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Drenović (right) with a German officer

Uroš Drenović (1911–1944) was a Bosnian Serb officer of the Royal Yugoslav Army who became a Chetnik commander during World War II. He was one of the leaders of the popular uprising in mid-1941 against the Ustaše, a fascist organization that governed the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of the Axis powers. However, he eventually betrayed the communist-led Partisans and sided with the royalist and Serbian nationalist Chetniks, whose ideology more closely matched his own. He was defeated by the Partisans and fled to Ustaše-held territory where, out of military and political necessity, he concluded a collaboration agreement with them on 27 April 1942. He later collaborated with the Italian and German occupiers against the Partisans. Drenović was killed in an Allied air raid in May 1944. Despite his extensive collaboration, he and his Chetniks are celebrated in Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, creating significant controversy. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Gold plating

... that Daniel Davis was the first person in the United States to work with gold and silver electroplating (illustrated) as a business?
... that Gret Palucca had to close her dance school in Dresden, Germany, in 1939 because of her Jewish descent, but reopened it in 1945?
... that Ashton Hawkins arranged for the construction of the West Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, to house the Temple of Dendur?
... that the Malyuk rifle was originally developed as a private venture under a contract with the Security Service of Ukraine?
... that Indonesian translator Ali Audah would often take hours to translate a single word or sentence?
... that the 1972 hymn "Das eine Brot wächst auf vielen Halmen", with an Israeli melody, has been used for Catholic Corpus Christi processions and Protestant Kirchentag conventions?
... that magnetoreception in birds works by quantum effects in their eyes?
... that at the premiere of The Cage, a ballet about female insects preying on their male counterparts, choreographer Jerome Robbins's mother walked out of the theater?

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On this day

April 27: Koningsdag in the Netherlands; Administrative Professionals Day in various countries (2022)

Illustration of the Sultana disaster

1522 – Four Years' War: The combined forces of Spain and the Papal States defeated a French and Venetian army at the Battle of Bicocca.
1865 – An explosion (depicted) destroyed the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River, killing an estimated 1,700 of her 2,400 passengers.
1961 – Prime Minister Milton Margai led the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate to independence from the United Kingdom.
1985 – The World Snooker Championship final, one of the most famous snooker matches in history, began between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor, helping to fuel a surge in the sport's popularity.
2012 – Unknown perpetrators carried out a series of four bombings in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine.

Ulysses S. Grant (b. 1822)
Sheila Scott (b. 1922)
Olivier Messiaen (d. 1992)

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Today's featured picture

Seeds are embryonic plants enclosed in protective outer coverings. This collage of forty-two photomicrographs depicts the seeds of various plants, in rows from left to right:

Row 1: poppy, red pepper, strawberry, apple, blackberry, rice, caraway
Row 2: mustard, eggplant, physalis, grape, raspberry, red rice, patchouli
Row 3: fig, matrimony vine, beetroot, blueberry, golden kiwifruit, rose hip, basil
Row 4: pink pepper, tomato, radish, carrot, matthiola, dill, coriander
Row 5: black pepper, white cabbage, napa cabbage, seabuckthorn, parsley, dandelion, shepherd's purse
Row 6: cauliflower, radish, kiwifruit, grenadilla, passion fruit, melissa, African marigold

Photograph credit: Alexander Klepnev

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