Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (1863–1950) was the eldest daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and his first wife Princess Alice of the United Kingdom. Victoria married Prince Louis of Battenberg, her father's first cousin and an officer in the UK's Royal Navy, in a love match and lived most of her married life in various parts of Europe at her husband's naval posts and visiting her many royal relations. She was perceived by her family as liberal in outlook, straightforward, practical and bright. During World War I, two of her sisters who had married into the Russian imperial family were murdered by communist revolutionaries, and she and her husband abandoned their German titles and adopted the British-sounding surname of Mountbatten, which was simply a translation into English of the German "Battenberg". She was the maternal grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the consort of Queen Elizabeth II.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Victoria_of_Hesse_and_by_Rhine

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1081:

The Komnenian dynasty came to full power when Alexios I Komnenos was crowned Byzantine Emperor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexios_I_Komnenos

1609:

Forces of the Japanese feudal domain of Satsuma captured the castle on Ryukyu Island, beginning the process that turned the Ryukyu Kingdom into a vassal state under Satsuma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Ryukyu

1847:

Britain's first civic public park, Birkenhead Park in Birkenhead, Merseyside, opened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkenhead_Park

1900:

Archaeologists led by Arthur Evans in Knossos, Crete, discovered a large cache of clay tablets with a script used for writing Mycenaean Greek now known as Linear B. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_B

2009:

The North Korean satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 was launched from the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground and passed over Japan, sparking concerns by other nations that it may have been a trial run of technology that could be used to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwangmy%C5%8Fngs%C5%8Fng-2

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

reptilianness: The quality of the embodiment of reptile characteristics. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reptilianness

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

In any country, regardless of what its laws say, wherever people act upon the idea that the disadvantage of one man is the good of another, there slavery exists. Wherever, in any country the whole people feel that the happiness of all is dependent upon the happiness of the weakest, there freedom exists.   --Booker T. Washington https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington