1831 –
Wallachian officials adopted the Regulamentul Organic, which engendered a period of reforms that provided for the westernization of the local society.
Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and
impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100
operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. Beginning as a cellist and conductor, Offenbach first wrote small-scale one-act pieces, limited by theatrical licensing laws. These eased by 1858 when he premiered his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld). La belle Hélène (1864) and other successes followed. The risqué humour (often about sexual intrigue) and gentle satire in these pieces, together with Offenbach's facility for melody, made them internationally known, and he was a powerful influence on later operetta and
musical theatre composers. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st century. The Tales of Hoffmann remains part of the standard opera repertory. (Full article...)
Automatic tube loader of B Reactor at the Hanford Engineer Works
The Hanford Engineer Works (HEW) was a nuclear production complex in
Benton County in the US state of
Washington, established in early 1943 as part of the
Manhattan Project during World War II.
Plutonium manufactured at the HEW was used in the
atomic bomb detonated in the
Trinity test on 16 July 1945, and the
Fat Man bomb used in the
bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.
DuPont was the prime contractor for its design, construction and operation. The land acquisition was one of the largest in US history. The construction workforce reached a peak of nearly 45,000 in June 1944.
B Reactor, the world's first full-scale plutonium production
nuclear reactor, went
critical in September 1944, followed by D and F Reactors in December 1944 and February 1945, respectively. The HEW suffered an outage on 10 March 1945 due to
a Japanese balloon bomb. The total cost of the HEW up to December 1946 was more than $348 million (equivalent to $4.1 billion in 2023). (Full article...)
1994 – Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 began colliding with the planet
Jupiter(impact site pictured), with the first impact causing a fireball that reached a peak temperature of 24,000
kelvin.
Cora Agnes Benneson (1851–1919) was an American attorney, lecturer, and writer. She graduated from the
University of Michigan, earning a
Bachelor of Arts in 1878, a
Bachelor of Laws in 1880, and a
Master of Arts in 1883, and was licensed to practice law in
Illinois and
Michigan. From 1883 to 1885, she traveled the world to learn about legal cultures and how they affected women. When she returned to the United States, she undertook a nationwide lecture tour to speak about her travels and observations. In 1886 Benneson briefly worked as an editor of
West Publishing's law reports before taking up a history fellowship at
Bryn Mawr College under then-professor
Woodrow Wilson. In 1888 she moved to
Boston, where she continued to write and lecture. She was licensed in
Massachusetts in 1894 and opened a law practice. She was made a fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1899 and elected secretary of its Social and Economic Science Section in 1900. (Full article...)
The
Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), also known as the steinbock, is a species of
goat that lives in the
Alps of Europe. Its closest living relative is the
Iberian ibex. They have brownish-grey
coats and sharp hooves adapted to steep, rough terrain. Found at
elevations as high as 3,300 m (10,800 ft), they are active throughout the year, primarily feeding on grass in open alpine meadows. Adult males, which are larger than the females, segregate from them for most of the year, coming together only during the breeding season, when they fight for access to the females using their long horns. The Alpine ibex has been successfully reintroduced to parts of its historical range, but all individuals living today descend from a
population bottleneck of fewer than 100 individuals from
Gran Paradiso National Park in Italy. The species has few predators and is not
threatened, but it has very low
genetic diversity. (Full article...)
Ernest Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist,
short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that significantly influenced later 20th-century writers, he is often romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle, and outspoken and blunt public image. Most of Hemingway's works were published between the mid-1920s and mid-1950s; these included seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works. His debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926. His wartime experiences as an ambulance driver on the
Italian Front in
World War I formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms, and he drew on his experience as a journalist in the
Spanish Civil War for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway was with Allied troops as a journalist at the
Normandy landings and the
liberation of Paris. He was awarded the
1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. (Full article...)
Thekla (820s or 830s – after 870) was a princess of the
Amorian dynasty of the
Byzantine Empire. The daughter and eldest of seven children of the emperor
Theophilos and empress
Theodora, she was proclaimed
augusta (an imperial title) in the late 830s. After her father's death in 842, her mother became
regent for her younger brother
Michael III, and Thekla was associated with the regime as a co-empress alongside Theodora and Michael. Thekla was deposed by Michael, possibly alongside her mother, in 856 and consigned to a
convent in
Constantinople. In one narrative, accepted by some
Byzantinists and rejected by others, she became the mistress of Michael's friend and co-emperor
Basil I, but was neglected after Basil murdered Michael in 867 and took power as the sole emperor. In this narrative, she took another lover, was discovered, and fell out of favor, then was beaten and had her property confiscated. (Full article...)
