From yesterday's featured article
The Inaccessible Island rail (Laterallus rogersi) is a bird found only on Inaccessible Island in the South Atlantic Tristan archipelago. This rail, the smallest extant flightless bird, was described by physician Percy Lowe in 1923. The adult has brown plumage, a black bill, black feet, and red eyes. It occupies most habitats on the island, from the beaches to the central plateau, feeding on a variety of small invertebrates and some plant matter. Pairs are territorial and monogamous; both parents incubate the eggs and raise the chicks. The rail's adaptations to living on a tiny island at high densities include a low basal metabolic rate, small clutch sizes, and flightlessness. Unlike many other oceanic islands, Inaccessible Island has remained free from introduced predators, allowing this species to flourish while many other flightless rails have gone extinct. The species is nevertheless considered vulnerable, due to the danger of a single catastrophe wiping out the small, isolated population. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that G299.2-2.9 (pictured) is one of the oldest known Type Ia supernova remnants in the Milky Way?
- ... that eccentric Yorkshirewoman Camberley Kate is estimated to have cared for more than 600 dogs in her lifetime?
- ... that Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth was Wole Soyinka's first novel in nearly fifty years?
- ... that cricketer William O'Rourke has the best match-bowling figures by a New Zealander on a Test debut?
- ... that Biodiversity Impact Credits seek to stop species extinction?
- ... that the terms "Palestine" and "Palestinians" were being increasingly used in 1908 by the emergent Palestinian press, which expressed anti-Zionist positions?
- ... that ice hockey player Cameron Butler "had the good fortune not to get pulled over as he raced" to reach his team's game in time for his NHL debut?
- ... that the iZombie episode "And He Shall Be a Good Man" gets its name from an Elton John lyric?
- ... that Sans's boss theme, "Megalovania", was played at the Vatican as part of a circus act during an audience with Pope Francis?
In the news (For today)
- Acting prime minister of Haiti Ariel Henry resigns, and is replaced by Michel Patrick Boisvert (pictured) while the Transitional Presidential Council is sworn in.
- The Ownership, Unity and Responsibility Party, led by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, wins the most seats in the Solomon Islands general election but falls short of a majority.
- NASA announces that the Voyager 1 space probe is sending readable data for the first time in five months.
- The HDZ-led coalition wins the most seats in the Croatian parliamentary election but falls short of a majority.
- Ichthyotitan, the largest known marine reptile, is formally described.
On the previous day
- 311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians officially ended in the eastern Roman Empire.
- 1943 – Second World War: The Royal Navy submarine HMS Seraph began Operation Mincemeat to deceive Germany about the upcoming invasion of Sicily.
- 1963 – A refusal by the Bristol Omnibus Company and the Transport and General Workers' Union to permit the employment of black bus crews led to a bus boycott in Bristol, England.
- 1975 – American forces completed a helicopter evacuation (aircraft and evacuees pictured) of U.S. citizens, South Vietnamese civilians and others from Saigon, just before North Vietnamese troops captured the city and ended the Vietnam War.
- 2021 – A crowd crush killed 45 people during the annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Israel.
- Marie of the Incarnation (d. 1672)
- Emily Stowe (d. 1903)
- Kirsten Dunst (b. 1982)
Yesterday's featured picture
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by the French composer Claude Debussy. The French-language libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's symbolist play Pelléas and Mélisande. The plot concerns a love triangle between Prince Golaud, Mélisande (a mysterious young woman he had found lost in a forest), and Golaud's younger half-brother Pelléas. The only opera Debussy ever completed, Pelléas et Mélisande premiered on 30 April 1902 at the Salle Favart in Paris, performed by the Opéra-Comique, with Jean Périer as Pelléas and Mary Garden as Mélisande. The premiere was conducted by André Messager, who was instrumental in getting the Opéra-Comique to stage the work. This poster by the French painter Georges Rochegrosse was produced for the premiere. Poster credit: Georges Rochegrosse; restored by Adam Cuerden
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