The oceanic whitetip shark is a large pelagic requiem shark inhabiting tropical and warm temperate seas. It has a stocky body with long, white-tipped, rounded fins. The species is typically solitary, though they may gather in large numbers at food concentrations. Bony fish and cephalopods are the main components of its diet. Females give live birth after a gestation period of nine to twelve months. Though slow-moving, it is opportunistic and aggressive, reputed to be dangerous to shipwreck survivors. Up to the 16th century, mariners noted that this species was the most common ship-following shark. The IUCN Red List considers the species to be Critically Endangered, with a decline in every ocean region they inhabit. Recent studies show steeply declining populations as they are harvested for their fins and meat. As with other shark species, the whitetip faces mounting fishing pressure throughout its range. (Full article...)

Palace with northern courtyard

Ludwigsburg Palace is a 452-room palace complex of 18 buildings in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the largest palatial estate in the country and has been called the "Versailles of Swabia". Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg, began construction of the palace in 1704. The son of his successor, Charles Eugene, completed it and refurbished parts in the Rococo style, especially its theatre. Charles Eugene abandoned the palace in 1775, and it began a decline until the future Duke, and then King, Frederick moved in in 1795. As King, Frederick, and his Queen, Charlotte, renovated the entirety of the palace in the Neoclassical style. The palace was opened to the public in 1918. It underwent periods of restoration, including for its tricentenary in 2004. It has hosted the Ludwigsburg Festival annually since 1947. The palace is surrounded by gardens named Blooming Baroque (Blühendes Barock), laid out in 1954 as they might have appeared in 1800. (Full article...)

Bruce Springsteen in 1981

Darkness on the Edge of Town is the fourth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 2, 1978, by Columbia Records. The album was recorded after a series of legal disputes between Springsteen and his former manager Mike Appel, during sessions in New York City with the E Street Band from June 1977 to March 1978. Darkness musically strips the Wall of Sound production of its predecessor, Born to Run, for a rawer hard rock sound emphasizing the band as a whole. The lyrics focus on ill-fortuned characters who fight back against overwhelming odds. Released three years after Born to Run, Darkness did not sell as well as its predecessor but reached number five in the U.S. Critics initially praised the album's music and performances but were divided on the lyrical content. In later decades, Darkness has attracted acclaim as one of Springsteen's best works and has appeared on lists of the greatest albums of all time. (Full article...)

Ballinesker Beach, Ireland, where the D-Day landing scenes were filmed

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in France during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), on their mission to locate Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) and bring him home safely after his three brothers are killed in action. Inspired by the books of Stephen E. Ambrose and accounts of casualties among members of a single family such as the Niland brothers, Rodat drafted the script and Paramount Pictures hired him to finish the writing. Spielberg wanted to make Saving Private Ryan as authentic as possible, and hired Frank Darabont and Scott Frank to perform uncredited rewrites based on research and interviews with veterans. The cast went through a week-long boot camp to understand the soldier experience. Filming took place from June to September 1997 in England and Ireland. Saving Private Ryan earned critical acclaim for its graphic portrayal of combat. (Full article...)

Bill Newton was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, honoured for his actions as a bomber pilot in Papua New Guinea during March 1943. Raised in Melbourne, he joined the Citizen Military Forces in 1938 and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in February 1940. He served as a flying instructor in Australia before being posted to No. 22 Squadron, which began operating Boston light bombers in New Guinea late in 1942. Having just taken part in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, he was on his fifty-second mission when he was shot down. Newton was still posted as missing when given the Victoria Cross in October 1943. It later emerged that he was captured by the Japanese and beheaded on 29 March. Newton was the only Australian airman to receive a Victoria Cross for action in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II, and the sole Australian to be so decorated while flying with an RAAF squadron. (Full article...)

Mos Def

The Ecstatic is the fourth album by American rapper Mos Def (pictured), released by Downtown Records on June 9, 2009. Singer Georgia Anne Muldrow and rappers Slick Rick and Talib Kweli were guest vocalists. The album has been described by music journalists as a conscious and alternative hip hop record. Mos Def's raps about global politics, love, spirituality, and social conditions are informed by Black internationalism and Pan-Islamic ideas. The album's loosely structured, lightly reverbed songs use unconventional time signatures and samples taken from Afrobeat, soul, Eurodance, jazz, reggae, Latin, and Middle Eastern music. The Ecstatic charted at number nine on the Billboard 200 in its first week of release and eventually sold 168,000 copies. A widespread critical success, The Ecstatic was viewed as a return to form for Mos Def and one of the year's best albums. He performed concerts to support the record in North America, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom. (Full article...)

Official 1981 potrait

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and began to work as a sports broadcaster in Iowa. In 1937, he moved to California, and became a well-known film actor there. From 1947 to 1952, and from 1959 to 1960, Reagan served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and election in 1980. As president, Reagan implemented new political initiatives as well as economic policies, advocating a laissez-faire philosophy, but the extent to which these ideas were implemented is debatable. The policies, dubbed "Reaganomics," included substantial tax cuts implemented in 1981.

