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Ulfcytel (died 1016) was a greatly respected English military leader during the reign of Æthelred the Unready (978–1013 and 1014–1016), when ineffective opposition to Danish Viking invasions ended in the Danish conquest of England. Ulfcytel commanded East Anglian forces in a battle in 1004 against Danish Viking invaders led by the future king Swein Forkbeard; although Ulfcytel lost, the Danes were badly mauled and said that they had never met such hard fighting in England. He led a local English army to another defeat in the Battle of Ringmere in 1010 and died in 1016 in the Battle of Assandun. He exercised the powers of an ealdorman, the second-highest rank in Anglo-Saxon England, but to the puzzlement of historians he was never formally given the title. Ulfcytel is highly praised in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Scandinavian skaldic poetry, and also by Anglo-Norman writers and modern historians. Scandinavian sources gave him the byname snilling, meaning "bold", and the Icelandic court poet Sigvatr Þórðarson called East Anglia "Ulfkell's Land" after him. (Full article...)

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On this day

October 18: Alaska Day (1867)

Brahms in 1889

1356 – The most significant earthquake to have occurred in Central Europe in recorded history destroyed Basel, Switzerland.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: In an act of retaliation against ports that supported Patriot activities in the early stages of the war, the Royal Navy destroyed what is now Portland, Maine.
1887 – Johannes Brahms (pictured) conducted the premiere of his Double Concerto, composed for violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann.
1963 – The first cat in space, later known as Félicette, launched aboard a French Véronique rocket.
2019 – Protests in Santiago that started 11 days prior escalated into open battle against the Chilean national police, forcing President Sebastián Piñera to declare a state of emergency.

Isaac Jogues (d. 1646)
Marshall McDonald (b. 1835)
Christine Murrell (b. 1874; d. 1933)
Zarina Diyas (b. 1993)

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Today's featured picture

The Window is a song cycle composed by Arthur Sullivan with words by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written in 1867 and published in 1871, the cycle consists of twelve poems by Tennyson, eleven of which were set to music by Sullivan, as well as this one illustration, titled "A Reverie", drawn in 1868 by John Everett Millais and depicting a female figure looking pensively out of a window. Tennyson had a draft of the text by February 1867, but he was dissatisfied with his work and reluctant to publish it. In August 1867, Tennyson had revised the words, but he refused to allow publication until November 1870. By this time, however, Millais had disposed of all the drawings he had prepared for the publication except for "A Reverie", and he was too busy to work any further on the project.

Drawing credit: John Everett Millais; restored by Adam Cuerden

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