The Marshalsea was a prison on the south bank of the River Thames in Southwark, now part of London. From at least 1329 until it closed in 1842, it housed men under court martial for crimes at sea, including "unnatural crimes", political figures and intellectuals accused of sedition or other inappropriate behaviour, and—most famously—London's debtors, the length of their stay determined largely by the whim of their creditors. Run privately for profit, as were all prisons in England until the 19th century, the Marshalsea looked like an Oxbridge college and functioned largely as an extortion racket. For prisoners who could afford the fees, it came with access to a bar, shop, and restaurant, and the crucial privilege of being allowed to leave the prison during the day, which meant debtors could earn money to pay off their creditors. Everyone else was crammed into one of nine small rooms with dozens of others, possibly for decades for the most modest of debts, which increased as unpaid prison fees accumulated. The prison became known around the world during the 19th century through the writings of the English novelist Charles Dickens, whose father was sent there in 1824 for a debt of £40 and 10 shillings. Much of it was demolished in the winter of 1849, though some of its buildings were used into the 20th century. "It is gone now," Dickens wrote, "and the world is none the worse without it."

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshalsea

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1488:

Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias landed in Mossel Bay, having sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and the southern tip of Africa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossel_Bay

1509:

Turkish–Portuguese War: Portugal defeated a joint fleet of Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt, Ottoman Empire, the Zamorin of Calicut and the Sultan of Gujarat at the Battle of Diu off the coast of Diu, India. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Diu_%281509%29

1787:

Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising in central and western Massachusetts, was crushed, an event that energized calls in the United States for a stronger government than what was established by the Articles of Confederation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays%27_Rebellion

1959:

American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed when their plane crashed shortly after taking off from Mason City Municipal Airport in Iowa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died

1966:

The Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 became the first space probe to land on the Moon and transmit pictures from the lunar surface to Earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_9

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

imprecation (n): 1. The act of imprecating, or invoking evil upon someone; a prayer that a curse or calamity may befall someone. 2. A curse http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/imprecation

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The whole duty of man consists in being reasonable and just ... I am reasonable because I know the difference between understanding and not understanding and I am just because I have no opinion about things I don’t understand. --Gertrude Stein http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein