From today's featured articleThe Yeomanry Cavalry was the mounted component of the British Volunteer Corps, a military auxiliary established in the late 18th century. When the Volunteer Corps was disbanded after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the yeomanry – recruited from the middle and upper classes – was retained as a politically reliable institution that could act as a mounted police force. It became infamous after playing a leading part in the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, and its policing role declined as civilian police forces were established in the mid-19th century. The yeomanry struggled to find a place in the military establishment, and it survived largely because of its members' political influence and willingness to subsidise it financially. It found a new relevance when the Second Boer War revealed a need for mounted infantry. It was reorganised in 1901 as the Imperial Yeomanry, and in 1908 it ceased to be a discrete institution when all volunteer auxiliaries were amalgamated into the Territorial Force. (Full article...)
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On this dayFebruary 11: Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1979); National Foundation Day in Japan (660 BC)
Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah (d. 1358) · Helene Kröller-Müller (b. 1869) · Sylvia Plath (d. 1963)
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I Lombardi alla prima crociata ('The Lombards on the First Crusade') is an operatic dramma lirico by Giuseppe Verdi, first performed on 11 February 1843 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. It is based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi, with an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The plot concerns a fictional family and its involvement in the First Crusade, appealing to the patriotic fervour of the time. The first British performance took place in London in May 1846, followed a year later by its premiere in New York, where it was the first of Verdi's operas to be performed in the United States. The opera was translated into French and significantly rewritten as Jérusalem, Verdi's first grand opera, which opened in Paris in November 1847. This picture shows the title page of a very early edition of the libretto of I Lombardi alla prima crociata, possibly the first edition, dating to the time of the opera's premiere in 1843. Illustration credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden
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