Learning Skills

Article of the day for April 29, 2019 is Jeremy Thorpe . Jeremy Thorpe (29 April 1929 – 4 December 2014) was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament for North Devon from 1959 to 1979, and as leader of the Liberal Party between 1967 and 1976. After graduating from Oxford University, he became one of the Liberals' brightest stars in the 1950s. As party leader, Thorpe capitalised on the growing unpopularity of the Conservative and Labour parties to lead the Liberals through a period of electoral success. This culminated in the general election of February 1974, when the party won 6 million votes. In May 1979 he was tried at the Old Bailey on charges of conspiracy and incitement to murder, arising from an earlier relationship with Norman Scott, a former model. Thorpe was acquitted on all charges, but the case, and the scandal, ended his political career. By the time of his death he was honoured for his record as an internationalist, a supporter of human rights, and an...

With a high of 80F and a low of 60F.

By Unknown Author from NYT Books https://nyti.ms/2J1RGhA

Article of the day for April 28, 2019 is Thomas Crisp . Skipper Thomas Crisp (28 April 1876 – 15 August 1917) was a posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross. A commercial fisherman operating from Lowestoft in Suffolk, England, Crisp joined the Royal Navy in 1915. He was killed in the North Sea defending his armed naval vessel, His Majesty's Smack Nelson, against an attack from a German submarine. The government used his self-sacrifice against long odds to bolster morale in the First World War during a difficult time for Britain, the summer and autumn of 1917, when the country was suffering heavy losses in the Battle of Passchendaele. His exploit was read aloud by David Lloyd George in the House of Commons and made headline news for nearly a week. After the war, a small display to his memory was set up in a Lowestoft library with parts of the sunken Nelson, which were dredged up years later, and a specially commissioned painting. This display was destroyed during the Second Worl...

With a high of 83F and a low of 64F.

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Books https://nyti.ms/2V1QfXq

Article of the day for April 27, 2019 is Teresa Sampsonia . Teresa Sampsonia (1589–1668) was a noblewoman of the Safavid Empire of Iran. She was born into a noble Orthodox Christian Circassian family and grew up in Isfahan in the Iranian royal court. In 1608 she married the Elizabethan English adventurer Robert Shirley, who attended the Safavid court in an effort to forge an alliance against the neighbouring Ottoman Empire. She accompanied him on the Persian embassy to Europe (1609–15), where he represented the Safavid king Abbas the Great. She was received by many of the royal houses of Europe, including the English prince Henry Frederick and Queen Anne, who were her son's godparents. The historian Thomas Herbert considered Robert Shirley "the greatest Traveller of his time", but admired the "undaunted Lady Teresa" even more. Following the death of her husband from dysentery in 1628, she left Iran and lived in a convent in Rome for the rest of her life.