A court of law's final order officially ending a marriage, enabling either party to remarry.
Decree absolute
Fact of the Day
Robert Plot, Professor of Chemistry at Oxford, devised a cunning plan to enable James II to permanently rid the country of parliaments: he advised James to found a hermetic college for the alchemical creation of gold, thus making the need for parliamentary subsidies redundant.
Quote of the Day
"Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions.
"
~ Terry Pratchett
On This Day
1829 The Roman Catholic Relief Act received royal assent. It allowed British Catholics to vote, hold public office, and sit in parliament.
1912 The Royal Flying Corps was founded.
1919 British troops slaughter hundreds of unarmed Indian civilians in Amritsar at the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.
1970 Late in the evening, an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks after a routine procedure caused crisis and a mission abort for Apollo 13.