From today's featured article
John Rolph (1793–1870) was a physician, lawyer, and political figure. He immigrated to Upper Canada in 1813 and practised law and medicine concurrently. In 1824, Rolph was elected to the Parliament of Upper Canada. He was elected as an alderman to Toronto's first city council but resigned after his council colleagues did not select him as the city's mayor. When the Upper Canada Rebellion began in 1837, Rolph did not join the rebels even though he agreed to support them. Instead, the Lieutenant Governor appointed him as his emissary to deliver the government's truce offer. After the rebellion, Rolph fled to the US and focused on his medical career. The Canadian government granted him amnesty and he returned to Canada in 1843, later creating a new medical institution in Toronto called the Rolph School. In 1851 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, but resigned three years later. He retired in 1870 and died later that year. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that the flag of Rwanda (pictured) depicts the sun illuminating the country's lush vegetation?
- ... that two cosmetic companies engaged in a "rose war" with advertising campaigns based around the song "You're More Beautiful Than a Rose" and the film The Rose of Versailles?
- ... that Fede Vigevani once presented an awards ceremony in which he won an award?
- ... that the course of the River Tay was diverted to allow construction of the Jubilee Bridge?
- ... that "New York's wealthiest janitor" lived atop the Bergdorf Goodman Building?
- ... that Henry Charles Swan, a law graduate at Oxford, spent more than 25 years living on a yacht in a stream in New Zealand?
- ... that according to legend, after one of the Earl de Grey's parrots was killed, the other never spoke again?
- ... that due to a lack of good men, Sabrina Carpenter settles for someone who does not know the difference between "their", "there", and "they are" in her song "Slim Pickins"?
- ... that although Armond Seidler invented the pugil stick for military training purposes, it later found use in the television show American Gladiators?
In the news
![Typhoon Yagi over the South China Sea](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Yagi_2024-09-05_0000Z.jpg/123px-Yagi_2024-09-05_0000Z.jpg)
- Typhoon Yagi (satellite image shown) leaves more than 200 people dead in China, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
- Michel Barnier is appointed prime minister of France by President Emmanuel Macron, leading to nationwide anti-government protests.
- An attempted jailbreak at Makala Central Prison in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, leaves 129 people dead.
- A Mil Mi-8 helicopter crashes in Kamchatka, Russia, killing all 22 people on board.
On this day
September 11: National Day of Catalonia
![United Airlines Flight 175 striking the World Trade Center's South Tower](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Explosion_following_the_plane_impact_into_the_South_Tower_%28WTC_2%29_-_B6019~11.jpg/169px-Explosion_following_the_plane_impact_into_the_South_Tower_%28WTC_2%29_-_B6019~11.jpg)
- 1297 – First War of Scottish Independence: Scottish forces under Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeated English troops at the Battle of Stirling Bridge on the River Forth.
- 1978 – British medical photographer Janet Parker became the last recorded person to die from smallpox, leading to a debate on whether the virus should be preserved.
- 1995 – Mir EO-19, the first expedition to the Russian space station Mir launched on an American Space Shuttle, returned to Earth after approximately 75 days in space.
- 2001 – al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger airliners to carry out a series of terrorist attacks (one pictured) against targets in New York City and the area of Washington, D.C., killing 2,977 people.
- Stephen Hagiochristophorites (d. 1185)
- Paul Nahaolelua (b. 1806)
- Mary Watson Whitney (b. 1847)
- Issy Smith (d. 1940)
Today's featured picture
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Widtsoe is a ghost town in Garfield County, Utah, United States. It is located in John's Valley, northeast of Bryce Canyon and along the Sevier River at the mouth of Sweetwater Creek. A small number of settlers arrived in the area in 1876 and it became a town around 1908 after farmer Jedediah Adair was followed by a more significant population. Initially known as Adairville, after Adair, the town later became Houston and Winder, before attaining its final name after John A. Widtsoe, the president of and an agricultural scientist at the University of Utah. The population declined significantly from 1920 following droughts, and the town emptied in 1936. Most buildings were demolished shortly afterwards. This photograph by Dorothea Lange shows Widtsoe's Emery Valley Mercantile Co. grocery store in 1936. Photograph credit: Dorothea Lange; restored by Yann Forget
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