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William O'Connell Bradley

William O'Connell Bradley (1847–1914) was the 32nd Governor of Kentucky and a U.S. senator. The first Republican to serve as governor of the state, he became known as the father of the Republican Party in Kentucky. After a well-received speech seconding the presidential nomination of Ulysses S. Grant at the 1880 Republican National Convention, he was nominated for governor in 1887. He lost the general election that year, but won in 1895, capitalizing on divisions in the Democratic Party over the issue of free silver. His term was marked by political struggles and violence. He advanced the status of black citizens, but was unable to enact much of his reform agenda over a hostile Democratic majority. He was elected by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1907, when voting was deadlocked and the Democratic candidate, outgoing Governor J. C. W. Beckham, refused to withdraw in favor of a compromise candidate. Bradley's opposition to Prohibition made him palatable to some Democratic legislators, and after two months of balloting, four of them crossed party lines to elect him. His career in the Senate was largely undistinguished. (Full article...)

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Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger

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Volodymyr Groysman in 2014
Volodymyr Groysman

On this day...

April 18: Patriots' Day in Maine and Massachusetts (2016); Tax Day in the United States (2016); Independence Day in Zimbabwe (1980)

Saint Peter's Basilica by Giovanni Paolo Pannini
Saint Peter's Basilica by Giovanni Paolo Pannini

From today's featured list

Apollo 11 Flown Silver Robbins Medallion (SN-416).jpg

NASA space-flown Gemini and Apollo medallions were mission-specific commemorative medallions—often astronaut-designed—which were approved by NASA and carried aboard the mission spacecraft into orbit. Beginning with the first manned Gemini mission in 1965, commemorative medallions were prepared for the astronauts at their request. These were produced by a company only known as Fliteline and were struck either in a pewter-colored base metal, sometimes painted a gold color, or sterling silver, and were flown on all 10 manned Gemini missions. The Robbins Company of Attleboro, Massachusetts, was contracted in 1968 to produce commemorative medallions beginning with Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo flight since the Apollo 1 disaster. These were purchased by astronauts and support crew personnel at NASA Astronaut Flight Office, and a total of over 3,000 sterling silver Robbins medallions were flown into space across the 12 manned flights of the Apollo program. Some of these were later sold in public auction for up to $60,000. (Full list...)

Today's featured picture

Libra (constellation)

An illustration from Urania's Mirror (1825) depicting the constellation Libra. This faint constellation, which has no first magnitude stars, is located between Virgo to the west and Scorpius to the east. Both Roman and Babylonian astronomy likened the constellation to a pair of scales, though the Ancient Greeks held it to be the scorpion's claws. Libra is one of the constellations of the zodiac; in Western astrology, Libra covers the period between September 22 and October 21.

Illustration: Sidney Hall; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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