William Matthews (1770–1854) was the first person born in British America to be ordained a Catholic priest. Originally from the colonial Province of Maryland, he became influential in the establishment of Catholicism in Washington, D.C. through his parochial service and founding of several educational institutions. He was the second pastor of St. Patrick's Church, the President of Georgetown College (later known as Georgetown University), and the head of the Washington Catholic Seminary, which became Gonzaga College High School, in addition to being co-founder and president of the Washington Library Company, the first public library in the District of Columbia. He founded several orphanages, schools, and parishes, and was co-director of the District of Columbia Public Schools. In 1832 he officiated at the wedding of a French diplomat and Mary Anne Lewis, a ward of President Andrew Jackson, in the first Catholic ceremony to be held in the White House.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Matthews_%28priest%29> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1802: German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered 2 Pallas, the second asteroid ever identified. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Pallas> 1930: Turkey changed the name of its largest city Constantinople to Istanbul. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Istanbul> 1979: British Prime Minister James Callaghan was defeated by one vote in a motion of no confidence by the House of Commons after his government struggled to cope with widespread strikes during the "Winter of Discontent". <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_vote_of_no_confidence_in_the_Callaghan_ministry> 1999: Serbian police and special forces killed at least 89 Kosovo Albanians in the village of Izbica, in the Drenica region of central Kosovo. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izbica_massacre> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: atompunk: (science fiction) A subgenre of speculative fiction, based on the society and technology of the Atomic Age (c. 1945–1965). <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/atompunk> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: Why should it not be the whole function of a word to denote many things? --J. L. Austin <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._L._Austin> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
