This was a constitutional document that replaced the Instrument of Government, was written by parliamentarians rather than army officers, and that brought the constitution slightly closer to a pre-civil wars state. It ran from 1657 until the end of the Interregnum.
Humble Petition and Advice
Fact of the Day
In the middle ages to ensure a good batch of beer brewers had it blessed by a priest. Compensation was typically 4 pints.
Quote of the Day
"Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.
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~ George S. Patton, US general
On This Day
585 BCE The first recorded predicted solar eclipse (by Thales of Miletus) stopped a battle between the Lydians and the Medes, who agreed to a truce.
1533 Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn valid.
1644 Up to 1,600 civilians and supporters of parliament were killed by Royalist forces during and after fighting at Bolton. It became known as the Bolton Massacre and a staple of Parliamentarian propaganda.
1849 Author Anne Brontë died of tuberculosis, aged 29.
1937 Alfred Adler, the Austrian psychiatrist who introduced the concept of the inferiority complex, died of heart failure while on a visit to Aberdeen.
1937 Conservative politician and famous appeaser of Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, became prime minister.
1945 American-born Nazi propagandist Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) was shot in the buttocks and captured. He was tried in Britain for treason (despite being an American) and hanged.