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Margaret Macpherson Grant (1834–1877) was a Scottish heiress and philanthropist. Born in Aberlour parish to a local surgeon, she was educated in Hampshire and inherited a large fortune from her uncle, Alexander Grant, a planter and merchant who had become rich in Jamaica. Macpherson Grant took up residence in Aberlour House, which had been built for her uncle by William Robertson. She lived unconventionally for a woman of her time, entering into what was described as a form of marriage with a female companion, Charlotte Temple, whom she met in London in 1864. Macpherson Grant donated generously to charitable enterprises, establishing an orphanage (now the Aberlour Child Care Trust) and founding St Margaret's Episcopal Church in Aberlour. She made several wills over the course of her life that would have left her estate to Temple, but after Temple left her to marry a man, Macpherson Grant revoked her will, and the bulk of her fortune went to cousins, who were probably unknown to her. (Full article...)

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Flag of Western Australia

... that the direction of the black swan on the flag of Western Australia (pictured) was corrected in 1953, even though this issue was identified 17 years earlier?
... that during the Second World War, Abkhazian female pilot Meri Avidzba flew 477 combat sorties and dropped 63 tonnes of bombs onto the enemy?
... that the Mutual Reserve Building was described as "a law office slum" and a 1920s center of the "personal injury underworld"?
... that the Spanish town of Cadrete removed a bust of the ruler who built its castle, for causing "division and confrontation"?
... that bridge designer James Barney Marsh gave Archie Alexander, the first African American to graduate as an engineer from the University of Iowa, his first job?
... that the owner of WSZE-TV started an air-taxi service to bring program tapes to Saipan?
... that Bristol's medieval Tolzey Court saw a surge in popularity in the 1960s because it had lower fees than the High Court or County Court?
... that Rodney Scott's Whole Hog BBQ uses MSG in its spice rub, calling it a "flavor maker"?

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On this day

September 27: Banned Books Week begins (2020)

Locomotion No. 1

1825 – Locomotion No. 1 (pictured) hauled the train on the opening day of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the first public railway in the world to use steam locomotives.
1875 – The Ellen Southard was wrecked in a storm at Liverpool, England; the U.S. Congress subsequently awarded 27 gold Lifesaving Medals to the men who rescued her crew.
1908 – The first production Ford Model T, the car credited with initiating the mass use of automobiles in the United States, was completed at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan.
1940 – World War II: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Empire of Japan signed the Tripartite Pact in Berlin, officially forming a military alliance known as the Axis powers.
1983 – Software developer Richard Stallman announced plans for the Unix-like GNU operating system, the first free software developed by the GNU Project.

Flaminio Scala (b. 1552)
Bernard Courtois (d. 1838)
Asashōryū Akinori (b. 1980)

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Pomegranate juice is a beverage made from the fruit of the pomegranate. It is used in cooking both as a fresh juice and as a concentrated syrup. The fruit originated in the region extending from Iran to northern India and has been cultivated since ancient times. The fruit has a hard outer husk and a spongy mesocarp in which the seeds in their fleshy seedcoats are embedded. Pomegranate juice can be sweet or sour, but most fruits are moderate in taste. The juice has long been a popular drink in Europe and the Middle East, and is now widely distributed in the United States and Canada.

Photograph credit: Augustus Binu

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