Stephen Owen Davies (died 25 February 1972) was a Welsh coal miner and Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil from 1934 to 1972. In 1918 he became miners' agent for the Dowlais district of the South Wales Miners' Federation, and in 1924 was appointed its chief organiser, legal adviser, and vice-president. Elected to parliament in 1934, Davies consistently defied official Labour policy to champion causes such as disarmament and Welsh nationalism, with a persistence that brought him several suspensions and ensured that he was never offered ministerial office. After a spoil heap at a coal mine collapsed in the village of Aberfan on 21 October 1966 killing 116 schoolchildren and 28 adults, Davies controversially said that he had long thought that it was unsafe. He had not reported his suspicions for fear that an enquiry would cause the closures of local pits. In 1970 he was deselected as parliamentary candidate by his local party association on account of his age, but won the seat in the general election as an Independent, a rare example in British politics of an independent candidate defeating a major party's organisation.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._O._Davies

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1096:

The Seljuk forces of Kilij Arslan destroyed the army of the People's Crusade as it marched toward Nicaea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Crusade

1858:

French composer Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, featuring music most associated with the can-can (audio featured) was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus_in_the_Underworld

1910:

HMS Niobe arrived in Halifax Harbour to become the first large ship of the Royal Canadian Navy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Niobe_(1897)

1966:

A coal tip fell on the village of Aberfan, Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster

1983:

At the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures, the length of a metre was redefined as the distance light travels in vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

parking ticket: 1. A legal summons issued for parking a motor vehicle in a place where such parking is restricted, or beyond the time paid for. 2. A small ticket issued as proof of payment for the right to park a motor vehicle. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/parking_ticket

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

All knowledge is local, all truth is partial. … No truth can make another truth untrue. All knowledge is part of the whole knowledge. … Once you have seen the larger pattern, you cannot get back to seeing the part as the whole.   --Ursula K. Le Guin https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin