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Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552 – 1616) was an English writer. He is principally remembered for his efforts in promoting and supporting the settlement of North America by the English through his works, notably Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America (1582) and The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation (1589–1600). Educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, between 1583 and 1588 Hakluyt was chaplain and secretary to Sir Edward Stafford, English ambassador at the French court. An ordained priest, Hakluyt held important positions at Bristol Cathedral and Westminster Abbey and was personal chaplain to Sir Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, principal Secretary of State to Elizabeth I and James I. He was the chief promoter of a petition to James I for letters patent to colonize Virginia, which were granted to the London Company and Plymouth Company (referred to collectively as the Virginia Company) in 1606. (more...)
Recently featured: Harry Chauvel – Iguanodon – Wage reform in the Soviet Union, 1956–1962
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Did you know...
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From Wikipedia's newest content:
- ... that the male tropical rockmaster (pictured) can be distinguished from the male sapphire rockmaster by the size of the blue spots on the underside of its abdomen?
- ... that the 1938 Alabama Crimson Tide football team still holds defensive team records for the fewest total, rushing and passing yards in a season?
- ... that three medieval walls dated to 1282 were found in the grounds at Maenan Abbey in 2011, whilst workmen were working on the drainage?
- ... that critics described the 2002 comedy thriller Triggermen as "neither noticeably comic nor remotely thrilling"?
- ... that the bailiff John Knibb also built the turret clock for St John's College, Oxford?
- ... that U.S. state governors Blagojevich, Blanton, Edwards, Hall, Kerner, Mandel, Moore, Rowland, Ryan, and Siegelman have been convicted of federal public corruption crimes?
- ... that the number of ways to place n diagonally symmetric rooks on an n × n chessboard in such a way that no two rooks attack each other is a telephone number?
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In the news
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On this day...
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April 26: Feast Day of Our Lady of Good Counsel (Roman Catholic Church); Yom Ha'atzmaut in Israel (2012)
- 1958 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue, one of the first major railway electrification systems in the United States, made its final Washington, D.C., to New York City run.
- 1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco performed the world's first human open fetal surgery.
- 1982 – In one of the deadliest spree killings in modern history, former South Korean police officer Woo Bum-kon killed a total of 57 people in one night, including himself.
- 1986 – The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Chernobyl, Ukrainian SSR, suffered a steam explosion, resulting in a fire, a nuclear meltdown, and the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people around Europe.
- 2007 – Controversy surrounding the relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn (pictured), a Soviet Red Army World War II memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, erupted into mass protests and riots.
More anniversaries: April 25 – April 26 – April 27
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