Oroonoko is a short novel by Aphra Behn published in 1688, concerning the tragic love of its hero, an enslaved African in Suriname in the 1660's, and the author's own experiences with the new American colony. It is generally claimed (most famously by Virginia Woolf) that Aphra Behn was the first professional female author in English. While this is not entirely true, it is true that Behn was the first professional female dramatist and novelist, as well as one of the first novelists in English. Although she had written at least one novel previously, Oroonoko is both one of the earliest English novels and one of the earliest by a woman. Behn worked for Charles II as a spy during the outset of the Second Dutch War, working to solicit a double agent. However, Charles either failed to pay her for her services or failed to pay her all that he owed her, and Behn, upon returning to England needed money. She was widowed and destitute and even spent some time in debtor's prison before scoring a number of successes as an author. In the 1670's, only John Dryden had plays staged more often than Behn. She turned her hand to long prose toward the end of her dramatic career, and Oroonoko was published in the same year as her death at the age of 48.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1846: Irish potato famine: An Irish newspaper ran a story about a new potato blight. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_potato_famine)

1967: The world's first automatic teller machine was installed in the London Borough of Enfield. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_teller_machine)

1969: The Stonewall riots began in New York City, starting the modern gay rights movement. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots)

1979: Muhammad Ali announced his retirement from boxing. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali)

1986: The International Court of Justice ruled against the United States in Nicaragua v. United States. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua_v._United_States)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"The highest result of education is tolerance. Long ago men fought and died for their faith; but it took ages to teach them the other kind of courage, — the courage to recognize the faiths of their brethren and their rights of conscience. Tolerance is the first principal of community; it is the spirit which conserves the best that all men think." -- Helen Keller (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Helen_Keller)