The Pioneer Helmet is a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet dating from the
late seventh century. During a March 1997 excavation, it was found in
Wollaston, Northamptonshire, in a young man's grave, probably the burial
mound of a high-status warrior, along with a hanging bowl and a pattern
welded sword. The sparsely decorated helmet is one of only six Anglo-
Saxon helmets yet discovered, joined by finds from Benty Grange, Sutton
Hoo, York, Shorwell and Staffordshire. Like most of these, it is one of
the crested helmets that flourished in England and Scandinavia from the
sixth through the eleventh centuries. Boar-crested helmets are a staple
of Anglo-Saxon imagery, evidence of a Germanic tradition in which the
boar invoked the protection of the gods. In the Anglo-Saxon poem
Beowulf, such helmets are mentioned five times. Unveiled at the New Walk
Museum in Leicester, the helmet is on display at the Royal Armouries
Museum in Leeds.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Helmet>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1495:
An entry in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland made the first
recorded mention of Scotch whisky (bottle pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_whisky>
1813:
War of 1812: Mortally wounded during a battle against the Royal
Navy frigate HMS Shannon, American commander James Lawrence of the USS
Chesapeake ordered his crew "Don't give up the ship!", today a popular
battle cry.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_USS_Chesapeake>
1916:
Louis Brandeis became the first Jew to be appointed to the
United States Supreme Court.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis>
1943:
Eight German Junkers Ju 88s shot down British Overseas Airways
Corporation Flight 777 over the Bay of Biscay off the coast of Spain and
France, killing actor Leslie Howard and several other notable
passengers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOAC_Flight_777>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
boardwalk:
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/boardwalk>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The mind is formed by the knowledge and the direction of ideas it
receives and the guidance it is given. Great things alone can make a
great mind, and petty things will make a petty mind unless a man rejects
them as completely alien.
--Carl von Clausewitz
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz>
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