R. A. B. Mynors (28 July 1903 – 17 October 1989) was an English classicist and medievalist who held the senior chair of Latin at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He served as the Kennedy Professor of Latin at Cambridge from 1944 to 1953 and as the Corpus Christi Professor of Latin at Oxford from 1953 until his retirement in 1970. Mynors had the reputation of one of Britain's foremost classicists. A textual critic, he specialised in the study of manuscripts and their role in the reconstruction of classical texts. He was an expert on palaeography, and has been credited with unravelling a number of highly complex manuscript relationships. His publications include critical editions of Vergil, Catullus, and Pliny the Younger. In addition to receiving honorary degrees and fellowships from various institutions, Mynors was made a Knight Bachelor in 1963. He died in a car accident, aged 86. His comprehensive commentary on Vergil's Georgics was published posthumously.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._A._B._Mynors

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1821:

Peruvian War of Independence: Argentine general José de San Martín declared the independence of Peru from the Spanish Empire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn

1915:

U.S. Marines landed at Port-au-Prince to begin a twenty-year occupation of Haiti. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_occupation_of_Haiti

1976:

An earthquake registering 7.6 Mw, one of the deadliest in history, devastated Tangshan, China, and killed at least 240,000 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Tangshan_earthquake

2001:

At the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Australian Ian Thorpe became the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single FINA world championship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Thorpe

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

brawl: 1. (intransitive) To engage in a brawl; to fight or quarrel. 2. (intransitive) To create a disturbance; to complain loudly. 3. (intransitive) Especially of a rapid stream running over stones: to make a loud, confused noise. 4. (transitive) To pour abuse on; to scold. [...] 5. (intransitive, obsolete) To move to and fro, to quiver, to shake. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/brawl

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

A rationalist, as I use the word, is a man who attempts to reach decisions by argument and perhaps, in certain cases, by compromise, rather than by violence. He is a man who would rather be unsuccessful in convincing another man by argument than successful in crushing him by force, by intimidation and threats, or even by persuasive propaganda.   --Karl Popper https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Popper