Today in history..
456 - Magister militum Ricimer defeats the Roman Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the western Roman Empire.He spent the rest of his life as the Patrician, ruling through a number of puppet emperors. Patricians were the uppermost elite class of ancient Rome. They were largely consisting of families with famous or influential ancestors. The word patrician, or patricius, is partly based on the Latin word Pater, which means father.
In the early days of the Roman Republic intermarriages were forbidden between patricians and plebeians. As well, patricians would often forbid any trading between them and the plebeians. These restrictions were relaxed as time passed, and the number of patricians decreased.
In the later Roman Empire, the emperor Constantine reintroduced the title Patrician as an honorific for people who demonstrated faithful service to the Empire. By the end of the fifth century, it had become the title of the man who held the power behind the Imperial throne, usually a general of the Roman army, such as Stilicho, Aetius, and Ricimer.
1793 - Marie Antoinette, daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, and wife of Louis XVI and hence Queen Consort of France, was guillotined at the height of the French Revolution. To harm her reputation, the false story was circulated that, upon hearing that the poor of France were unable to purchase even moldy bread, she said "Let them eat cake!", which quickly became a famous non-quotation. The phrase is in full "S'ils n'ont pas de pain, qu'ils mangent de la brioche" and was invented or quoted by Rousseau some years before Marie Antoinette came to power.
1934 - Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong begin their Long March
1973 - Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
1978 - Karol Józef Wojtyla becomes Pope John Paul II.The first non-Italian pope in 455 years and the first ever from a Slavic country.
|
