'The voice of one crying out': a roughly 10,000-line late-fourteenth-century poem in Latin by John Gower detailing his reaction to the Peasants' Revolt.
Vox Clamantis
Fact of the Day
The earliest book of English table manners was written by Daniel of Beccles in the time of Henry II. It prohibited elbows on tables, talking with full mouths and scratching armpits. It also gave guidance on what to do if the wife of the host were to make a pass at a guest: he should feign illness.
Quote of the Day
"You will live to have your bellyful of parliaments.
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~ James I to his son, Charles
On This Day
1830 The Manchester to Liverpool train line opened, and caused the first train death (of MP William Huskisson).
1859 The great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel died.
1916 Tanks were first used on the Somme. They weren't ready for use in combat and many broke down.
1935 The Nuremberg race laws were introduced, stripping German Jews of their citizenship and forbidding them to marry Aryans.
1940 Hitler indefinitely postponed his invasion of Britain following a massive defeat of the Luftwaffe.
2008 The financial services firm Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, the biggest such filing in US history, causing the Dow Jones to drop more than 500 points in a day.