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Harrison Ford

Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. It stars Harrison Ford (pictured), Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, and Denholm Elliott. Ford portrays Indiana Jones, a globe-trotting archaeologist vying with Nazi forces in 1936 to recover the lost Ark of the Covenant, a relic said to make an army invincible. With his former lover Marion Ravenwood (Allen), Jones races to stop rival archaeologist René Belloq (Freeman) from guiding the Nazis to the Ark. Principal photography took place during June–September 1980 on sets at Elstree Studios, England, and on location in Tunisia, Hawaii, and La Rochelle. The highest-grossing film of 1981, it won five Oscars, seven Saturn Awards, and one BAFTA. Appearing in many lists of all-time best films, it has had a lasting impact on popular culture. It led to further Indiana Jones films, games and toys. (Full article...)

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Claus Guth

... that Claus Guth (pictured), recognised internationally for directing the 1999 premiere of Berio's Cronaca del luogo at the Salzburg Festival, later received two Faust awards?
... that the world's 82 million refugees will be represented at the 2020 Summer Paralympics by the Refugee Paralympic Team?
... that George Orwell said of Mairin Mitchell's Storm over Spain (1937) that it was "written by a Catholic, but very sympathetic to the Spanish Anarchists"?
... that the W71 nuclear warhead had a tamper made of gold?
... that Theodore Roosevelt sent National Baptist Convention president Elias Camp Morris to investigate atrocities committed in the Congo Free State?
... that Brachystelma tumakurense's stem is so weak that it sometimes bends under the weight of leaves and flowers?
... that Tonic Immobility's "pure, undiluted chaos" is "an escape from the realities of the world"?
... that after Thomas Doughty was sentenced to death by Francis Drake, the two men dined and received communion together just before Doughty's execution?

In the news

Paralympics opening ceremony

Amid evacuations from Afghanistan, a suicide bombing kills at least 182 people at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
The Summer Paralympics open (ceremony pictured) in Tokyo, Japan.
Ismail Sabri Yaakob is appointed as prime minister by the King of Malaysia.
Hakainde Hichilema is elected President of Zambia.
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti kills more than 2,200 people.

On this day

August 29

Illustration of Shays' Rebellion

1786 – Led by Daniel Shays, farmers in western Massachusetts angered by high tax burdens and disfranchisement began an armed uprising (depicted) against the U.S. federal government.
1885 – Gottlieb Daimler patented the world's first internal-combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen.
1949 – The Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear weapons test, detonating the 22-kiloton RDS-1.
1991 – Italian businessman Libero Grassi was killed by the Sicilian Mafia in Palermo after taking a public stand against their extortion demands.
1996 – Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801 crashed on approach to Svalbard Airport, Norway, killing all 141 on board.

Charles of Taranto (d. 1315)
Edmond Hoyle (d. 1769)
Vivien Thomas (b. 1910)

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Today's featured picture

Averbode Abbey is a Premonstratensian abbey in Averbode, in the municipality of Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, Belgium. The abbey was founded about 1134, suppressed in 1797, and re-established in 1834. The church is a synthesis of Baroque and Gothic architecture, with Renaissance ornamental details, and dominates the monastery complex; it was built between 1664 and 1672, to a design by the Antwerp architect Jan Van den Eynde II. This view of the church's interior shows the chancel, with the choir in the foreground and the sanctuary in the background.

Photograph credit: Marc Ryckaert

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