Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) was an American physician, professor, lecturer and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best poets of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Holmes was educated at Phillips Academy and Harvard College. He began writing poetry at an early age; one of his most famous works, "Old Ironsides", was published in 1830. Following training at the prestigious medical schools of Paris, Holmes was granted his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1836. He taught at Dartmouth Medical School before returning to teach at Harvard and, for a time, served as dean there. During his long professorship, he became an advocate for various medical reforms and notably posited the then-controversial idea that doctors were responsible for carrying puerperal fever from patient to patient. Holmes retired from Harvard in 1882 and continued writing poetry, novels and essays until his death in 1894. Surrounded by Boston's literary elite—which included friends such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell—Holmes made an indelible imprint on the 19th century literary world. Holmes's writing often commemorated his native Boston area, and much of it was meant to be humorous or conversational. Holmes also coined several terms that are now popular, including "anesthesia" and "Boston Brahmin".

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1526:

Ottoman forces led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeated and killed Louis II, the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia, at the Battle of Mohács. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moh%C3%A1cs

1756:

As neighboring countries began conspiring against him, Frederick II of Prussia launched a preemptive invasion of Saxony, starting the Seven Years' War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_II_of_Prussia

1842:

The Treaty of Nanking, an Unequal Treaty ending the First Opium War, was signed, forcing the Chinese Qing Dynasty to give foreign trading privileges, war reparations, control of Hong Kong, and other concessions to the British. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Nanking

2003:

Two car bombs exploded outside of the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, killing Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the spiritual leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, and over eighty others. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imam_Ali_Mosque_bombing

2005:

Storm surges of Hurricane Katrina caused multiple breaches in levees around New Orleans, flooding about 80 percent of the city and many neighboring areas for weeks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

requiem (n): 1. A mass or other ceremony to honor and remember a dead person. 2. A musical composition for such a mass. 3. A piece of music composed to honor a dead person http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/requiem

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Mankind has advanced. Human progress is ceaseless. We can ... conclude that building just societies is a fool's errand. We are always, despite our advances, only one sin away from slipping into the abyss of terror and ignorance. But that is not so. Generations upon generations have driven the human race farther and farther from darkness. --John McCain http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_McCain