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Margaret Sibella Brown (1866–1961) was a Canadian amateur bryologist specializing in species native to Nova Scotia. Early in her career she was involved with gathering sphagnum moss to be used as surgical dressings during World War I, when cotton was in short supply. After the war, she researched mosses from around the world, publishing papers on materials she had collected herself as well as cataloging samples collected by others; her collections are now housed at major herbaria in North America and Europe. Born into upper-class society, Brown was educated in Nova Scotia and abroad. Although lacking formal scientific training, she has been recognized for her contributions to bryology and as an authority on the mosses and liverworts of Nova Scotia. At the age of 84, Brown was awarded an honorary MA degree from Acadia University after declining their offer of a PhD. She died at her home in Halifax aged 95 and in 2010 was posthumously inducted into the Nova Scotia Scientific Hall of Fame. (Full article...)

J. J. Walser Jr. House

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• ... that Green Thumb Industries produces cannabis on lands of a former prison?

Mark Carney

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May 2: Flag Day in Poland

Mireya Moscoso in 2012

• 1559 – Presbyterian clergyman John Knox returned from exile to lead the Scottish Reformation.
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• 1999 – Mireya Moscoso (pictured) became the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
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