Bessie Braddock (1899–1970) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Liverpool Exchange division from 1945 to 1970. She was a member of Liverpool County Borough Council from 1930 to 1961. Although she never held office in government, she won a national reputation for her campaigns in connection with housing, public health and other social issues. Braddock supported the 1945–51 Attlee ministry's reform agenda, particularly the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948. She served on Labour's National Executive Committee between 1947 and 1969. For most of her parliamentary career she was a member of Liverpool's council, and was a central figure in a controversy in the 1950s over the city's flooding of the Tryweryn Valley to construct a reservoir. When Labour won the 1964 general election she refused office on the grounds of age and health; thereafter her parliamentary contributions dwindled as her health worsened. Towards the end of her life she became Liverpool's first woman freeman. Her Guardian obituarist hailed her as "one of the most distinctive political personalities of the century".
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Braddock
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1576:
A letter to King Philip II of Spain contained the first European mention of the Mayan ruins of Copán in modern Honduras. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop%C3%A1n
1702:
Princess Anne of Denmark and Norway became the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, succeeding William III. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne,_Queen_of_Great_Britain
1919:
During the Egyptian revolution of 1919, British authorities arrested Saad Zaghloul and two others, exiling them to Malta. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_revolution_of_1919
1966:
Nelson's Pillar, a large granite pillar with a statue of Lord Nelson on top in Dublin, Ireland, was severely damaged by a bomb. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson%27s_Pillar
1978:
BBC Radio 4 began transmitting Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a science fiction radio series that was later adapted into novels, a television series, and other media formats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(radio_series)
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
intersectionality: A feminist sociological methodology of studying overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/intersectionality
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The computer and its information cannot answer any of the fundamental questions we need to address to make our lives more meaningful and humane. The computer cannot provide an organizing moral framework. It cannot tell us what questions are worth asking. It cannot provide a means of understanding why we are here or why we fight each other or why decency eludes us so often, especially when we need it the most. The computer is... a magnificent toy that distracts us from facing what we most need to confront — spiritual emptiness, knowledge of ourselves, usable conceptions of the past and future. --Neil Postman https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman
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