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Melville Fuller (February 11, 1833 – July 4, 1910) was the eighth chief justice of the United States. Born in Augusta, Maine, he graduated from Bowdoin College and practiced law in Chicago. In 1888, President Grover Cleveland appointed him to the Supreme Court. Fuller gained a reputation for collegiality and competent administrative skills. His jurisprudence was staunchly conservative: he favored free enterprise and opposed broad federal power. Fuller wrote the majority opinion in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., which held that the federal income tax was unconstitutional. He joined the majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld state-mandated racial segregation, and in Lochner v. New York, which struck down economic regulations on the grounds that they violated the freedom of contract. Many of his decisions were later overruled, and the majority of scholars have been critical of the Fuller Court's jurisprudence. He served as chief justice until his death in 1910. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Killaloe Crucifixion Plaque

... that Irish crucifixion plaques (example pictured) date from between the 9th and 12th centuries and may have once been attached to altars, book shrines, reliquaries or high crosses?
... that Baillieu Myer and his siblings were born in California because their father's prior divorce was not recognised under Australian law?
... that when James Cook came to Saint Helena in 1775, wheelbarrows were placed near his residence in response to a description in John Hawkesworth's An Account of the Voyages?
... that despite being undersized and not highly recruited, Casey Tiumalu became the BYU Cougars' leader in both rushing and receiving, earning an honorable mention as an All-American?
... that Aubin Grove railway station was built mostly off-site to minimise disruption to a nearby freeway?
... that while recording their tenth album, Lucifer on the Sofa, Spoon wanted to replicate their sound as a live band in studio form?
... that journalist Jack Sullivan was referred to as "the newsman's newsman"?
... that the Chicago Sun-Times credits JumpStart Toddlers as the first video game targeted towards babies?

In the news

Cyclone Batsirai

Cyclone Batsirai (satellite image shown) makes landfall in Madagascar, displacing more than 112,000 people and leaving at least 92 others dead.
In association football, the Africa Cup of Nations concludes with Senegal defeating Egypt in the final.
Indian playback singer and composer Lata Mangeshkar dies at the age of 92.
Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi dies in a US military raid in Atme, Syria.

On this day

February 11: Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1979); National Foundation Day in Japan (660 BC)

"Le beau vingt-et-unième"
from La fille du régiment

AD 55 – Britannicus, son of Claudius and his heir as Roman emperor, died after being poisoned at a dinner party.
1584 – Spanish explorer Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa founded the town of Nombre de Jesús, the first of two short-lived colonies at the Strait of Magellan.
1840 – La fille du régiment (audio featured), an opéra comique by Gaetano Donizetti, premiered in Paris to highly negative reviews but later became a success.
1919 – Friedrich Ebert was elected the provisional president of Germany by the Weimar National Assembly.
2008 – Rebel East Timorese soldiers invaded the homes of President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, seriously wounding the former.

René Descartes (d. 1650)
Elizabeth Siddal (d. 1862)
Whitney Houston (d. 2012)

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From today's featured list

Elizabeth I

The alumni of Jesus College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, include politicians, lawyers, bishops, poets, and academics. Some went on to become fellows of the college; fourteen students later became principals of the college. Jesus College was founded in 1571 by Queen Elizabeth I (pictured) at the request of the Welsh clergyman Hugh Price, who was Treasurer of St Davids Cathedral in Pembrokeshire. From the world of politics, the college's alumni include two prime ministers (Harold Wilson of the United Kingdom and Kevin Rudd of Australia), Jamaica's chief minister and first premier (Norman Washington Manley), and a speaker of the House of Commons (Sir William Williams). The list of lawyers include one lord chancellor (Lord Sankey) and one law lord (Lord du Parcq). The list of clergy includes three archbishops of Wales (A. G. Edwards, Glyn Simon and Gwilym Williams). (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The soft-plumaged petrel (Pterodroma mollis) is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae, found in the Southern Hemisphere. The species is known to breed on Tristan da Cunha, Gough Island, the Prince Edward Islands, the Crozet Islands, Macquarie Island and the Antipodes Islands of New Zealand. At other times of year, the petrel disperses more widely; this light-morph petrel was photographed at Eaglehawk Neck, east of the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania, Australia.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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