Prince George of Denmark and Norway, Duke of Cumberland (1653–1708) was the husband of
Queen Anne of Great Britain. His marriage to Anne was arranged in the early 1680s with a view to developing an Anglo-Danish alliance to contain Dutch maritime power. This made him unpopular with his Dutch brother-in-law
William of Orange, who was married to
Mary, Anne's sister. William and Mary became joint monarchs of Britain in 1689 after the "
Glorious Revolution" deposed
James II and VII, the father of Anne and Mary. William excluded George from active military service, and neither Anne (who was
heiress presumptive) nor George wielded any great influence until after the deaths of William and Mary, when Anne became queen. He had an easy-going manner and little interest in politics; his appointment as
Lord High Admiral in 1702 was largely honorary. Anne's seventeen pregnancies by George resulted in twelve miscarriages or stillbirths, four infant deaths, and a chronically sick son
William, who died at the age of eleven. Despite the history of their children, George and Anne's marriage was a strong one. He died aged 55 from a recurring and chronic lung disease, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. (
Full article...)
1875 – Representatives from seventeen countries signed the Metre Convention which set up an institute for the purpose of coordinating international
metrology and for coordinating the development of the
metric system.
1927 – By the
Treaty of Jeddah, the United Kingdom recognized the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud(pictured) over
Hejaz and
Nejd, which later merged to become Saudi Arabia.
1983 – A team of researchers led by French
virologistLuc Montagnier published their discovery of
HIV, although they did not know yet if it caused
AIDS.
This Wikipedia is written in
English. Started in 2001 (2001), it currently contains
4,236,589 articles.
Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.