Clerks or scribes (i.e. people who could read and write and used those skills in an official capacity, such as writing letters or legal documents).
Scriveners
Fact of the Day
Before signing the trade embargo against Cuba, John F. Kennedy got his press secretary to buy him 1,000 Cuban cigars.
Quote of the Day
"I thought he was a young man of promise, but it appears he is a young man of promises
"
~ Arthur Balfour on Winston Churchill
On This Day
1846 Scottish surgeon Robert Liston was the first European to use anaesthesia during an amputation. He could amputate a leg in two and a half minutes.
1898 Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.
1937 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', the world's first full-length animated film, premiered in the USA
1946 A tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake killed at least 1,362 and left thousands homeless in Japan.
1967 Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, died in Cape Town, South Africa, 18 days after his operation.
1988 Pan Am Flight 103 exploded as it was flying over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 243 passengers and 16 crew, and 11 residents of Lockerbie were killed