Rochdale Cenotaph is a First World War memorial on the Esplanade in
Rochdale, Greater Manchester, in the north west of England. Designed by
Sir Edwin Lutyens, it is one of seven memorials in England based on his
Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, and one of his more ambitious designs.
The memorial was unveiled in 1922 and consists of a 10-metre (33 ft)
pylon, topped by an effigy of a recumbent soldier, and Lutyens'
characteristic Stone of Remembrance. A public meeting in February 1919
established a consensus to create a monument and a fund for the families
of wounded servicemen. The meeting agreed to commission Lutyens to
design the monument. His design for a bridge over the River Roch was
abandoned after a local dignitary purchased a plot of land adjacent to
Rochdale Town Hall and donated it for the site of the memorial. Lutyens
revised his design, and Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, unveiled the
memorial on 26 November 1922. It was upgraded to a Grade I listed
structure in 2015, when Lutyens' war memorials were declared a national
collection by Historic England.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_Cenotaph>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1693:
An intensity XI earthquake, the most powerful in Italian
history, struck the island of Sicily.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1693_Sicily_earthquake>
1787:
German-born British astronomer William Herschel discovered two
Uranian moons, later named, by his son, Oberon and Titania.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titania_(moon)>
1927:
Louis B. Mayer, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer invited 36 people
involved in the film industry to a banquet, where he announced the
creation of what would become the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Motion_Picture_Arts_and_Sciences>
1946:
Albania was proclaimed the People's Republic of Albania with
Enver Hoxha (pictured)) as the de facto head of state.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enver_Hoxha>
1986:
The Gateway Bridge was opened in Brisbane, Australia, the
largest prestressed concrete, single box bridge in the world.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Leo_Hielscher_Bridges>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Everester:
Someone who climbs Mount Everest.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Everester>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is immense silent agony in the world, and the task of man is
to be a voice for the plundered poor, to prevent the desecration of the
soul and the violation of our dream of honesty. The more deeply immersed
I became in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became
clear to me what the lives of the Prophets sought to convey: that
morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the
suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil
itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are
responsible.
--Abraham Joshua Heschel
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Joshua_Heschel>
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