In 1506 the Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, was accused of baptising a cat as part of a conjuring ritual to find buried treasure. He later became Bishop of London and a notorious heretic hunter, and was mockingly known as 'Bloody Bishop Christen-cat'.
Quote of the Day
"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."
~ Confucius
On This Day
65A plot to assassinate Nero was revealed by the freedman Milichus, leading to the suicides of its architect Piso and others including the philosopher Seneca and the poet Lucan.
177014 year-old Marie Antoinette married the 15 year-old Dauphin of France, the future Louis XVI, in a proxy wedding.
1770Captain James Cook aboard the Endeavour 'discovered' New South Wales, Australia.
1824The 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' Lord Byron died of malaria whilst helping Greece fight for its independence from Turkey. It is possible he would have survived if not for excessive bloodletting by unsterilised instruments.
1881Benjamin Disraeli, who served as prime minister twice, died. He was the only British prime minister of Jewish birth (although he was Christian when he was prime minister).
1882Charles Darwin, one of the developers of the theory of evolution, died of heart disease. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
1943The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising started in an attempt to stop the liquidation of the ghetto and the transportation of the remaining Jewish population to Treblinka extermination camp. It lasted less than a month.
1971The Soviet Union launched Salyut 1, the first ever space station of any kind.