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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 Olga Lander's camera required her to work close to the dangerous wartime subjects she photographed (example pictured)?
- ... that the antiseptic cream Boroline was marketed to appeal to nationalistic sentiments?
- ... that King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark were the parents of a Danish king, a British queen, a Greek king, and a Russian empress?
- ... that John D. Rockefeller Jr., under the name "David's Father", secretly authorized the purchase of an $8,000 "antique"?
- ... that although Evgeniia Subbotina failed to escape her own exile in Siberia, she successfully aided the escapes of Catherine Breshkovsky, Yelizaveta Kovalskaya and Sofya Bogomolets?
- ... that an 18th-century hymn inspired the title of George W. Bush's 1999 autobiography?
- ... that Denpasar mayor I Gusti Ngurah Jaya Negara became active in politics after he was laid off from a bank due to the Asian financial crisis?
- ... that Israel's destruction of trees and farmland in Gaza has been described as an ecocide?
- ... that Elizabeth Storie's doctor poured nitric acid into her mouth, causing her teeth to fall out?
Today's featured picture
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Lake Estancia was a prehistoric body of water in the Estancia Valley, in the center of the U.S. state of New Mexico. Mostly fed by creek and groundwater from the Manzano Mountains, the lake had diverse fauna, including cutthroat trout. It appears to have formed when a river system broke up. It reached a maximum water level (highstand) presumably during the Illinoian glaciation and subsequently fluctuated between a desiccated basin and fuller stages. Wind-driven erosion has excavated depressions in the former lakebed that are in part filled with playas (dry lake beds). The lake was one of several pluvial lakes in southwestern North America that developed during the late Pleistocene. Their formation has been variously attributed to decreased temperatures during the ice age and increased precipitation; a shutdown of the thermohaline circulation and the Laurentide Ice Sheet altered atmospheric circulation patterns and increased precipitation in the region. The lake has yielded a good paleoclimatic record. This map shows the shoreline of Lake Estancia at three different periods: early Estancia (1,939 m / 6,362 ft above sea level), late Estancia (1,897 m / 6,224 ft), and "Lake Willard" (1,870 m / 6,135 ft). Present-day populated places, county boundaries and roads are overlaid on the map for identification. Map credit: Tom Fish
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