George Mason (December 11, 1725 – October 7, 1792) was a Founding Father of the United States. A delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he was one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings have exercised a significant influence on American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed a father. Many clauses in the Constitution were influenced by Mason's input, but he ultimately did not sign, citing the lack of a bill of rights. His prominent fight for a bill of rights led fellow Virginian James Madison to introduce one during the First Congress in 1789; these amendments were ratified in 1791, a year before Mason died. Obscure after his death, Mason later came to be recognized in the 20th and 21st centuries for his contributions to Virginia and the early United States. (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1925: Pope Pius XI promulgated the encyclical Quas primas, establishing the Feast of Christ the King. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quas_primas> 1972: Apollo 17 (Lunar Roving Vehicle pictured), the last Apollo mission, landed on the Moon. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17> 1998: With its pilot believed to have been suffering from spatial disorientation, Thai Airways Flight 261 crashed in a swamp on approach to Surat Thani Airport, resulting in 101 deaths. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Airways_International_Flight_261> 2005: Demonstrations in Cronulla, a suburb of Sydney, against recent violence towards locals turned into a series of race riots. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Cronulla_riots> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: aslope: 1. (archaic) Slanted, sloping. 2. Slanted, sloping. 3. (figurative) 4. Indirectly, obliquely. 5. In an unfavourable or unintended direction. 6. (archaic) Diagonally across or over; aslant. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aslope> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: Practised in acts of despotism and cruelty, we become callous to the dictates of humanity and all the finer feelings of the soul. Taught to regard a part of our own Species in the most abject and contemptible Degree below us, we lose that Idea of the dignity of Man which the Hand of Nature had implanted in us, for great and useful purposes. Habituated from our Infancy to trample upon the Rights of Human Nature, every generous, every liberal Sentiment, if not extinguished, is enfeebled in our Minds; and in such an infernal school are to be educated our future legislators and rulers. The laws of impartial Providence may even by such means as these avenge upon our posterity the injury done to a set of wretches whom our injustice hath debased to a level with the brute creation. --George Mason <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Mason> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe write to: [email protected] Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
