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From today's featured article
Did you know ...
- ... that after a career as an opera singer and Broadway musical star, Winfield Blake (pictured) became a comedian in vaudeville as one half of the comic duo Blake and Amber?
- ... that a Picasso sculpture at University Village was called "half as high and twice as sexy as the Great Sphinx of Egypt"?
- ... that country music singer Buck Owens bought a bankrupt TV station in California from his sister?
- ... that 13-year-old Nyah Mway is thought to be the first Karen person killed by police in the United States?
- ... that Ratnākara's Haravijaya is the longest extant Sanskrit mahākāvya?
- ... that 99-year-old swimmer Betty Brussel broke three competitive swimming records on the same day?
- ... that both scholars and activists believe that diet culture is often intertwined with racism and other forms of prejudice?
- ... that G. R. Pantouw supported the Dutch puppet state of East Indonesia because he wanted to push the Netherlands into abandoning colonialism?
- ... that a Cretan man found a 1st-century statue of Aphrodite while trying to drill a well, and then reburied it?
In the news
- More than 20 people die in flooding and landslides in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Shigeru Ishiba (pictured) becomes Prime Minister of Japan after winning the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election.
- Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Israel invades Lebanon, and Iran launches missiles against Israel.
- Flooding in Nepal leaves more than 250 people dead, including 37 in the nation's capital, Kathmandu.
- In Australian rules football, the Brisbane Lions defeat the Sydney Swans to win the AFL Grand Final.
On this day
- 1871 – Five large fires broke out in the United States, including the Great Chicago Fire (depicted) in Illinois and the Peshtigo fire in Wisconsin, the latter being the deadliest in U.S. history.
- 1956 – Major League Baseball pitcher Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history.
- 1998 – A new airport for Oslo, Norway, opened at Gardermoen, replacing a smaller one at the same location that had served as a backup to the city's previous main airport at Fornebu.
- 2001 – At Linate Airport in Milan, Italy, Scandinavian Airlines Flight SK686 collided on take-off with a Cessna Citation II business jet, killing 118 people.
- Edward Wright (bap 1561)
- John Hancock (d. 1793)
- Franklin Pierce (d. 1869)
- Marilou Diaz-Abaya (d. 2012)
Today's featured picture
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The common blackbird (Turdus merula) is a species of true thrush. It breeds in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, the Falkland Islands, Chile, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It has several subspecies across its large range; a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered to be full species. Depending on latitude, the common blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory. The male of the nominate subspecies, which is found throughout most of Europe, is all black except for a yellow eye-ring and bill and has a rich, melodious song; the adult female and juvenile have mainly dark brown plumage. The species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, mud-lined, cup-shaped nest. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms, berries, and fruits. This common and conspicuous bird has given rise to many literary and cultural references, frequently related to its song. This female common blackbird, of the subspecies T. m. mauritanicus, was photographed in the Souss-Massa National Park, Morocco. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
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