Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, published from 1757 to 1795,
was an annual directory of prostitutes working in and around Covent
Garden, London. It sold for two shillings and sixpence, and in 1791 had
an estimated circulation of around 8,000 copies. Each edition contains
entries describing the physical appearance and sexual specialities of
about 120–190 prostitutes, in sometimes lurid detail. While most
entries compliment their subjects, some are critical of bad habits, and
a few women are even treated as pariahs, perhaps having fallen out of
favour with the lists' authors, who are never revealed. Samuel Derrick
is normally credited for originating Harris's List, which may have been
named after a Covent Garden pimp, Jack Harris. A Grub Street hack,
Derrick may have written the lists from 1757 until his death in 1769;
thereafter, the annual's authors are unknown. As the public's opinion
began to turn against London's sex trade, and with reformers petitioning
the authorities to take action, those involved in the release of
Harris's List were in 1795 fined and imprisoned. Modern writers tend to
view Harris's List as erotica.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris%27s_List_of_Covent_Garden_Ladies>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1028:
Future Byzantine empress Zoe first took the throne as empress
consort to Romanos III Argyros.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Porphyrogenita>
1893:
Mortimer Durand, Foreign Secretary of British India, and Abdur
Rahman Khan, Amir of Afghanistan, signed the Durand Line Agreement,
establishing what is now the international border between Afghanistan
and Pakistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durand_Line>
1940:
Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov arrived in Berlin to
discuss the possibility of the Soviet Union joining the Axis Powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_Axis_talks>
1945:
Sudirman was elected the first commander-in-chief of the
Indonesian Armed Forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudirman>
1970:
The Oregon Highway Division unsuccessfully attempted to destroy
a rotting beached sperm whale near Florence, Oregon, with explosives.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_whale>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
inoculate:
1. (transitive, immunology) To introduce an antigenic substance or vaccine
into the body, as to produce immunity to a specific disease.
2. (transitive, by extension) To safeguard or protect something as if by
inoculation.
3. To add one substance to another; to spike.
4. To graft by inserting buds.
5. (figuratively) To introduce into the mind (used especially of harmful
ideas or principles); to imbue.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inoculate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man is the supreme Talisman. Lack of a proper education hath,
however, deprived him of that which he doth inherently possess. Through
a word proceeding out of the mouth of God he was called into being; by
one word more he was guided to recognize the Source of his education; by
yet another word his station and destiny were safeguarded. The Great
Being saith: Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value.
Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable
mankind to benefit therefrom.
--Bahá'u'lláh
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h>