The fourth and fifth moons of the quasi-planet Pluto (above) were named Kerberos and Styx, after a dog and a river in the Greek version of Hell, today in 2013. They had been discovered in the previous two years, and joined the other satellites, Charon, Nix and Hydra. The five names are all taken from characters, creatures and places to do with the underworld in Greek mythology, which match Pluto itself, named for the Roman god of the dead.
Pietro Ottoboni, the last in a long line of cardinal-nephews (cardinalis nepos in Latin, which produces ‘nepotism’ in English), was born today in 1667. He was made cardinal by his great uncle, Pope Alexander VIII, when he was 22, and went on to live a life of luxury and maginficence, becoming the patron of artists and architects, as well as musicians such as Vivaldi, Corelli and Scarlatti. His bedroom was decorated with paintings of his numerous mistresses, scandalously portrayed as saints, and he had an estimated 70 children. The office of cardinal-nephew was abolished once his pope-uncle had died.
As he had no doubt long foreseen, Nostradamus died today in 1566. The French atrologer’s fame rests on his book Les Prophéties, published 11 years before he died, which he conveniently claimed ‘predicts events far in advance… written in a nebulous rather than plainly prophetic form’.
William Booth, a Methodist minister, conducted a service in a tent in Whitechapel, in London’s East End, on this day in 1865. He had been preaching outside the Blind Beggar (a pub later made infamous by the Kray Twins and the murder of a gangster in the 1960s), as he wanted to bring salvation to the ‘down and outs’ – those who were homeless, destitute, or addicted to alcohol. His approach was: ‘first, soup; second, soap; and finally, salvation’. Following the Whitechapel service, the Salvation Army was born, with William as its General. The military approach was designed to help members gain control of their lives through discipline.
Today in 1505, a university student called Martin Luther was caught in a violent thunderstorm. He was struck to the ground, and cried out in terror, ‘St Anne, save me! I will become a monk!’ Thus began the ecclesiastical career of the reformer who abolished both monasticism and prayers to the saints.
Image: NASA