Nigel Williams (15 July 1944 – 21 April 1992) was a British conservator. From 1961 until his death he worked at the British Museum, where he became the Chief Conservator of Ceramics and Glass in 1983. He was one of the first people to study conservation, before it was recognised as a profession. In the 1960s he assisted with the re- excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, and in his twenties he conserved many of the objects found therein, including a shield, drinking horns, and maplewood bottles. Restoration of the Sutton Hoo helmet alone occupied a year of his time. After nearly 31,000 fragments of shattered Greek vases were found in 1974 amidst the wreck of HMS Colossus, Williams set to work piecing them together, and the process was televised for a BBC programme. His crowning achievement, the reassembly of the Portland Vase (pictured) in 1988 and 1989, took nearly a year to complete, and was also televised. The Ceramics & Glass group of the Institute of Conservation awards a biennial prize in his honour. (Full article...).

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Williams_(conservator)

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1815:

Aboard HMS Bellerophon, Napoleon surrendered to Royal Navy Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland to finally end the Napoleonic Wars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bellerophon_(1786)

1916:

William Boeing incorporated the Pacific Aero Products Co., which was later renamed Boeing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing

1983:

Armenian extremist organization ASALA bombed the Turkish Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport, killing 8 and injuring 55, as part of its campaign for the recognition of and reparations for the Armenian Genocide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Orly_Airport_attack

2006:

The online social networking and news service Twitter was launched (early sketch pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

man-mark:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/man-mark

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize "how it really was." It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger. For historical materialism it is a question of holding fast to a picture of the past, just as if it had unexpectedly thrust itself, in a moment of danger, on the historical subject. The danger threatens the stock of tradition as much as its recipients. For both it is one and the same: handing itself over as the tool of the ruling classes. In every epoch, the attempt must be made to deliver tradition anew from the conformism which is on the point of overwhelming it. For the Messiah arrives not merely as the Redeemer; he also arrives as the vanquisher of the Anti-christ. The only writer of history with the gift of setting alight the sparks of hope in the past, is the one who is convinced of this: that not even the dead will be safe from the enemy, if he is victorious. And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious.   --Walter Benjamin https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Benjamin