Joseph Desha (1768–1842) was a U.S. Representative and the ninth Governor of Kentucky. After serving in the Northwest Indian War, he moved to Mason County, Kentucky and parlayed his military record into several terms in the state legislature. In 1807, he was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the first of six consecutive terms in the U.S. House. He was a war hawk, supporting the War of 1812, and commanded a division at the Battle of the Thames. Leaving the House in 1818, he lost to John Adair in the 1820 gubernatorial election. In 1824, he made a second campaign for governor based on promises of relief for the state's debtor class. He was elected by a large majority, and debt relief partisans captured both houses of the General Assembly. When the Kentucky Court of Appeals struck down debt relief legislation he favored, he lobbied the legislature to replace it with a new court. His reputation was damaged when he issued a pardon for his son, who was accused of murder. He also hastened the resignation of Transylvania University president Horace Holley, whom he considered too liberal. Desha retired from public life in 1828.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1775:

American Revolutionary War: After their loss in the Battle of Great Bridge, British authorities were forced to evacuate from the Colony of Virginia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Great_Bridge

1917:

First World War: Hussein al-Husayni, the Ottoman mayor of Jerusalem, surrendered the city to the British. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jerusalem_(1917)

1968:

Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse (pictured), hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart

1979:

A World Health Organization commission of scientists certified the global eradication of smallpox, making it the only human infectious disease to date to have been completely eradicated from nature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox

2008:

Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich was arrested for a number of corruption crimes, including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat that was being vacated by then-U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Blagojevich_corruption_charges

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

pass muster: 1. (idiomatic) To meet or exceed a particular standard. 2. (idiomatic) To adequately pass a formal or informal inspection. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pass_muster

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I neither oblige the belief of other person, nor overhastily subscribe mine own. Nor have I stood with others computing or collating years and chronologies, lest I should be vainly curious about the time and circumstance of things, whereof the substance is so much in doubt. By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a far distance, true colours and shapes.   --John Milton https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Milton