Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 January 17

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Lord Chief Justice Alexander Cockburn

The Eastbourne manslaughter (R v Hopley) was an 1860 legal case in Eastbourne, England, about the death of a teenage pupil at the hands of his teacher, Thomas Hopley. Reginald Cancellor's parents gave Hopley permission to use corporal punishment to overcome what he perceived as the boy's stubbornness. After the boy died, the teacher insisted that the beating was justifiable and that he was not guilty of any crime. An inquest into Cancellor's death began when his brother requested an autopsy. As a result of the inquest Hopley was arrested and charged with manslaughter. He was found guilty at trial and sentenced to four years in prison. Hopley's conviction was upheld by the Court of King's Bench (Chief Justice Alexander Cockburn pictured), which said that a schoolmaster "may for the purpose of correcting what is evil in the child, inflict moderate and reasonable corporal punishment." The trial was sensationalised by the Victorian press and incited debate over the use of corporal punishment in schools. Physical discipline was officially banned in British schools more than a century later. (Full article...)

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Persoonia procumbens

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In the news

Mudflow damage in Santa Barbara County

The British construction and services company Carillion goes into compulsory liquidation.
The oil tanker MV Sanchi sinks with the loss of all 32 crew eight days after colliding with another ship.
At least 18 people are killed after mudflows (damage pictured) strike the area of Montecito, California, in the area affected by the recent Thomas Fire.
In cricket, the Ashes series concludes with Australia beating England.
The National Unity Party wins the most seats in the parliamentary election in Northern Cyprus.

On this day...

January 17

Queen Liliʻuokalani

1773 – On James Cook's second voyage, his ship HMS Resolution became the first to cross the Antarctic Circle.
1893 – Lorrin A. Thurston, along with the Citizens' Committee of Public Safety led the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the government of Queen Liliʻuokalani (pictured).
1912 – Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition reached the South Pole, only to find that Roald Amundsen's team had beaten them by 33 days.
1948 – Indonesian National Revolution: The Renville Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesian Republicans was ratified, recognising a cease-fire along the "Van Mook Line".
1998 – The Drudge Report became the first news source to break the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky scandal to the public

Thomas Fairfax (b. 1612) · Anne Brontë (b. 1820) · Barbara Jordan (d. 1996)

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Michelle Obama is an American lawyer and writer who was First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Obama spent her early legal career working at the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met her husband Barack Obama, before taking positions at the University of Chicago and University of Chicago Medical Center. Obama campaigned for her husband's presidential bid throughout 2007 and 2008, delivering a keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. When Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States, Michelle Obama became the first African-American First Lady. In this position, she advocated for poverty awareness, nutrition, physical activity and healthy eating.

Photograph: Chuck Kennedy

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