Wreckage from the battle

The Battle of Villers-Bocage (wreckage pictured) took place on 13 June 1944 during WWII. Following the D-Day landings on 6 June, the Germans established defences in front of the Caen. The British attacked in an attempt to exploit a gap in the German defences west of the city. They reached Villers-Bocage without incident in the morning but were ambushed by Tiger I tanks as they left the town and numerous tanks, anti-tank guns and transport vehicles were destroyed. The Germans then attacked the town but were repulsed. The British withdrew west of Villers-Bocage that evening and repulsed another attack the next day. The British conduct in the battle was controversial because their withdrawal marked the end of the post–D-Day "scramble for ground" and the start of an attritional battle for Caen. Some historians wrote that the British attack was a failure caused by a lack of conviction among some senior commanders; others judged the British force to be insufficiently strong for the task. (Full article...)

Kevin Gately died on 15 June 1974 as the result of a head injury received in the Red Lion Square disorders in London while protesting against the National Front, a far-right, fascist party. Gately, a 20-year-old student, was not a member of any organisation. On the day, the National Front held a march through central London in support of the expulsion of immigrants. A counter-demonstration was planned by Liberation, an anti-colonial pressure group. When the Liberation march reached Red Lion Square, the International Marxist Group twice charged the police cordon blocking access to Conway Hall (pictured). Police reinforcements forced the demonstrators out of the square. Gately was found unconscious on the ground. He was taken to hospital and died later that day. A public inquiry into the events was conducted by Lord Scarman, who found no evidence that Gately had been killed by the police, but found fault with some police actions. The Labour MP Syd Bidwell described Gately as a martyr against fascism and racism. (Full article...)

An Icelandic horse performing the tölt

The Icelandic horse is a breed of horse developed in Iceland. Developed from ponies brought to Iceland by Norse settlers in the 9th and 10th centuries, the breed is mentioned in Icelandic literature and historical records. They are long-lived, hardy, and have few diseases in their native country. In addition to the gaits typical of other horse breeds, many Icelandic horses can also do the tölt (pictured) and the flying pace. The only breed of horse in Iceland, sizable populations exist in Europe and North America. They are used for sheepherding work in Iceland, leisure, showing, and racing. Selective breeding and natural selection with the Icelandic climate developed them into their current form. In the 1780s, much of the breed was killed after a volcanic eruption at Laki. The first breed society for the Icelandic horse was created in Iceland in 1904; the breed is now represented by organizations in 19 nations organized under the International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations. (Full article...)

Masai giraffe

The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus Giraffa. It is known for its extremely long neck and legs, its horn-like ossicones, and its spotted coat patterns. Traditionally, giraffes have been thought of as one species, but more recent evidence has proposed dividing them into multiple species. Giraffes usually inhabit savannahs and woodlands. Their food source is leaves, fruits, and flowers of woody plants, primarily acacia species, which they browse at heights most other herbivores cannot reach. Giraffes live in herds of related females and their offspring or bachelor herds of unrelated adult males, but are gregarious and may gather in large aggregations. Females bear sole responsibility for rearing the young. Giraffes have been featured in paintings, books, and cartoons. Giraffes are assessed as Vulnerable from a conservation perspective by the IUCN. They are found in numerous national parks and game reserves. (Full article...)

Cyclone Taylor

Cyclone Taylor (June 23, 1884 – June 9, 1979) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and civil servant. Born and raised in Southern Ontario, Taylor moved to Houghton, Michigan, and played in the International Hockey League for two years. He then joined the Ottawa Senators, winning the Stanley Cup with the team in his second year. While in Ottawa he began working as an immigration clerk. Two years later signed with the Renfrew Creamery Kings, becoming the highest-paid athlete in the world on a per-game basis. He then played for the Vancouver Millionaires until 1922, where he won five scoring championships and his second Stanley Cup victory with the team. In 1914 Taylor was the first Canadian official to board the Komagata Maru, a major incident relating to Canadian immigration. In 1946 he was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his services as an immigration officer and inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947. (Full article...)

Grace in 2023

Mckenna Grace (born June 25, 2006) is an American actress. She began her career at the age of five, making her onscreen debut in the sitcom Crash & Bernstein (2012–2014). In 2017, she starred as a child prodigy in the drama film Gifted, a breakthrough for which she received a nomination for a Critics' Choice Movie Award. Grace subsequently appeared in the films I, Tonya (2017), Troop Zero (2019), and Captain Marvel (2019). During this time, she appeared in several horror projects, including The Bad Seed (2018), The Haunting of Hill House (2018), and Annabelle Comes Home (2019). For playing an abused teenager in The Handmaid's Tale (2021–2022), Grace was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. She garnered further recognition for her appearances in the supernatural comedy films Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), and portrayed Jan Broberg in the miniseries A Friend of the Family (2022). (Full article...)

Parties to the Convention against Torture in dark green, states that have signed the treaty in yellow, and others in gray

Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for various reasons, including punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts carried out by the state, but others include non-state organizations. A variety of methods of torture are used, often in combination; the most common form of physical torture is beatings or psychological methods to provide deniability. Torture against political prisoners or during armed conflict can occur as well. Torture is prohibited under international law for all states under all circumstances and is explicitly forbidden by several treaties. Opposition to torture stimulated the formation of the human rights movement after World War II, and torture continues to be an important human rights issue. (Full article...)