Gabriel Pleydell was an English landowner and politician. Born before 1519 into a large, affluent family, he became a Member of Parliament for Wootton Bassett in 1553, close to his family estate at Midgehall in Wiltshire. His election to the Marlborough constituency two years later may have been made possible by his father's influential connections. He returned to the Wootton Bassett seat in 1563 at the request of Sir John Thynne, whom he had supported in a dispute over the Knighthood of the Shire in 1559. He was alleged to be one of the ringleaders of a plot to exile Queen Mary I of England, and made a contentious claim of parliamentary privilege after he was found guilty of this offence in 1555, an action which caused serious disagreement between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Legal accusations for most of his political career and imprisonment in Fleet Prison and the Tower of London helped "confirm for Gabriel Pleydell a niche in parliamentary history", according to a modern historian. He died in 1590 or 1591. (Full article...)
... that a vegan alternative to honey is made from apples, cane sugar, and lemon juice, making it more sustainable, and edible for people with a honey allergy?
The Padma Bhushan was presented two hundred times in the 1960s. It is the third-highest civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service of a high order", without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex. The recipients receive a Sanad, a certificate signed by the President of India and a circular-shaped medallion with no monetary association. Ten awards were presented in 1960, followed by thirteen in 1961, twenty-seven in 1962, twelve in 1963, eighteen in 1964, twenty-five in 1965, fourteen in 1966, twenty-four in 1967, twenty-eight in 1968, and twenty-nine in 1969, including five foreign recipients. Individuals from nine different fields were awarded. Journalist Manikonda Chalapathi Rau and Kannada writer K. Shivaram Karanth returned their 1968 awards, while sitar player Vilayat Khan refused to accept it, with him stating that "the selection committees were incompetent to judge [his] music". (Full list...)
The vault at Saint-Séverin Church, Paris. A vault is an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof. The parts of a vault exert lateral thrust that requires a counter resistance, provided by the ground in underground vaults or by (for example) thicker walls or buttresses for above-ground vaults. The simplest kind of vault is the barrel vault, which is generally semicircular in shape.
