William Matthews (1770–1854) was the first person born in British
America to be ordained a Catholic priest. Originally from the colonial
Province of Maryland, he became influential in the establishment of
Catholicism in Washington, D.C. through his parochial service and
founding of several educational institutions. He was the second pastor
of St. Patrick's Church, the President of Georgetown College (later
known as Georgetown University), and the head of the Washington Catholic
Seminary, which became Gonzaga College High School, in addition to being
co-founder and president of the Washington Library Company, the first
public library in the District of Columbia. He founded several
orphanages, schools, and parishes, and was co-director of the District
of Columbia Public Schools. In 1832 he officiated at the wedding of a
French diplomat and Mary Anne Lewis, a ward of President Andrew Jackson,
in the first Catholic ceremony to be held in the White House.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Matthews_%28priest%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1802:
German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered 2
Pallas, the second asteroid ever identified.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Pallas>
1930:
Turkey changed the name of its largest city Constantinople to
Istanbul.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Istanbul>
1979:
British Prime Minister James Callaghan was defeated by one vote
in a motion of no confidence by the House of Commons after his
government struggled to cope with widespread strikes during the "Winter
of Discontent".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry>
1999:
Serbian police and special forces killed at least 89 Kosovo
Albanians in the village of Izbica, in the Drenica region of central
Kosovo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izbica_massacre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
atompunk:
(science fiction) A subgenre of speculative fiction, based on the
society and technology of the Atomic Age (c. 1945–1965).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/atompunk>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Why should it not be the whole function of a word to denote many
things?
--J. L. Austin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Austin>
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