A person of great knowledge or learning.
Polymath
Fact of the Day
English bishop St. Wulfstan was said to have performed a number of miracles, including curing a woman of arthritis by writing a letter, cursing a tree to death that had offered shade to gamblers, and preaching to the slave-traders of Bristol so well that they abandoned their business.
Quote of the Day
"History is a set of lies agreed upon.
"
~ Napoleon
On This Day
98 Trajan became Roman Emperor.
814 Charlemagne, King of the Franks and first Holy Roman Emperor died seven days after being taken to his bed with pleurisy.
1457 Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII, was born. It was a difficult birth as his mother, Margaret Beaufort, was only 13 years old and small of stature.
1547 90 years after his father's birth, Henry VIII died. Doctors wouldn't say he was dying because the Treason Act forbade predicting the king's death.
1807 The first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated in Pall Mall, London.
1813 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was first published.
1829 Murderer and body snatcher William Burke was hanged. His corpse suffered the same fate as his victims, public dissection.
1896 Walter Arnold of Kent became the first British motorist to receive a speeding fine - he was doing 8mph in a 2mph area!
1986 The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch. None of the seven people (including a competition winner) onboard survived.