Empire of the Sultans was a 1995–2004 touring exhibition displaying objects from the
Khalili Collection of Islamic Art. Around two hundred exhibits, including
calligraphy, textiles, pottery, weapons, and metalwork, illustrated the art and daily life of six centuries of the
Ottoman Empire. Many of the objects had been created for the leaders of the empire, the
sultans. Two of the calligraphic pieces were the work of sultans themselves. In the 1990s, the exhibition was hosted by institutions in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Israel, and its first catalogue was published by
J. M. Rogers. The exhibits visited thirteen cities in the United States from 2000 to 2004, despite controversies in the wake of the
September 11 attacks and the
Iraq War. Critics described the exhibition as wide-ranging and informative. They praised it for showing beautiful art works – naming the calligraphy in particular – and for presenting a fresh view of
Islam. (Full article...)
Ty Cobb was suspended for ten days during the
1912 baseball season.
Cobb was disciplined for beating Claude Lucker, a fan who had been heckling him during the four-game series between Cobb's
Detroit Tigers and the
New York Yankees. Cobb was ejected from the game on May 15, 1912, and
American League president
Ban Johnson suspended him indefinitely. Cobb's teammates took his side, and after defeating the
Philadelphia Athletics on May 17, told Johnson that they would not play again until Cobb was reinstated. Johnson refused to do so. Seeking to avoid a $5,000 fine, owner
Frank Navin told manager
Hughie Jennings to recruit a team; he did so. Facing the Athletics, baseball's World Champions, the replacement players, joined by Jennings and his coaches, lost 24–2, after which Cobb persuaded his teammates to return. They and Cobb were fined, but Navin paid. The walkout was baseball's first major league strike; it had little effect, but teams put additional security into stadiums. (Full article...)
The great cuckoo-dove (Reinwardtoena reinwardti) is a
species of bird in the
pigeon family. First
described by zoologist
Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1824, it is found on islands from
New Guinea to
Wallacea in
primary forest and the
forest edge. It is a large pigeon, and in adults the head, neck, and breast are whitish or blue-grey, the
underparts are bluish-grey, the
upperparts are chestnut-brown, and the outer wings are black. Females differ from males in having yellower
irises and duller
orbital skin. Juveniles are mainly dull grey-brown, with dirty-white throats and bellies. This dove feeds on fruit and seeds, usually alone or in pairs, but forms mixed flocks at fruit trees. It will defend fruiting shrubs, an uncommon
foraging behaviour among birds. Breeding occurs throughout the year, although timing varies over its range. Nests are platforms made of plant material and the
clutch is one white egg. This species is classified as
least concern due to its large range and stable population. (Full article...)
The cover of the official report of the 1896 Summer Olympics
The 1896 Summer Olympics were the first international
Olympic Games held in
modern history. The
International Olympic Committee was established in 1894 by a congress organized by
Pierre de Coubertin in
Paris. The committee appointed the Greek capital
Athens as the host city, and the games took place from 6 to 15 April 1896. According to the committee, 14 nations took part, and 241 male athletes competed. Participants were all European, or living in Europe, with the exception of the
United States team. Over 65 per cent of the competing athletes were Greek, and Greece won the most medals overall, 47. The athletic highlight for the Greeks was the
marathon victory by their compatriot
Spyridon Louis. The most successful competitor was the German
wrestler and gymnast
Carl Schuhmann with four victories.The 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success, with the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. (Full article...)
1993 – Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashed into a mountain during a failed attempt to land at
Mokpo Airport, South Korea, leading to the deaths of 68 of the people on board.
The Aston Martin DB9 is a two-door, two- or four-seater
grand touring car produced by the British automaker
Aston Martin from 2004 until it was discontinued on 27 July 2016. It debuted at the
Frankfurt Motor Show in 2003. The official
series manufacture began in January 2004 for the coupe version and February 2005 for the DB9 Volante
convertible. Designed by
Ian Callum and
Henrik Fisker, the DB9 is the successor to the
DB7, which Aston Martin produced from 1994 to 2004. The DB9's
chassis is composed of
aluminium and composite materials. In 2008 and 2010, minor alterations were implemented to the DB9's exterior and engine, and in 2012 prominent adjustments were made to its front
fascia. The DB9 was adapted for racing by
Aston Martin's racing division in the form of the
DBR9 and the
DBRS9, both introduced in 2005. To commemorate the discontinuation of the DB9, Aston Martin released the DB9 GT in 2015. (Full article...)
2010 – Police in Tokyo found the
mummified remains of Sogen Kato, thought to have died in 1978, leading to widespread inquiries into the status of isolated elderly people in Japan.
Darkness on the Edge of Town is the fourth
studio album by the American singer-songwriter
Bruce Springsteen, released on June 2, 1978, by
Columbia Records. The album was recorded during sessions in New York City with the
E Street Band from June 1977 to March 1978, after a series of legal disputes between Springsteen and his former manager
Mike Appel. Darkness musically strips the
Wall of Sound production of its predecessor, Born to Run, for a rawer
hard rock sound emphasizing the band as a whole. The lyrics focus on ill-fortuned characters who fight back against overwhelming odds. Released three years after Born to Run, Darkness did not sell as well as its predecessor but reached number five in the U.S. Critics initially praised the album's music and performances but were divided on the lyrical content. In recent decades, Darkness has attracted acclaim as one of Springsteen's best works and has appeared on lists of the greatest albums of all time. (Full article...)
