April 29

George Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger was born in Rennes, France on the 29th in 1837. In the course of time, he would become a major influence in French politics. Like all politicians, he soon became embroiled in a rather sordid web of scandals, which ultimately led him to commit suicide in 1891. George Clemenceau summed up Boulanger’s life by saying that ‘he died as he has lived: a second lieutenant.’ The phrase ‘damning with faint praise’ springs to mind.