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Khalid ibn al-Walid (died 642) was a commander under the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the first two caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar. Before his conversion to Islam, Khalid helped defeat the Muslims at the Battle of Uhud in 625. After Khalid converted, Muhammad bestowed on him the title Sayf Allah ('the Sword of God'). In 632, Khalid was appointed by Abu Bakr to suppress or subjugate the tribes of central Arabia opposed to the nascent Muslim state in the Ridda wars. He led the initial campaigns in Sasanian Iraq in 633–634, before being deployed to lead the Muslim conquest of Byzantine Syria. He reached Syria after a famed desert march and led the decisive Muslim victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Yarmouk. Umar demoted Khalid around 636, but he continued military service in Syria for about two more years. Though the Islamic tradition lauds his command of the early conquests, Khalid's military fame disturbed some early Muslims, including Umar, who feared it could develop into a personality cult. (Full article...)

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In the news

Webb's First Deep Field

NASA releases the first operational image (shown) taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Protesters storm the President's House in Colombo, Sri Lanka, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to agree to resign.
Angola's former president José Eduardo dos Santos dies at the age of 79.
Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is assassinated while giving a speech in Nara.

On this day

July 18: Marine Day in Japan (2022)

Coronation of Pedro II of Brazil

1841 – Pedro II, the last emperor of Brazil, was crowned (depicted) at the Old Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro.
1936 – Nationalist rebels attempted a coup against the Second Spanish Republic, sparking the Spanish Civil War.
1995 – Selena's album Dreaming of You, instrumental in popularizing Tejano music, was released posthumously.
2012 – A suicide bomber attacked an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria, resulting in the military branch of Hezbollah being designated a terrorist organization by the European Union.

Jane Austen (d. 1817)
Clare Stevenson (b. 1903)
Priyanka Chopra (b. 1982)

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Rick Monday

There have been 58 first overall draft picks in Major League Baseball (MLB) since Rick Monday (pictured) was selected by the Kansas City Athletics in 1965. The first-year player draft, also known as the Rule 4 Draft, is MLB's primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is solely determined by the previous season's standings; the team that possesses the worst record receives the first pick. No first overall pick was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame until 2016, when Ken Griffey Jr. was inducted with a record 99.3 percent of votes cast. Griffey has since been joined by two other top picks, with Chipper Jones, inducted in 2018; and Harold Baines, elected in December 2018 and inducted in July 2019. Jackson Holliday is the most recent first overall pick; he was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in 2022. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The noisy friarbird (Philemon corniculatus) is a passerine bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae native to southern New Guinea and eastern Australia. It is one of several species known as friarbirds whose heads are bare of feathers. The species is brown-grey in colour, with a prominent knob on its bare black-skinned head. It feeds on insects and nectar. This noisy friarbird was photographed in Glen Davis, New South Wales.

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Photograph credit: John Harrison

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