When news of the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 reached Pope Urban III, he is said to have died immediately of shock and grief.
Fact of the Day
Quote of the Day
"People in high or in distinguished life ought to have a greater circumspection in regard to their most trivial actions. For instance, I saw Mr [Alexander] Pope...to the best of my memory, he was picking his nose.
"
~ William Shenstone
On This Day
1135 Henry I died, quite possibly of lamprey (horrible, often parasitic, jawless fish) poisoning
1851 Edmund Campion, Jesuit priest, was hanged, drawn and quartered
1887 Sherlock Holmes was introduced to the world when Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet was published in the Beeton's Christmas annual.
1942 The Beveridge Report was published. This landmark document became the blueprint for the modern British welfare system.
1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat so white people could sit down in Montgomery, Alabama. Although her actions sparked protests and eventually the integration of the bus system, she was also jailed for that initial refusal.
1990 The last rock separating Britain and France was removed in the Channel Tunnel, connecting the two countries for the first time since waters had rushed over the connecting land-bridge thousands of years previously.
