The January 1908 Irish representative peer election was held to fill a vacancy among the 28 Irish representative peers at the time elected for life to the British House of Lords, with ballots sent by post to the 134 Irish peers eligible to vote. The winner was Lord Curzon (pictured), the former viceroy of India, who had never been to Ireland and owned no Irish lands. A former MP, he ran to return to parliament after being denied an earldom by the prime minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. As he had not asked the House of Lords to affirm his right to vote in Irish representative peer elections, as required to vote in them, some stated that Curzon was ineligible for election. Despite a late start and opposition to him as non-Irish, Curzon led with two votes more than Lord Ashtown, who had two more than Lord Farnham, but the official return noted Curzon was not among those who could vote. When the House of Lords convened, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Loreburn, declared Curzon the winner.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1908_Irish_representative_peer_election> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1934: Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive officially to exceed 100 miles per hour (161 km/h). <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A3_4472_Flying_Scotsman> 1953: Mutesa II, Kabaka of Buganda, was temporarily deposed and exiled to London by Andrew Cohen, the British governor of Uganda. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabaka_crisis> 1954: A meteorite crashed through a roof in Sylacauga, Alabama, and hit a sleeping woman in the first verified case of a human being injured by an extraterrestrial object. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylacauga_%28meteorite%29> 1999: A series of protests by anti-globalization activists against the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 in Seattle forced the cancellation of the opening ceremonies. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Seattle_WTO_protests> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: usquebaugh: (chiefly Ireland, Scotland, dated or archaic) Whiskey or whisky. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/usquebaugh> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: When the doctrine of allegiance to party can utterly up-end a man's moral constitution and make a temporary fool of him besides, what excuse are you going to offer for preaching it, teaching it, extending it, perpetuating it? Shall you say, the best good of the country demands allegiance to party? Shall you also say it demands that a man kick his truth and his conscience into the gutter, and become a mouthing lunatic, besides? --Mark Twain <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Twain> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe write to: [email protected] Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
