Stephen Owen Davies (died 25 February 1972) was a Welsh coal miner and Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil from 1934 to 1972. In 1918 he became miners' agent for the Dowlais district of the South Wales Miners' Federation, and in 1924 was appointed its chief organiser, legal adviser, and vice-president. Elected to parliament in 1934, Davies consistently defied official Labour policy to champion causes such as disarmament and Welsh nationalism, with a persistence that brought him several suspensions and ensured that he was never offered ministerial office. After a spoil heap at a coal mine collapsed in the village of Aberfan on 21 October 1966 killing 116 schoolchildren and 28 adults, Davies controversially said that he had long thought that it was unsafe. He had not reported his suspicions for fear that an enquiry would cause the closures of local pits. In 1970 he was deselected as parliamentary candidate by his local party association on account of his age, but won the seat in the general election as an Independent, a rare example in British politics of an independent candidate defeating a major party's organisation. (Full article...)
... that the Taunton Flag(pictured) was one of the first flags used in British North America prior to the American Revolution to express dissent against the British authorities?
... that the archaeologist Lily Chitty was a Land Girl during the First World War?
... that the main event of last month's Máscara vs. Máscara professional wrestling show has been called IWRG's biggest Lucha de Apuestas ("bet match") in years?
... that at an 1892 rally attended by anti-lynching activist Ferdinand Lee Barnett, participants refused to sing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" until the United States was more truly a "sweet land of liberty"?
A posthumous portrait of Herman Willem Daendels (1762–1818), a Dutch politician. He was the 36th Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, between 1808 and 1811, and was responsible for several infrastructure developments, including the Great Post Road. When the Netherlands was incorporated into France in 1810, Daendels returned to his homeland and became a major general in Napoleon's army. Daendels was later sent to govern the Dutch Gold Coast, dying there of malaria.
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