Margaret Macpherson Grant (1834–1877) was a Scottish heiress and philanthropist. Born in Aberlour parish to a local surgeon, she was educated in Hampshire and inherited a large fortune from her uncle, Alexander Grant, a planter and merchant who had become rich in Jamaica. Macpherson Grant took up residence in Aberlour House, which had been built for her uncle by William Robertson. She lived unconventionally for a woman of her time, entering into what was described as a form of marriage with a female companion, Charlotte Temple, whom she met in London in 1864. Macpherson Grant donated generously to charitable enterprises, establishing an orphanage (now the Aberlour Child Care Trust) and founding St Margaret's Episcopal Church in Aberlour. She made several wills over the course of her life that would have left her estate to Temple, but after Temple left her to marry a man, Macpherson Grant revoked her will, and the bulk of her fortune went to cousins, who were probably unknown to her.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Macpherson_Grant

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1875:

The Ellen Southard was wrecked in a storm at Liverpool, England; the U.S. Congress subsequently awarded 27 gold Lifesaving Medals to the men who rescued her crew. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Southard

1908:

The first production Ford Model T, the car credited with initiating the mass use of automobiles in the United States, was completed at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Piquette_Avenue_Plant

1940:

World War II: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Empire of Japan signed the Tripartite Pact in Berlin, officially forming a military alliance known as the Axis powers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripartite_Pact

1983:

Software developer Richard Stallman announced plans for the Unix-like GNU operating system, the first free software developed by the GNU Project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

saturnine: 1. (comparable) Of a person: having a tendency to be cold, bitter, gloomy, sarcastic, and slow to change and react. 2. (comparable) Of a setting: depressing, dull, gloomy. 3. (comparable, chemistry, archaic) Of, pertaining to, or containing lead (which was symbolically associated with the planet Saturn by alchemists). 4. (not comparable, pathology) Of a disease: caused by lead poisoning (saturnism); of a person: affected by lead poisoning. 5. (not comparable, astrology, obsolete) Pertaining to the astrological influence of the planet Saturn; having the characteristics of a person under such influence (see sense 1). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/saturnine

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.   --Samuel Adams https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Adams