At a dinner at the White House with President Grover Cleveland and other dignitaries, Mr. Riley read a poem and spoke about the need for international copyright protections.

Mr. Mallarmé’s occupation was an English teacher

In his book A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828) Washington Irving gave birth to the myth that people during Columbus’ time thought the Earth was flat and Columbus set out to prove them wrong. (Inventing the Flat Earth by Jeffrey Russell) In the 1490s people argues about the size of the Earth, not its shape, in fact in 1492, when Columbus set sail, the first globes were produces.

Prolific English author Sax Rohmer was born on this day in 1883. Mr. Rohmer is best known for his series featuring the mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu.

Georg Letham is unhappy in his marriage but happy in his research. When the opportunity knocks he injects his older, wealthier and well insured wife with the lethal poison Agent Y. However, as good as a physician as Georg is he botches up the cover-up. Not only does he leave the syringe in the crime scene but also confesses to his father, an official in the Austrian bureaucracy.