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, led the English armies in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Great_Britain

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1734: A black slave known as Marie-Joseph Angélique was tortured and then hanged in New France. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Joseph_Ang%E9lique)

1788: New Hampshire ratified the U.S. Constitution and was admitted as the 9th U.S. state. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire)

1813: Laura Secord set out to warn British forces of an impending American attack at Queenston, Ontario. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Secord)

1864: Maori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ended. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauranga_Campaign)

1985: Greenland officially adopted its own flag, adding support to its independence movement. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Greenland)

2000: The anti-gay amendment known as Section 28 was repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"Life has no meaning a priori... It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose." -- Jean-Paul Sartre (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre)