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Martha Graham, choreographer

Appalachian Spring is an American ballet created by the composer Aaron Copland and the choreographer Martha Graham (pictured), later arranged as an orchestral work. Copland composed the ballet for Graham upon a commission from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Set in a 19th-century settlement in Pennsylvania, the ballet follows the Bride and the Husbandman as they get married and celebrate with the community. The original choreography was by Graham, with costumes by Edythe Gilfond and sets by Isamu Noguchi. The ballet was well-received at the 1944 premiere, earning Copland the Pulitzer Prize for Music during its 1945 United States tour. The orchestral suite composed in 1945 was played that year by many symphony orchestras; the suite is among Copland's best-known works, and the ballet remains essential in the Martha Graham Dance Company repertoire. A film version of the original production was released in 1958 with Graham as the Bride; a similar recording was released in 1976 with Yuriko. (Full article...)

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In the news

Damage in Hualien City

A severe earthquake strikes near Hualien City, Taiwan (damage pictured).
In Syria, an Israeli airstrike kills 16 people at the Iranian consulate in Damascus, including brigadier general Mohammad Reza Zahedi.
A bus falls from a bridge in Limpopo, South Africa, killing 45 people.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in the U.S. city of Baltimore collapses after being hit by a container ship.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye is elected President of Senegal.

On this day

April 6: Tartan Day

ABBA

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Ships of the Continental Navy unsuccessfully attempted to capture HMS Glasgow near Block Island.
1808 – John Jacob Astor founded the American Fur Company, the profits from which made him the first multi-millionaire in the United States.
1974 – ABBA (pictured) won the Eurovision Song Contest representing Sweden with the song "Waterloo".
1994 – The aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down in Kigali; the event became the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide.
2008 – Egyptian workers staged an illegal general strike, two days before key municipal elections.
2009 – Mass protests began across Moldova against the results of the parliamentary election.

James Mill (b. 1773)
Donald Wills Douglas Sr. (b. 1892)
Rose O'Neill (d. 1944)
Ng Ser Miang (b. 1949)

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Today's featured picture

The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's western theater. Two Union armies combined to defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi. Major General Ulysses S. Grant was the Union commander, while General Albert Sidney Johnston was the Confederate commander until his battlefield death, when he was replaced by his second-in-command, General P. G. T. Beauregard. Though victorious, the Union army had more casualties than the Confederates, and with an overall total of almost 24,000 injuries and fatalities, it was one of the bloodiest battles in the entire war. This chromolithograph of the Battle of Shiloh was produced by American illustrator Thure de Thulstrup and printed by L. Prang & Co. in Boston in 1888.

Illustration credit: Thure de Thulstrup; restored by Adam Cuerden

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