1917 – In New York City, the
NAACP and church and community leaders organized a silent march(newsreel footage featured) of at least 8,000 people to protest violence directed towards
African Americans.
1976 – An earthquake registering 7.6
Mw, one of the deadliest in history, devastated
Tangshan, China, and killed at least 240,000 people.
Sava was a
river monitor, originally built for the
Austro-Hungarian Navy as SMS Bodrog. She and two other monitors fired the first shots of
World War I in the early hours of 29 July 1914, when they shelled Serbian defences near
Belgrade. During the war, she fought the Serbian and Romanian armies, and was captured in its closing stages. She was transferred to the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), and renamed Sava. During the Axis
invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, she fought off several air attacks, but was scuttled on 11 April. Sava was later raised by the Axis
puppet state, the
Independent State of Croatia, and continued to serve under that name until 1944 when she was again scuttled. Following World War II, Sava was raised again, and was refurbished to serve in the Yugoslav Navy from 1952 to 1962. She became a gravel barge after that, but was restored and opened as a floating museum in November 2021. (Full article...)
A near-contemporary image of the English assault on Caen
In 1345–1347, the Hundred Years' War between the English and the French flared up. Determined to renew
the conflict, the English king,
Edward III, despatched a small force to south-west France where they won victories at
Bergerac and
Auberoche. In 1346 an English army of 10,000 men landed in northern
Normandy, devastated the region, and
stormed and sacked Caen. They then cut a swath to within 20 miles (32 km) of Paris, turned north, and inflicted a heavy defeat on the French army at the
Battle of Crécy. They exploited this by laying
siege to
Calais. The period from the English victory outside Bergerac to the start of the siege of Calais is known as Edward III's annus mirabilis (year of marvels). After an eleven-month siege, which stretched both countries' financial and military resources to the limit, the town fell, and for more than two hundred years it served as an English
entrepôt into northern France. (This article is part of a
featured topic: Hundred Years' War, 1345–1347.)
1865 – Off the coast of
Crescent City, California, the steamer Brother Jonathan(depicted) struck an uncharted rock and sank, killing 225 people; its cargo of gold coins was not retrieved until 1996.
Nil Battey Sannata (
Hindi slang for "Good For Nothing") is a 2015 Indian
comedy-drama film directed by
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari in her feature debut. Produced by
Aanand L. Rai, Ajay Rai, and Alan McAlex, the film was co-written by Iyer, Neeraj Singh, Pranjal Choudhary, and
Nitesh Tiwari.
Swara Bhaskar starred as Chanda Sahay, a high-school drop-out household maid and the single mother of a sullen young girl named Apeksha, played by Ria Shukla. The film's theme is a person's right to change their life, irrespective of social status. The film garnered critical acclaim for its realistic narrative and its cast, especially Bhaskar. In 2017 Iyer won the
Filmfare Award for Best Debut Director;
Screen Awards went to Bhaskar for Best Actress (Critics) and to Shukla for Best Child Artist. The film totalled around ₹69 million (US$830,000) at the box office. It was remade in
Tamil as Amma Kanakku and in
Malayalam as Udaharanam Sujatha. (Full article...)
The tiger (Panthera tigris) is the largest living
cat species and a member of the genus Panthera native to
Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail, and orange fur with black stripes. It inhabits mainly forests, and is an
apex predator preying mainly on
ungulates such as
deer and
wild boar, which it takes by ambush. It lives a mostly solitary life and occupies
home ranges, which it defends from individuals of the same sex. The range of a male tiger overlaps with that of multiple females with whom he mates. Females give birth to usually two or three cubs that stay with their mother for about two years before establishing their own ranges. Since the early 20th century, the tiger has lost at least 93% of its historic range and is listed as
endangered on the
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The tiger featured prominently in the ancient
mythology and
folklore of cultures throughout its historic range and continues to
appear in culture worldwide. (Full article...)
Charles Edward (1884–1954) was at various times a
British prince, the last ruling
duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Germany, and a
Nazi politician. Brought up in the United Kingdom, the Prince was selected to succeed to the throne of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1899 because he was deemed young enough to be re-educated as a German. He married
Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein and the couple had five children. The Duke was a conservative ruler with an interest in art and technology. During the First World War he supported the German Empire but was deposed during the
German Revolution. During the 1920s, the former duke became a moral and financial supporter of violent far-right
paramilitary groups, joining the
Nazi Party in 1933. He was given multiple positions, including leader of the
German Red Cross, and acted as an unofficial diplomat. After the war, he was interned for a period and given a minor conviction by a
denazification court, dying of cancer in 1954. (Full article...)
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