From today's featured articleThe WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) served in the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. In July 1942, the Naval Reserve was authorized to accept women as commissioned officers and at the enlisted level, effective until six months after the war, which freed up many men for ship duty. Mildred H. McAfee (pictured), on leave as president of Wellesley College, became the first director of the WAVES. The notion of women serving in the Navy was not widely supported in Congress or by the Navy, but it was supported by the Navy's Women's Advisory Council, Margaret Chung, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the United States. The WAVES were primarily white, but eventually included 72 African-American women. Serving at 900 stations in the United States and the territory of Hawaii, many of the women experienced workplace hostility, but almost all of them looked upon their service as beneficial. (Full article...)
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On this dayMarch 11: Commonwealth Day in the Commonwealth of Nations (2019)
Clemente Tabone (d. 1665) · Benjamin Tupper (b. 1738) · Didier Drogba (b. 1978) |
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Twenty-seven members of the British royal family have lived to the age of 80 years or older since the Acts of Union 1707 established the Kingdom of Great Britain. These British royal family members consist of two centenarians, eight nonagenarians, and seventeen octogenarians. Of the British royals who have lived to 80 years or longer, twenty have been women and seven have been men. Seventeen of the twenty-seven royals aged 80 or older have been members of the British royal family by blood and eleven have been members through marriage. Of the royals to reach the age of 80 or older, only Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh, was a member of the British royal family by both blood and marriage. The longest-living member of the British royal family has been Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, who lived 102 years and 309 days. Princess Alice became the oldest ever member of the royal family when she surpassed the age of 101 years and 238 days in 2003, the age at which Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother died in 2002. (Full list...)
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Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851. The story is a tragedy which revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto's beautiful daughter Gilda. This picture is Roberto Focosi's illustration to the variant first edition of Rigoletto's vocal score. It depicts the opera's Bella figlia dell'amore scene. Artwork: Roberto Focosi; Lithograph: Francesco Corbetta; Restoration: Adam Cuerden
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