100px|Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg prior to 1915
Prince Louis of Battenberg (1854–1921) was a German prince related to
the British Royal Family. After a career in the United Kingdom's Royal
Navy lasting over forty years, in 1912 he was appointed First Sea Lord,
the professional head of the British naval service. He took steps to
ready the British fleet for combat as World War I began, but his
background as a German prince forced his retirement at the start of the
war when anti-German feeling was running high. Queen Victoria and her
son King Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, occasionally intervened in
his career—the Queen thought that there was "a belief that the
Admiralty are afraid of promoting Officers who are Princes on account
of the radical attacks of low papers and scurrilous ones". However,
Louis welcomed battle assignments that provided opportunities for him
to acquire the skills of war and to demonstrate to his superiors that
he was serious about his naval career. Posts on royal yachts and tours
arranged by the Queen and Edward actually impeded his progress, as his
promotions were perceived as royal favours rather than deserved. He
married a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and was the father of Earl
Mountbatten, who also served as First Sea Lord from 1954 to 1959.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II, is his
grandson. (more...)
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Louis_of_Battenberg>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1819:
British official Stamford Raffles signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein
Shah of Johor, establishing Singapore as a trading post for the British
East India Company.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_of_modern_Singapore>
1833:
Otto became the first modern King of Greece.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_of_Greece>
1922:
Britain, France, Japan, Italy and the United States signed the
Washington Naval Treaty to avoid a naval arms race.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Naval_Treaty>
1952:
Elizabeth II ascended to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand and three other Commonwealth countries upon the
death of her father, George VI.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II>
1976:
In testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee, Lockheed president Carl
Kotchian admitted that the company had paid out approximately
US$3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei
Tanaka.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_bribery_scandals>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
acculture (v):
To familiarize oneself with, and adopt a new culture, especially by an
immigrant
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/acculture>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I believe with all my heart that our first priority must be world
peace, and that use of force is always and only a last resort, when
everything else has failed, and then only with regard to our national
security.
--Ronald Reagan
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan>
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