Profumo Affair
Submitted By aboriginal110
Words: 1180
Pages: 5
Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
4,576,475 articles in English
Arts
Biography
Geography
History
Mathematics
Science
Society
Technology
All portals
From today's featured article
The Profumo affair was a 1963 British political scandal that originated with a sexual liaison between John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's government, and Christine Keeler, a 19-year-old would-be model. Profumo originally denied any impropriety, but in June 1963 admitted the truth and resigned from parliament in disgrace. Concern was heightened by Keeler's alleged simultaneous involvement with Yevgeny Ivanov, a suspected Soviet spy. Keeler knew both Profumo and Ivanov through her mentor, Stephen Ward, an osteopath and socialite. After the scandal broke, Ward's private life was investigated, and he was convicted of immorality offences. He took a fatal overdose during the final stages of his trial, which has since been perceived as an act of Establishment revenge, rather than as serving justice. In January 2014 the case was under review by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Profumo redeemed himself by a long period as a volunteer worker in London's East End; he died, honoured and respected, in 2006. The repercussions of the affair contributed to Macmillan's resignation in October 1963, and to the Conservative Party's defeat in the 1964 general election. (Full article...)
Recently featured: Electra Heart – American white ibis – Voting Rights Act of 1965
Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:
The base of the light tower in Victoria Tower Gardens
... that spectra, London's giant tower of light (pictured), will be turned off on Monday?
... that Dominic Monaghan was covered in honey to attract male drones for the production of the Lost episode "House of the Rising Sun"?
... that Frank Brill was a pitcher in Major League Baseball and later won the United States' first national bowling championship?
... that Texas All-Star Wrestling, the oldest independent promotion in Texas, was honored at the 2013 Texas Wrestling Hall of Fame?
... that Caroline Charles designed clothes for Mick Jagger and Ringo Starr, as well as the outfit worn by Emma Thompson when she accepted the Oscar for Howards End?
... that the proportion of rowers at the 2011 Boat Race who were British was the highest for a decade?
... that according to the Lesbian Film Guide, She Must Be Seeing Things was a "deeply controversial film ... dismissed outright by some as pornography"?
Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article
In the news
Heavily damaged street in Kaohsiung
Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan are found guilty of crimes against humanity by a UN-backed tribunal.
The ESA spacecraft Rosetta reaches the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in Yunnan, China, kills at least 589 people and injures more than 2,400 others.
At least 15 soldiers die in clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Gas explosions (aftermath pictured) in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, kill at least 30 people and injure more than 300 others.
Heavy rains trigger a landslide in the Pune district of India, killing more than 130 people.
Ongoing: Libyan conflict – Gaza conflict – Ebola outbreak – Ukrainian unrest
Recent deaths: Dick Smith
On this day...
August 9: International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
Richard Nixon
1173 – The construction of a campanile, which would eventually become the Leaning Tower of Pisa, began.
1854 – Henry David Thoreau published Walden, his account of having spent two years living mostly in isolation on the shores of Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, US.
1914 – World War I: France launched its first attack of the war in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover the province of Alsace from Germany.
1965 – Malaysia expelled the state of Singapore from its
