Jefferson Davis (1808–1889) was President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Born in Kentucky, he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and had a career as a soldier, fighting in the Mexican–American War. As a plantation owner, he employed slave labor as did many of his peers in the South, and supported slavery. He served as Secretary of War and U.S. senator, arguing against secession, but agreeing that each state had the right to secede. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Davis was chosen as President of the Confederate States. He took personal charge of the Confederate war plans but was unable to defeat the larger, more powerful and better organized Union. He is often blamed for contributing to the fall of the Confederacy. His diplomatic efforts failed to gain recognition from any foreign country and he paid little attention to the collapsing economy. At the end of the war in 1865, he was captured and imprisoned; after his release he entered private life. He wrote a memoir, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, eventually became a Civil War hero to many white Southerners and, in later life, encouraged reconciliation with the North.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1658:

Pope Alexander VII appointed François de Laval as vicar apostolic of New France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_de_Laval

1839:

Qing government official Lin Zexu catalysed the First Opium War after ordering the destruction of nearly 1.2 million kg (2.6 million lbs) of opium in Humen, China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Zexu

1888:

American writer Ernest Thayer's baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" was first published in the San Francisco Examiner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_at_the_Bat

1940:

Franz Rademacher, a Nazi government official, proposed that Madagascar should be made available for the resettlement of the Jews of Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan

2012:

Dana Air Flight 992, a passenger flight from Abuja to Lagos, Nigeria, suffered dual engine failure and crashed into a building, resulting in the deaths of all 153 on board and ten more on the ground. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Air_Flight_992

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

guardian angel: A spirit believed to protect and to guide a particular person. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/guardian_angel

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

 So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas that we don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who are dying without them. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in culture that we don't even question when the control of that property removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture democratically. Blindness becomes our common sense. And the challenge for anyone who would reclaim the right to cultivate our culture is to find a way to make this common sense open its eyes. So far, common sense sleeps. There is no revolt. Common sense does not yet see what there could be to revolt about.   --Lawrence Lessig https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig