Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre (1804–1875) was an army
officer, politician, abolitionist and monarchist of the Empire of
Brazil. For most of the 1820s, he joined the struggle for Brazilian
independence and then fought in the Cisplatine War. From 1835 to 1845,
his native province of Rio Grande do Sul was engulfed in a secessionist
rebellion, the Ragamuffin War, which he helped to suppress. In 1852, he
led an army division during the Platine War, invading the Argentine
Confederation and overthrowing its dictator. Porto Alegre was elected to
the legislature of Rio Grande do Sul, and founded the provincial
Progressive-Liberal Party—a coalition of Liberals like himself and
some members of the Conservative Party. He later entered the lower house
of the Brazilian parliament and was briefly Minister of War. After
returning to the military as one of the chief Brazilian commanders
during the Paraguayan War (1864), he became an active advocate for the
abolition of slavery and a patron in the fields of literature and
science.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Marques_de_Sousa,_Count_of_Porto_Alegre>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1638:
Construction began in Delhi on the Red Fort, the residence of
the Mughal emperors, now an iconic symbol of India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Fort>
1779:
Russian and French mediators negotiated the Treaty of Teschen
to end the War of the Bavarian Succession.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Bavarian_Succession>
1917:
Ten-year-old Lúcia Santos (pictured middle) and her cousins
Francisco and Jacinta Marto reportedly began experiencing a Marian
apparition near Fátima, Portugal, now known as Our Lady of Fátima.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_F%C3%A1tima>
1981:
Mehmet Ali Ağca shot and critically wounded Pope John Paul II
in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II_assassination_attempt>
1992:
Li Hongzhi introduced Falun Gong in a public lecture in
Changchun, Jilin province, China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Hongzhi>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
prahok:
A salted and fermented fish paste used in Cambodian cuisine.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prahok>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
To struggle against the dreamers who dream ugliness, be they men
or gods, cannot but be the will of the Nameless. This struggle will also
bear suffering, and so one's karmic burden will be lightened thereby,
just as it would be by enduring the ugliness; but this suffering is
productive of a higher end in the light of the eternal values of which
the sages so often speak.
--Lord of Light
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_of_Light>
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