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Mary Shelley (1797–1851) was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. In 1814, Mary Godwin fell in love with one of her father's political followers, the married Percy Bysshe Shelley. Together with Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, they left for France and travelled through Europe; upon their return to England, Mary was pregnant. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt, and the death of their prematurely born daughter. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm in the Bay of La Spezia. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author. The last decade of her life was dogged by illness, probably caused by the brain tumour that was to kill her at the age of 53. (more...)

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October 30: Mischief Night in some areas of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the United States

• 1270 – An agreement between Charles I of Naples, King of Sicily, and Muhammad I al-Mustansir, ruler of the Hafsid dynasty in Ifriqiya, ended the Eighth Crusade and opened up free trade between the Christians and Tunis.
• 1863 – Seventeen-year old Danish Prince Vilhelm arrived in Athens to become George I (pictured), King of Greece.
• 1960 – Surgeon and scientist Michael Woodruff performed the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
• 1973 – Istanbul's 1,510-metre (5,000 ft) long Bosporus Bridge was completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus Strait for the first time.
• 1991 – The Madrid Conference, an early attempt by the international community to start a peace process through negotiations involving Israel and the Arab countries, convened in Madrid, Spain.

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