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From today's featured article

The Fighting Temeraire (1838)
by J. M. W. Turner

HMS Temeraire was a 98-gun ship of the line of the British Navy, serving in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Built at Chatham Dockyard, Temeraire was launched in 1798 and commissioned in 1799. After years of routine duties she joined Horatio Nelson's fleet in 1805. At the Battle of Trafalgar she was just astern of Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory. During the battle Temeraire came to Victory's rescue, and fought and captured two French ships, winning public renown in Britain. She served routinely until 1813 when she was laid up. She later acted as a prison ship, a receiving ship, a victualling depot, and a guard ship. She was sold in 1838 and towed up the Thames to be broken up. Her last voyage is depicted in a J. M. W. Turner oil painting (pictured), which was greeted with critical acclaim. The painting was voted Britain's favourite painting in a 2005 BBC Radio 4 poll, and a reproduction appears on the 2020 Bank of England £20 note. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

A flattened corn field near Roland, Iowa

... that the August 2020 Midwest derecho destroyed millions of acres of Iowa corn (pictured) and soybean crops in just 14 hours?
... that Johanna André, who appeared in dramatic soprano roles such as Wagner's Isolde, took part in the 1882 world premiere of Parsifal ?
... that the Battle of Chippenham was part of a coordinated strike by Guthrum and Ubba to take Wessex?
... that Durbin Feeling was named a Cherokee National Treasure for his contributions to the preservation of the endangered Cherokee language?
... that the title of the ballet Polyphonia is a reference to micropolyphony, a kind of musical structure developed by composer György Ligeti?
... that a purchaser of Delaware radio station WJWL called the transaction "the longest deal in my lifetime"?
... that a Christian writer claimed to have seen Yusuf II of Granada putting on a poisoned tunic, which caused the Sultan's death within thirty days?
... that female spiders of the genus Diguetia stridulate while mating, and make a noise loud enough for humans to hear when they are harassed?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Portal

Andrew Holness

Andrew Holness (pictured) is sworn in as prime minister after the Jamaica Labour Party win the general election.
Flooding in Sudan kills at least 100 people and leaves more than 100,000 others homeless.
Scientists confirm the first detection, using gravitational-wave astronomy, of a black hole in the upper mass gap.
Parliamentary elections in Montenegro result in the first victory for opposition parties in 30 years.

On this day

September 11: National Day of Catalonia

United Airlines Flight 175 strikes the World Trade Center's South Tower

1297 – First War of Scottish Independence: Scottish forces under Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeated English troops at the Battle of Stirling Bridge on the River Forth.
1924 – French composer Gabriel Fauré finished his last composition, a string quartet, before dying two months later.
1945 – The Japanese-run camp at Batu Lintang, Sarawak, in Borneo was liberated by the Australian 9th Division, averting the planned massacre of its 2,000-plus Allied POWs and civilian internees by four days.
2001 – Al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger airliners to carry out a series of terrorist attacks (second attack pictured) against targets in New York City and the Washington, D.C., area.

Stephen Hagiochristophorites (d. 1185)
Mary Watson Whitney (b. 1847)
Murali Kartik (b. 1976)

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From today's featured list

Map of U.S. territorial evolution (view animation)

The territorial evolution of the United States began with the Declaration of Independence of thirteen British colonies in North America on July 4, 1776. In the Lee Resolution of July 2, 1776, the colonies resolved that they were free and independent states. Their independence was recognized by Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which concluded the American Revolutionary War. This effectively doubled the size of the colonies, now able to stretch west past the Proclamation Line to the Mississippi River. The first great expansion of the country came with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which doubled the country's territory. The country's expansion beyond North America began in 1856 with the passage of the Guano Islands Act, causing many small and uninhabited, but economically important, islands in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea to be claimed. Through the Spanish–American War in 1898, the United States gained Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Following World War II, many islands were entrusted to the U.S. by the United Nations. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Masih Alinejad (born 11 September 1976) is an Iranian journalist, author, political activist, and women's-rights activist. She currently lives in the United States where she works as a presenter and producer at the Voice of America Persian News Network, a correspondent for Radio Farda, a frequent contributor to Manoto television, and a contributing editor to IranWire. This photograph was taken in 2018, the year when she published her memoir, The Wind in My Hair, dealing with her journey from a tiny village in northern Iran to becoming a journalist and creating an online movement that sparked nationwide protests against the compulsory wearing of hijab.

Photograph credit: Kambiz Foroohar

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