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In the news
- A cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone is declared a national emergency following the deaths of more than 300 people.
- At least 36 people are suspected dead after Hurricane Isaac (satellite image pictured) strikes the Gulf Coast of the United States, Lesser Antilles, Greater Antilles and the Bahamas.
- The opening ceremony of the Summer Paralympic Games is held in London.
- An Israeli court rules that the Israel Defense Forces and the Ministry of Defense were not responsible for the death of Rachel Corrie in the Gaza Strip in 2003.
- More than 2,000 people riot in Mombasa, Kenya, in reaction to the shooting death of Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo.
- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announces the commencement of peace talks with the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Today's featured article
"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn written by English poet and clergyman John Newton (pictured) and published in 1779. Based on Newton's personal experiences at sea (in the Royal Navy and the slave trade), it was originally written in 1773 and published in Newton and Cowper's Olney Hymns in 1779. Although it became relatively obscure in England, in the United States it was commonly used during the Second Great Awakening. The original tune, if any, is unknown, but it is now most commonly sung to the tune "New Britain". It conveys a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit, and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God. One of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world, it has been called "the most famous of all the folk hymns", having been recorded thousands of times during the 20th century and becoming emblematic in African American spiritual music. (more...)
Recently featured: Simon Bolivar Buckner – History of Michigan State University – John Martin Scripps
On this day...
September 1: Start of the Liturgical year in the Eastern Orthodox Church; Constitution Day in Slovakia; Independence Day in Uzbekistan (1991)
| 1715 | Louis XIV of France (pictured), the "Sun King", died after a reign of 72 years, longer than any other French or other major European monarch at the time. |
| 1804 | German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding discovered one of the largest main belt asteroids, naming it Juno after the Roman goddess. |
| 1862 | American Civil War: Confederate forces attacked retreating Union Army troops at the Battle of Chantilly during a rainstorm in Chantilly, Virginia, but the fighting ended up being tactically inconclusive. |
| 1914 | The Passenger Pigeon, which once had a population of at least 3 billion birds, became extinct, when the last individual died in captivity. |
| 1969 | A bloodless coup d'état led by Muammar Gaddafi overthrew Idris I of Libya. |
| 1972 | American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer became the 11th World Chess Champion when he defeated Russian Boris Spassky in a match that was widely publicized as a Cold War confrontation. |
Did you know...
- ... that Syrian artist Kefah Ali Deeb painted an empty chair (pictured) as her vision of victims and refugees?
- ... that three of the four Richmond Theatres were destroyed by fire, of which the 1811 fire was described as "early America's first great disaster"?
- ... that Claude Hamilton Verity, a grandson of Doncaster mayor Charles Verity, was an early pioneer of the synchronisation of sound with silent films?
- ... that one of the "plushest" nightclubs in northern Florida turned into studios for a TV station in Jacksonville?
- ... that Left Socialist-Revolutionary leader Maria Spiridonova addressed her party's fourth congress in October 1918 by letter as she was in jail?
- ... that KT Leveston, the 254th pick in the 2024 NFL draft, is from U.S. area code 254?
- ... that many people with heart failure, diabetes, or ME/CFS cannot raise their heart rates sufficiently during exercise?
- ... that within years of Aza Arnold inventing a device to improve cotton roving, it was plagiarized across the United States and Europe?
- ... that Aurora Gaming's roster for Apex Legends is made up of Fire Beavers?
Today's featured picture
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Dimitri is an 1876 French-language grand opera in five acts by Victorin de Joncières. Set to a libretto by Henri de Bornier and Paul Armand Silvestre after Friedrich Schiller's incomplete play Demetrius, itself a story based on the life of the Russian pretender False Dmitry I (reigned 1605–1606), the opera was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre National Lyrique. Antonín Dvořák's 1881 opera Dimitrij was also based on Schiller's play. This picture shows the set design for Act V of Dimitri's première. Art credit: Philippe Chaperon; restored by Adam Cuerden
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