Princess Charlotte of Wales (1796–1817) was the only child of George, Prince of Wales (later George IV) and Caroline of Brunswick. Had she outlived her father and her grandfather, King George III, she would have become Queen of the United Kingdom. Instead, she died following childbirth at the age of 21. Charlotte's parents disliked each other from before their pre-arranged marriage and soon separated. As Charlotte grew to adulthood, her father pressured her to marry William, Hereditary Prince of Orange, but after initially accepting him, Charlotte soon broke off the match. This resulted in an extended contest of wills between her and her father, and finally the Prince of Wales permitted her to marry Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (later Leopold I of Belgium). After a year and a half of happy marriage, Charlotte died after giving birth to a stillborn son. Charlotte's death set off tremendous mourning in the country, which had seen her as a sign of hope and a contrast to her mentally ill grandfather and unpopular father. As she had been King George III's only legitimate grandchild, there was pressure on the King's unwed sons to marry. King George III's fourth son, Edward, Duke of Kent, fathered the eventual heir, Queen Victoria.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Charlotte_of_Wales

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1610:

Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first observed three of the eventual four Galilean moons through his telescope: Io, Europa, and Callisto. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_%28moon%29

1922:

Dáil Éireann narrowly approved the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended the Irish War of Independence and established the Irish Free State a self-governing dominion within the British Empire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Irish_Treaty

1948:

Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell fatally crashed his P-51 Mustang while in pursuit of a supposed UFO near Fort Knox, Kentucky, US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantell_UFO_incident

1975:

The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women was established to promote empowerment and gender equality for the women of the Philippines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Commission_on_Women

2007:

Newly appointed Archbishop of Warsaw Stanisław Wielgus resigned amid allegations that he collaborated with the Polish communist government's secret police. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Wielgus

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

hoo-ha (n): A fuss, uproar, commotion or stir; hype; brouhaha http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hoo-ha

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

When I take people round to see my animals, one of the first questions they ask (unless the animal is cute and appealing) is, "what use is it?" by which they mean, "what use is it to them?" To this one can reply "What use is the Acropolis?" Does a creature have to be of direct material use to mankind in order to exist? By and large, by asking the question "what use is it?" you are asking the animal to justify its existence without having justified your own. --Gerald Durrell http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gerald_Durrell