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From today's featured article

The Blue Marble, a photograph of Earth taken by the Apollo 17 crew

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest and most massive of the four rocky planets. About 29% of Earth's surface is land, with the remaining 71% covered with water and much of Earth's polar regions covered in ice. Earth's interior is active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates Earth's magnetic field, and a convective mantle that drives plate tectonics. Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago. Within the first billion years of Earth's history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect Earth's atmosphere and surface. Since then, the combination of Earth's distance from the Sun, physical properties and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive. Almost 8 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and natural resources for their survival, but increasingly impact Earth's surface, atmosphere and other life. (This article is part of a featured topic: Solar System.)

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Did you know ...

Brandon Kintzler

... that Brandon Kintzler (pictured) married his wife at a drive-through chapel in Las Vegas?
... that the 2019 children's picture book The Fate of Fausto was inspired by the German legend of Faust, who trades his soul in exchange for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures?
... that Indigenous Australian elder Ivaritji was the last speaker of the Kaurna language before its revival in the 1990s?
... that for three years, an illegal gold-mining settlement on the Amur river went on to host high-class hotels, have public healthcare, and even have a casino?
... that Raoul de Gaucourt, who fought at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 and the siege of Harfleur in 1415, was described as "a medieval chivalric hero whom the modern world has forgotten"?
... that the Community catchphrase "six seasons and a movie" originated in "Paradigms of Human Memory" as a reference to The Cape?
... that Kameron Michaels has been described as a "lip sync assassin"?
... that prices can be negative?

In the news

KRI Nanggala in 2015

KRI Nanggala (pictured), an Indonesian Navy submarine, goes missing in the Bali Sea with 53 people on board.
In the United States, former police officer Derek Chauvin is found guilty of the murder of George Floyd.
President of Chad Idriss Déby is killed during a rebel offensive.
Miguel Díaz-Canel is selected as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, succeeding Raúl Castro.
On Mars, NASA's helicopter Ingenuity makes the first powered flight on another planet.

On this day

April 22

Pedro Álvares Cabral

1500 – A fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral (pictured) anchored off the coast of present-day Brazil, claiming the land for the Portuguese Empire.
1864 – The U.S. Congress authorized the creation of a two-cent coin, the first U.S. currency to bear the phrase "In God We Trust".
1951 – Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army attacked positions occupied mainly by Australian and Canadian forces, starting the Battle of Kapyong.
1993 – Stephen Lawrence, a black British teenager, was murdered while waiting for a bus in Eltham, London, leading to cultural changes of attitudes on racism and the police, and to the law and police practice.
2013 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested two men who were plotting to commit terrorist attacks against Via Rail operations.

James Sullivan (b. 1744)
Emily Davies (b. 1830)
Käthe Kollwitz (d. 1945)

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Today's featured picture

This poster was produced in May 1915 to advertise recruitment to the British Army during the First World War. Created for the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, the poster depicts two women and a child looking out of an open window at a column of soldiers marching past, with the text "Women of Britain Say – 'Go!'". At the beginning of 1914, the British Army had a reported strength of 710,000 men, including reserves. By the end of hostilities, over five million men had joined up, 2.67 million as volunteers and 2.77 million as conscripts.

Poster credit: E. J. Kealey; restored by Adam Cuerden

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