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Frank Russell, 2nd Earl Russell (1865–1931), was a British nobleman, barrister and politician, the older brother of the philosopher Bertrand Russell. In his youth, he enjoyed four happy years at Winchester College, but was dismissed from Balliol College, Oxford. He married Mabel Scott in 1890, but they soon separated. Unable to get an English divorce, in 1900, he became the first celebrity to get one in Nevada, and remarried there, but the divorce was invalid in England. In June 1901, he was arrested for bigamy, and was convicted before the House of Lords, the last time a peer was convicted by the Lords. His second marriage ended after he fell in love with the novelist Elizabeth von Arnim; they wed in 1916. The couple soon separated, though they did not divorce. Russell was given junior office in the second MacDonald government in 1929, and served until his death. Frank Russell is obscure compared to his brother, and his marital difficulties led to his being dubbed the "Wicked Earl". (Full article...)

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On this day

June 18: Autistic Pride Day

Cavalry at the Battle of Waterloo

1757 – Third Silesian War: The Austrian victory at the Battle of Kolín forced Prussian leader Frederick the Great to give up the Siege of Prague and retreat to Saxony.
1815 – War of the Seventh Coalition: Napoleon fought and lost his final battle, the Battle of Waterloo (depicted), in present-day Belgium.
1972 – British European Airways Flight 548 crashed near Staines-upon-Thames less than three minutes after departing from Heathrow Airport in London, killing all 118 people aboard in the worst air accident in the UK.
1982 – The body of Italian banker Roberto Calvi, nicknamed "God's Banker" due to his close association with the Holy See, was found hanging from scaffolding beneath London's Blackfriars Bridge.
2012 – Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was appointed the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.

Rogier van der Weyden (d. 1464)
Paul McCartney (b. 1942)
Kofoworola Abeni Pratt (d. 1992)

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Today's featured picture

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister. He is one of the commanders who won and ended the Napoleonic Wars when a coalition of European powers defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. This oil-on-canvas portrait, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence shortly after the Battle of Waterloo, depicts Wellington wearing the uniform of a field marshal with the insignia of the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Golden Fleece. The painting is part of the collection of Apsley House, the London townhouse of the Dukes of Wellington.

Painting credit: Thomas Lawrence; image restored by Hohum

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