Very little is known for certain of the ancestry of the Godwins, the
family of the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, Harold II. When King
Edward the Confessor died in January 1066 the legitimate heir was his
great-nephew, Edgar Ætheling, but he was young and lacked powerful
supporters. Harold was the head of the most powerful family in England
and Edward's brother-in-law, and he became king. In September 1066
Harold defeated and killed King Harald Hardrada of Norway at the Battle
of Stamford Bridge, and Harold was himself defeated and killed the
following month by William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. The
family is named after Harold's father, Earl Godwin, who had risen to a
position of wealth and influence under King Cnut in the 1020s. In 1045
Godwin's daughter, Edith, married King Edward the Confessor, and by the
mid-1050s Harold and his brothers had become dominant, almost
monopolising the English earldoms. Godwin was probably the son of
Wulfnoth Cild, a South Saxon thegn, but Wulfnoth's ancestry is disputed.
A few genealogists argue that he was descended from Alfred the Great's
elder brother, King Æthelred I, but almost all historians of Anglo-
Saxon England reject this theory.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestry_of_the_Godwins>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1635:
Dutch colonial forces on Taiwan launched a three-month
pacification campaign against Taiwanese aborigines.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_pacification_campaign_on_Formosa>
1831:
After a bloody battle with the military causing 600 casualties,
rebellious silkworkers seized Lyon, France, beginning the First Canut
Revolt.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canut_revolts>
1975:
Two days after the death of Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos I was
declared King of Spain according to the law of succession promulgated by
Franco.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Carlos_I_of_Spain>
1995:
Toy Story, the first feature film created using only computer-
generated imagery, was released.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story>
2005:
Angela Merkel assumed office as chancellor of Germany, the
first woman to do so.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
dory:
1. (nautical) A small flat-bottomed boat with pointed or somewhat pointed
ends, used for fishing both offshore and on rivers.
2. Any of several different families of large-eyed, silvery, deep-bodied,
laterally compressed, and roughly discoid marine fish. […]
3. A wooden pike or spear about three metres (ten feet) in length with a
flat, leaf-shaped iron spearhead and a bronze butt-spike (called a
sauroter), which was the main weapon of hoplites in Ancient Greece. It
was usually not thrown but rather thrust at opponents with one hand.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dory>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first;
nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
--Charles de Gaulle
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle>