[Wikipedia] May 22: Edward Low

  Edward Low was a notorious pirate during the latter days of the Golden
  Age of Piracy, in the early 18th century.  He was born around 1690 into
  poverty in Westminster, London, and was a thief and a scoundrel from a
  young age.  Low moved to Boston, Massachusetts as a young man.  
  Following the death of his wife during childbirth in late 1719, he
  became a pirate two years later, operating off the coasts of New
  England, the Azores, and in the Caribbean.  He captained a number of
  ships, usually maintaining a small fleet of three or four.  Low and his
  pirate crews captured at least a hundred ships during his short
  career, burning most of them.  Although he was only active for three
  years, Low remains notorious as one of the most vicious pirates of the
  age, with a reputation for violently torturing his victims before
  killing them.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described Low as "savage and
  desperate", and a man of "amazing and grotesque brutality".  The New
  York Times called him a torturer, whose methods would have "done
  credit to the ingenuity of the Spanish Inquisition in its darkest
  days".  The circumstances of Low's death, which took place around 1724,
  have been the subject of much speculation.  

Read the rest of this article:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Low

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1455:
  Forces led by Richard, Duke of York and Richard, Earl of Warwick
  captured Lancastrian King Henry VI of England, beginning the Wars of
  the Roses with a Yorkist victory in the First Battle of St Albans.  
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_St_Albans)

1809:
  War of the Fifth Coalition: Austrian forces under Archduke Charles
  prevented Napoleon I and his French troops from crossing the Danube
  near Vienna at the Battle of Aspern-Essling.  
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aspern-Essling)

1915:
  Five trains were involved in a crash near Gretna Green, Scotland,
  killing 227 people and injuring 246 in the Quintinshill rail crash.  
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintinshill_rail_crash)

1964:
  During a speech at the University of Michigan, U.S. President Lyndon
  B.  Johnson presented the goals of his Great Society domestic social
  reforms to eliminate poverty and racial injustice.  
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society)

1990:
  The Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of
  Yemen merged to become the Republic of Yemen.  
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemen)

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Wiktionary's Word of the day:

  nuptial: Of or pertaining to wedding and marriage.  
  (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nuptial)

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Wikiquote of the day:

  Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly
  recognizes genius.  
  -- [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]
  (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle)