today’s birthday: Titus Oates (1649)

Titus Oates (1649)

Oates was an Anglican priest whose whole career was marked with intrigue and scandal. In 1678, he invented the story of the Popish Plot, a fictitious Jesuit conspiracy to kill Charles II and place his Catholic brother James—later James II—on the throne. Oates’s testimony resulted in a frenzy of anti-Catholic hatred throughout England, and caused more than 30 people to be executed. He was finally convicted of perjury and imprisoned in 1685. Who conspired with Oates to invent the plot? More… Discuss

today’s holiday: Vanuatu Father Walter Lini Day (2015)

Vanuatu Father Walter Lini Day (2015)

A former Anglican priest, Father Walter Lini became the first prime minister of the newly independent country of Vanuatu in 1980. Despite those who remember him for his authoritarian ways, Lini is honored on February 21 as the father of Vanuatu’s independence. To mark the 25th anniversary of the country’s independence, the 2005 celebration of Lini Day included a special remembrance service at the Tagabe Anglican Church with President Kalkot Matas Kelekele attending. Prime minister Ham Lini, Walter Lini’s brother, presided over a ceremony in which a wreath was placed on the late priest’s grave. More… Discuss