politician from Kentucky. Early in his career, he gained national fame
for effecting the first successful quarantine against yellow fever in
the Mississippi River valley and was regarded as an expert on the
disease. During the Civil War, he aided Confederate blockade runners in
Canada and traveled to Bermuda to combat a yellow fever outbreak
threatening Confederate blockade-running operations. A Confederate
double agent accused him of collecting linens and garments used by the
yellow fever patients and smuggling them into the North to start a
yellow fever epidemic to hamper the Union war effort. (It was not yet
known that yellow fever is spread by mosquitos.) He was acquitted, and
historians disagree regarding the evidence against him. In 1868,
Blackburn returned to the U.S. and rehabilitated his public image by
rendering aid in yellow fever outbreaks in Tennessee, Florida, and
Kentucky, propelling him to the governorship of Kentucky in 1879. His
signature accomplishments were in penal reform, and he is known as "the
father of prison reform in Kentucky".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_P._Blackburn>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1812:
Napoleonic Wars: During Napoleon's invasion of Russia, Marshal
Michel Ney's leadership in the Battle of Krasnoi earned him the nickname
"the bravest of the brave" despite the overwhelming French defeat.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Krasnoi>
1865:
American author Mark Twain's story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog
of Calaveras County", his first great success as a writer, was
published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celebrated_Jumping_Frog_of_Calaveras_County>
1872:
American suffragette Susan B. Anthony was arrested and fined
$100 for having voted in the U.S. presidential election in Rochester,
New York, two weeks prior.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony>
1987:
In London, an underground fire killed 31 people at King's Cross
St Pancras.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Cross_fire>
1991:
Croatian War of Independence: Yugoslav People's Army forces
captured the Croatian city of Vukovar, ending an 87-day siege.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
coherent:
1. Unified; sticking together; making up a whole.
2. Orderly, logical and consistent.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coherent>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A love thought: I love you so much that I could wish I had been born
your brother, or had brought you into the world myself.
--Cesare Pavese
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cesare_Pavese>
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