Asser was a Welsh monk from St. David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. In about 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St. David's and join the circle of learned men which Alfred was recruiting for his court. After spending a year at Caerwent due to an illness, he accepted. In 893 Asser wrote a biography of Alfred, called the Life of King Alfred. The manuscript survived to modern times in only one copy, which was part of the Cotton library. That copy was destroyed in a fire in 1731, but transcriptions that had been made earlier, allied with material from Asser's work that was included by other early writers, have enabled the work to be reconstructed. The biography is now the main source of information about Alfred's life, and provides far more information about Alfred than is known about any other early English ruler. Asser also assisted Alfred in his translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, and possibly with other works. Asser is sometimes cited as a source for the legend of Alfred having founded the University of Oxford, which is now known to be false. A short passage making this claim was interpolated by William Camden into his 1603 edition of Asser's Life. Doubts have also been raised periodically about whether the entire Life is a forgery, written by a slightly later writer, but it is now almost universally accepted as genuine.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

366:

The Alamanni, an alliance of west Germanic tribes, crossed the frozen Rhine in large numbers to invade the Roman Empire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamanni

533:

Mercurius became Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a regnal name upon elevation to the papacy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_II

1777:

American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Assunpink_Creek

1833:

Two British naval vessels arrived at the Falkland Islands to re-assert British sovereignty there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-establishment_of_British_rule_on_the_Falklands_%281833%29

1942:

In the largest espionage case in American history, over 30 members of a German spy ring led by former South African Boer soldier and adventurer Fritz Joubert Duquesne were convicted following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duquesne_Spy_Ring

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

contumelious (adj): Rudely contemptuous; showing contumely; insolent or disdainful http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/contumelious

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be ... --Isaac Asimov http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov