William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, mystic and public figure. Yeats was one of the driving forces behind the Irish Literary Revival and was co-founder of the Abbey Theatre. His early work tended towards a romantic lushness and dreamlike quality best described by the title of his 1893 collection The Celtic Twilight, but in his 40s, inspired by his relationships with modernist poets such as Ezra Pound and his active involvement in Irish nationalist politics, he moved towards a harder, more modern style. As well as his role as member of the board of the Abbey, Yeats served as an Irish Senator. He took his role as a public figure seriously and was a reasonably hard-working member of the Seanad. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923 for what the Nobel Committee described as "his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation".

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1793 French playwright, journalist and outspoken feminist Olympe de Gouges was guillotined for her revolutionary ideas. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympe_de_Gouges)

1838 The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper was founded. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_of_India)

1848 A new constitution of the Netherlands drafted by Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, severely limiting the powers of the monarchy, was proclaimed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Rudolf_Thorbecke)

1957 The Sputnik 2 spacecraft was launched, carrying Laika the Russian space dog, the first living being to orbit the Earth. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_2)

1971 The UNIX Programmer's Manual was first published. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX)

Wikiquote of the day:

"We'd all like t'vote fer th'best man, but he's never a candidate." ~ Kin Hubbard (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kin_Hubbard)