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20250105
5 January 2025 at 08:17
From today's featured article
Cyfeilliog (died c. 927) was a bishop in south-east Wales. The location and extent of his diocese is uncertain, but lands granted to him are mainly close to Caerwent, suggesting that his diocese covered Gwent, possibly extending into Ergyng (now south-west Herefordshire). He is recorded in charters dating from the mid-880s to the early tenth century. In 914 he was captured by the Vikings and ransomed by Edward the Elder, King of the Anglo-Saxons, for 40 pounds of silver. Edward's assistance is regarded by historians as evidence that he inherited the overlordship of his father, Alfred the Great, over the south-east Welsh kingdoms. Cyfeilliog is probably the author of a cryptogram (encrypted text) which was added as a marginal note to the ninth-century collection of poetry known as the Juvencus Manuscript. The twelfth-century Book of Llandaff records his death in 927, but some historians are sceptical as they think that this date is late for a bishop active in the 880s. (Full article...)
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Salome Zourabichvili
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On this day
January 5: Twelfth Night (Western Christianity)
Harry S. Truman
- 1757 – King Louis XV survived an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, who later became the last person in France to be executed by drawing and quartering.
- 1869 – Te Kooti's War: After surviving a five-day siege in the pā at Ngātapa, Māori leader Te Kooti escaped from New Zealand's Armed Constabulary.
- 1919 – The German Workers' Party, the precursor of the Nazi Party, was founded by Anton Drexler.
- 1949 – In his State of the Union speech, U.S. president Harry S. Truman (pictured) announced: "Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal."
- 2003 – The Metropolitan Police arrested six people in conjunction with an alleged terrorist plot to release ricin on the London Underground, although no toxin was found.
- al-Mu'tasim (d. 842)
- Joseph Erlanger (b. 1874)
- Edmund Herring (d. 1982)
- Pierre Boulez (d. 2016)
Today's featured picture
Holger Drachmann (1846–1908) was a Danish poet, dramatist and painter. He was a member of the Skagen artistic colony and became a figure of the Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough Movement. Born in Copenhagen, he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, going on to achieve fame for his painting of seascapes and ships in storms. He began writing poetry in 1872; his most famous work is the 1877 collection of poems Sange ved Havet (Songs of the Sea). This portrait photograph of Drachmann was taken in 1908.
Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden
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