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Healy Hall is the school's most iconic building.

Georgetown University is a private, Roman Catholic, research university, located in Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood. Father John Carroll founded the school in 1789, though its roots extend back to 1634. While the school struggled financially in its early years, Georgetown expanded into a branched university after the U.S. Civil War under the leadership of university president Patrick Francis Healy. Georgetown is both the oldest Roman Catholic and oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Its religious heritage is defining for Georgetown's identity, but has at times been controversial. Georgetown's three urban campuses feature traditional collegiate architecture and layout, but prize their green spaces and environmental commitment. The main campus is known for Healy Hall, designated a National Historic Landmark. Academically, Georgetown is divided into four undergraduate schools and four graduate schools, with nationally recognized programs and faculty in international relations, law, and medicine. The student body is noted for its pluralism and political activism, as well as its sizable international contingent. Campus groups include the nation's oldest student dramatic society and the largest student corporation. Georgetown's most notable alumni, such as former President Bill Clinton, served in various levels of government in the United States and abroad. The Georgetown athletics teams are nicknamed "the Hoyas," made famous by their men's basketball team, which leads the Big East Conference with seven tournament championships. (more...)

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Rock-cut niches of Teniky in southern Madagascar
Rock-cut niches of Teniky in southern Madagascar

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November 11: Armistice Day (known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations and Veterans Day in the United States); Singles' Day in China and Southeast Asia

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Shirley Graham Du Bois

Shirley Graham Du Bois (November 11, 1896 – March 27, 1977) was an American-Ghanaian writer, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American causes. Born in Indianapolis to an Episcopal minister, she moved with her family throughout the United States as a child. After marrying her first husband, she moved to Paris to study music at the Sorbonne. After her divorce and return to the United States, Graham Du Bois took positions at Howard University and Morgan College before completing her BA and master's at Oberlin College in Ohio. Her first major work was the opera Tom-Tom, which premiered in Cleveland in 1932. She married W. E. B. Du Bois in 1951, and the couple later lived in Ghana, Tanzania and China. She won several prizes, including an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for her 1949 biography of Benjamin Banneker. This photograph of Graham Du Bois was taken by Carl Van Vechten in 1946.

Photograph credit: Carl Van Vechten; restored by Adam Cuerden

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