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Aerial view of Fort Knox

Goldfinger is the seventh novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. First published in 1959, it centres on Bond's investigation into the gold-smuggling activities of Auric Goldfinger, who is suspected of being connected to Soviet counter-intelligence. Bond uncovers Goldfinger's plot involving the gold reserves at Fort Knox (pictured). In Goldfinger, Fleming presents the character of James Bond as a more complex individual than in the previous novels. A theme of Bond as a St George figure is echoed by the fact that Bond is a British Secret Service agent sorting out an American problem. Fleming probably based the gold-obsessed character of Goldfinger on the American gold tycoon Charles W. Engelhard Jr. On its release, the novel went to the top of the best-seller lists. It was adapted as the third James Bond feature film of the Eon Productions series, released in 1964 and starring Sean Connery as Bond. (This article is part of a featured topic: Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and short stories.)

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Did you know ...

Title page of the Grammatica Litvanica

... that Daniel Klein's Grammatica Litvanica (pictured), the first printed grammar of the Lithuanian language, introduced the distinctive Lithuanian letter Ė?
... that the riots protesting the destruction of the houses in Nieuwmarkt are memorialised in its namesake station?
... that King Bataha Santiago's parents sent him to school when he was 44 years old?
... that, due to bandits, convoys of ten or more vehicles are required on some roads when driving in Madagascar?
... that United States Air Force brigadier general E. Daniel Cherry became close friends with the Vietnamese pilot whom he shot down during the Vietnam War?
... that the College Entrance Examination Board went back and forth over whether the Achievement Test in English Composition should include an essay component?
... that Sakhela Buhlungu's anti-corruption efforts at the University of Fort Hare led to a failed assassination attempt that killed his bodyguard?
... that Dr. Oz called his veggie tray "crudité" in his supermarket scanner moment?

In the news

Cyclone Gabrielle intensifying off the coast of Australia

Cyclone Gabrielle (satellite image shown) causes widespread damage and flooding across New Zealand.
In American football, the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl.
A megadrought and heatwave cause forest fires and a state of emergency in Chile.
An earthquake strikes Turkey and Syria, killing over 42,000 people and injuring more than 120,000 others.
In the Monaco general election, the incumbent UNM party led by Brigitte Boccone-Pagès wins all 24 national council seats.

On this day

February 16: Day of the Shining Star in North Korea; Elizabeth Peratrovich Day in Alaska

Painting of Philadelphia burning by Edward Moran

1804 – First Barbary War: Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a U.S. Navy raid to destroy the captured USS Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli (depicted), denying her use to the Barbary States.
1859 – The French government passed a law setting the musical note A₄ to a frequency of 435 hertz, in the first attempt to standardize concert pitch.
1959 – Fidel Castro was sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba, beginning his decades-long rule over the country.
2013 – At least 91 people were killed and 190 others injured after a bomb hidden in a water tank exploded at a market in Hazara Town, Pakistan.

Henry Raspe (d. 1247)
Henry Wilson (b. 1812)
Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer (b. 1922)

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Today's featured picture

Vernon Jordan (1935–2021) was an American business executive and civil rights attorney. After growing up in the racially segregated society of the Southern United States, Jordan graduated from DePauw University in Indiana as the only black student in a class of 400. He went on to work for various organizations involved in the civil rights movement, first as a lawyer and then as an activist, before becoming a political advisor to President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. This photograph shows Jordan working on a voter education program in 1967, seated at a desk with a typewriter at the offices of the Southern Regional Council in Atlanta.

Photograph credit: Warren K. Leffler; restored by Adam Cuerden

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