The Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy refers to the murder of Kentucky legislator Solomon P. Sharp by Jereboam O. Beauchamp. As a young lawyer, Beauchamp had been an admirer of Sharp's until the latter allegedly fathered an illegitimate child with a woman named Anna Cooke. Sharp denied paternity of the stillborn child. Later, Beauchamp began a relationship with Cooke, who agreed to marry him on the condition that he kill Sharp. Beauchamp and Cooke married in June 1824, and in the early morning of November 7, 1825, Beauchamp murdered Sharp at Sharp's home in Frankfort, Kentucky. An investigation soon revealed Beauchamp as the murderer, and he was apprehended at his home in Glasgow, Kentucky, four days after the murder. He was tried, convicted, and hanged for his crime on July 7, 1826. He was the first person legally executed in the state of Kentucky. While the primary motive for Sharp's murder was defending the honor of Anna Cooke, speculation raged that Sharp's political opponents instigated the crime. Sharp was a leader of the New Court party during the Old Court – New Court controversy in Kentucky. At least one Old Court partisan alleged that Sharp denied paternity of Cooke's son by claiming the child was a mulatto, the son of a family slave. Whether Sharp actually made such a claim has never been verified. New Court partisans insisted that the allegation was concocted to stir Beauchamp's anger and provoke him to murder. The Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy served as the inspiration for literary works, most notably Edgar Allan Poe's unfinished Politian and Robert Penn Warren's World Enough and Time.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1698:

The Darien scheme began with five ships departing Leith to establish a Scottish colony on the Isthmus of Panama. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darien_scheme

1791:

The Priestley Riots began to drive out Joseph Priestley and other religious Dissenters out of Birmingham, England. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priestley_Riots

1958:

King Faisal II, the last king of Iraq, was overthrown by a military coup d'état led by Abd al-Karim Qasim. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14_July_Revolution

1969:

Political conflicts between El Salvador and Honduras erupted into the four-day Football War, so-named because it coincided with the inflamed rioting during the second CONCACAF qualifying round for the 1970 FIFA World Cup. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War

2002:

After being treated for medical conditions, the orca Springer was released into the Johnstone Strait off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, becoming the first whale in history to be re-integrated into a wild pod after human intervention. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springer_%28orca%29

2003:

The U.S. Government admitted the existence of Area 51, the secretive military airfield in Nevada that has become a focus of various UFO and conspiracy theories, conceding that the U.S. Air Force does have an "operating location" there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

inculcate (v): 1. To teach by repeated instruction.

2. To induce understanding or a particular sentiment http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inculcate

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The note of hope is the only note that can help us or save us from falling to the bottom of the heap of evolution, because, largely, about all a human being is, anyway, is just a hoping machine, a working machine ... don't worry — the human race will sing this way as long as there is a human to race. The human race is a pretty old place. --Woody Guthrie http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie