Someone or something's reason for being.
Raison d'être
Fact of the Day
The Tudor Privy Council would sometimes punish those who fell out of its favour by making them wait to be seen by the Star Chamber for days, weeks, or months in London, during which time they would run up huge lodging bills. Wolsey made De Carteret of Guernsey wait for over four years.
Quote of the Day
"A Conservative government is an organised hypocrisy.
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~ Benjamin Disraeli
On This Day
1707 Four ships of the fleet led by Sir Cloudesley Shovell were shipwrecked on the Isles of Scilly after bad weather and navigational mistakes sent them off course. Between 1,400 and 2,000 people were killed, making it one of the worst maritime disasters in British history.
1797 André-Jacques Garnerin made the first notable parachute jump from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 ft above Paris. He landed shaken but in one piece half a mile away from the take-off site.
1877 Two hundred and seven people died in Scotland's worst mining disaster, when firedamp ignited at Blantyre Colliery. It would not be the last time the mine experienced disaster: further explosions occurred in 1878 and 1879.
1975 The Soviet unmanned space probe Venera 9 landed on Venus. It was the first such probe to return images from the surface of another planet.