From today's featured articleEdward II (1284–1327) was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. He married Isabella, the daughter of the powerful King Philip IV of France, in 1308. Edward had a close and controversial relationship with Piers Gaveston, who had joined his household in 1300. Gaveston's arrogance and power as Edward's favourite provoked discontent among both the barons and the French royal family, and Edward was forced to exile him. On Gaveston's return, the barons pressured the king into agreeing to wide-ranging reforms, called the Ordinances of 1311. A group of barons seized and executed Gaveston in 1312, beginning several years of armed confrontation. English forces were pushed back in Scotland, where Edward was decisively defeated by Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. After the exiled Roger Mortimer invaded England with a small army in 1326, Edward's regime collapsed and he relinquished his crown in favour of his 14-year-old son, Edward III. (Full article...)
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On this dayMay 17: Galician Literature Day in Galicia, Spain; Sanja Matsuri begins in Tokyo (2019)
Seth Warner (b. 1743) · Sebastian Kneipp (b. 1821) · Dorothy Levitt (d. 1922) |
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There are 129 protected areas in the United States known as national monuments. The President of the United States can establish a national monument by presidential proclamation, and the United States Congress can do so by legislation. The president's authority arises from the Antiquities Act of 1906, which authorizes the president to proclaim "historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest" as national monuments. President Theodore Roosevelt established the first national monument, Devils Tower (pictured) in Wyoming, on September 24, 1906. He established 18 national monuments, although only nine still retain that designation. National monuments are located in 31 states as well as in the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Minor Outlying Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Arizona and California have the largest number of national monuments, each with 18, followed by New Mexico with 14. At least 75 national monuments protect places of natural significance, and 62 have historical importance. (Full list...)
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Ancient Rome is a set of three almost identical paintings by Italian artist Giovanni Paolo Panini, produced as pendant paintings to Modern Rome for his patron, the comte de Stainville, in the 1750s. The paintings depict many of the most significant architectural sites and sculptures from ancient Rome, such as the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Laocoön and His Sons, the Farnese Hercules, the Apollo Belvedere and the Borghese Gladiator. Both Panini and Stainville are featured in the paintings; Stainville stands holding a guidebook, while Panini appears behind Stainville's armchair. This picture shows the second version of the work, located in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, painted in oil on canvas and dated 1757. The other two versions are in the collections of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and the Louvre in Paris. Painting credit: Giovanni Paolo Panini
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