There are 3 entries for this date: A.A. Milne, Baron de Montesquieu and Peter Annet.

On this date in 1882, classic children's author Alan Alexander Milne, known as A.A. Milne, was born in England and brought up in London. With his brothers he attended his schoolteacher father's school, Henley House. One of his influential teachers there was H.G. Wells. Attending Cambridge on a mathematics scholarship, Milne was given the gift of 1000 pounds by his father upon graduation. He used it to move back to London and become a writer. Milne freelanced for newspapers, became part of "Punch's" staff, and wrote a book that flopped, Lovers in London. In 1913 he married Dorothy De Selincourt. In 1915 he volunteered in WWI, and, while serving, wrote his first play. His only child, Christopher, was born in 1920. When We Were Young was published in 1924, followed by Winnie the Pooh (1926), The House at Pooh Corner (1926) and Now We Are Six (1927). Milne subsequently wrote several plays, a detective novel and Year In, Year Out (1952). D. 1956.

On this date in 1689, political philosopher Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, was born near Bordeaux, France. Educated at Roman Catholic schools, Montesquieu earned his law degree at the University of Bordeaux in 1708. He inherited his father's estates in 1713. In 1716, he became a titled baron. He married a practicing Protestant woman and had three children, but immersed himself in work and scholarship. For about a decade he presided over the criminal division of Bordeaux' parliament, then sold his office and resigned in 1725. His irreverent spoof, Persian Letters, published anonymously in 1721, was banned by the Pope. The novel, pessimistic but amusing, was written as a correspondence between two Persian Muslims commenting on the peculiar customs of Europe. Aware of the identity of Persian Letters' author, Catholic officials attempted to bar Montesquieu from the Academie Francaise, but he was eventually admitted in 1728. Through 1731, Montesquieu traveled in Italy, Germany, Austria and England. His opus, The Spirit of Laws (1731), promoted a republican democracy, the separation of powers, specifying "three estates"--legislative, executive and judiciary, and called for the abolition of slavery and of religious persecution. The book has remained in print, and was a major inspiration to James Madison and the American founders, who adopted a Constitution closely patterned after Monesquieu's political philosophy. The most radical notion in his work was the omission of a role for clergy in government. The Spirit of Laws also found its way into the Index of Forbidden Books. A classical deist of the Enlightenment, Monesquieu believed only in a nature's god, not a personal deity. D. 1755.

On this date in 1769, "blasphemer" Peter Annet died. Born in 1693, he became a schoolmaster in Liverpool. In 1739 he wrote and published a pamphlet, "Judging for Ourselves, or Freethinking the Great Duty of Religion," a strong criticism of Christianity. For writing this and similar pamphlets, he lost his position. Annet moved to London, where he became an outspoken member of the Robin Hood Society. Annet was convicted of publishing "blasphemies" in The Free Inquirer periodical, which he founded in 1761. At age 68, Annet was sentenced to the pillory and a year's hard labor. He later started a school and is known for inventing a system of shorthand.