Emperor of Abyssinia Téwodros II, angered by the failure of the British to provide him aid had taken most British diplomats, missionaries, and businessmen in his kingdom as hostages the year before. After other diplomatic attempts had failed, Queen Victoria's government issued a final ultimatum that unless all hostages were delivered to the Ethiopian coast by this day, military action would be taken. Again,the Emperor failed to comply, was ultimately invaded and overcome by a strong British expedition, and committed suicide in April 1868.  (By John Osborne)

Emperor of Abyssinia Téwodros II had for several years been trying to secure aid and equipment from Britain since he feared Muslim encroachments on his Christian domain from the north.  Considering himself ignored and betrayed, he took most British diplomats, missionaries, and businessmen in his kingdom as hostages. This did gain the attention of Queen Victoria's government and after other diplomatic attempts had failed, the British foreign minister on this day communicated to Téwodros a blunt warning to release all hostages or face military consequences.  He failed to comply, was ultimately invaded and overcome by a strong British expedition, and committed suicide one year and three days later in April 1868.  (By John Osborne)

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, with Delacroix, the leading Neoclassical French painter of his age, died of pneumonia at his home in Paris on this day. Best known for his portraits, Ingres was considered a conservative voice in French art for much of his later life.  Ingres had been born at Montauban in the Langedoc region of France, the son of a designer and educator from Toulouse.  He achieved fame relatively early in his career, concentrating on historical subjects as well as portraits during the Napoleonic period.  He was eighty-six when he died and is buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.  (By John Osborne) 

Sebastian Spering Kresge, know for most of his life by the name of his company, S.S. Kresge, was born this day at Bald Mountain, Pennsylvania, near Wilkes-Barre.  He attended public schools, then worked his way through business college in Poughkeepsie, New York before becoming the part owner of a five and dime store in Detroit, Michigan.  Over the next decades he built a retail empire that already by 1922 contained 180 stores spread across North America making the notoriously parsimonious Kresge a billioniare in modern terms.  His company began to convert its 915 stores to the KMart brand in 1962, four years before Kresge died in 1966, six weeks after his ninety-ninth birthday.  (By John Osborne)

Frank Lloyd Wright, the most famous and innovative architect of his generation, was born on this day in Richland Center, Wisconsin, the son of schoolteachers. Born Frank Lincoln Wright, he changed his middle name to Lloyd in support of his mother after his parents' acrimonious divorce.  He studied at the University of Wisconsin and then took up design, finding work as a draftsman in Chicago.  He went on to become the nation's leading architect, a force in the Prairie School of design, and a lifelong advocate for blending structures with the environment in which they stood.  Frank Lloyd Wright died after a full, accomplished, and often chaotic life in Phoenix, Arizona in April 1959.  (By John Osborne)

Wilbur Wright, the older of the two famous winged-flight pioneer Wright Brothers, was born this day in Millville, Indiana, the son of a clergyman.  He and his brother are famous for the December 1903 success of their Wright Flyer and are justly credited with the development of controls that enabled a heavier-than-air machine to change direction safely.  Wilbur Wright largely devoted himself to the family businesses.  He fell ill, was diagnosed with typhoid, and died in Dayton, Ohio on May 30, 1912 at the early age of forty-five. Neither he nor his brother married.  (By John Osborne)