The Brown Dog affair was a political controversy about vivisection
that raged in Edwardian England from 1903 until 1910, becoming a cause
célèbre that reportedly divided the country. It involved the
infiltration of London University medical lectures by Swedish women
activists, pitched battles between medical students and the police,
round-the-clock police protection for the statue of a dog, a libel
trial at the Royal Courts of Justice, and the establishment of a Royal
Commission to investigate the use of animals in experiments. The
affair was triggered by allegations, vigorously denied, that Dr.
William Bayliss of University College, London had performed an illegal
dissection on a brown terrier dog — anaesthetized according to
Bayliss, conscious according to the Swedish activists. A statue
erected by antivivisectionists in memory of the dog led to violent
protests by London's medical students, who saw the memorial as an
assault on the entire medical profession. The unrest culminated in
rioting in Trafalgar Square on December 10, 1907, when 1,000 students
marched down the Strand, clashing with 400 police officers, in what
became known as the Brown Dog riots.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Dog_affair
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1508:
The Papal States, France, Aragon and the Holy Roman Empire formed
the League of Cambrai, an alliance against the Republic of Venice.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_League_of_Cambrai)
1868:
The first traffic lights were installed outside the Houses of
Parliament in London, resembling railway signals with semaphore arms
and red and green gas lamps for night use.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/traffic_light)
1901:
The first Nobel Prizes were awarded, on the anniversary of the 1896
death of their founder, Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred
Nobel.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize)
1936:
Edward VIII signed his instrument of abdication, becoming the only
British monarch to voluntarily relinquish the throne.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII_abdication_crisis)
1948:
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights)
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Wiktionary's Word of the day:
thunderstruck: Astonished, amazed or so suddenly surprised as to be
unable to speak.
(
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thunderstruck)
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Wikiquote of the day:
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have
chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the
tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not
appreciate your neutrality. -- Desmond Tutu
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu)