Aristocracy

A generic term for the highest social class.

Fact of the Day

English law still requires that official copies of acts of parliament be printed and preserved on animal skin.

"What recreation tooke I? How lawfull was it? ... Was it not affected with too much delight? "

~ Questions from the seventeenth-century puritan guidebook for women, 'A Fountaine of Tears'

1914 The Panama Canal opened to commercial traffic.

1941 Josef Jakobs, a Luxembourg-born German spy, became the last person to be executed at the Tower of London, by firing squad.

1945 The Japanese announced their intention to surrender unconditionally in the Second World War. It came into effect on 2 September 1945.

1947 India gained independence from the British Empire.

1969 The first Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York.