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Arab–Sasanian dirham of Yazid I

Yazid I (c. 646 – 683) was the second caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from April 680 until his death. His appointment, the first hereditary succession to the caliphate in Islamic history, was opposed by several Muslim grandees from Medina, including Muhammad's grandson Husayn ibn Ali. Husayn refused to recognize Yazid following his accession and left for Kufa in Iraq to lead a revolt, but was killed in the Battle of Karbala. To suppress the subsequent rebellion in Arabia, Yazid sent an army that captured and sacked Medina. Next, Mecca was besieged for several weeks until the army withdrew as a result of Yazid's death. The caliphate fell into a decade-long civil war known as the Second Fitna, ending with the establishment of the Marwanid dynasty. Yazid is considered an illegitimate ruler and a tyrant by many Muslims. Modern historians consider him a capable ruler, albeit less successful than his father Mu'awiya I, whose style of governance he continued. (Full article...)

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Mr. Dick drawn by Fred Barnard

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In the news

Naomi Mataʻafa

In Mali, President Bah Ndaw and his prime minister and defence minister are arrested by the army in a coup d'état.
A makeshift ceremony is held to swear in Naomi Mataʻafa (pictured) as Prime Minister of Samoa after she and her party are locked out of parliament.
At least fourteen people are killed in a mass shooting by the Militarized Communist Party of Peru in San Miguel del Ene.
In golf, Phil Mickelson wins the PGA Championship.
Journalist Roman Protasevich is arrested after his Ryanair flight is forced to land at Minsk National Airport in Belarus.

On this day

May 26: Independence Day in Georgia (1918)

Artist's impression of the Grue Church fire

946 – King Edmund I of England was murdered at Pucklechurch on the feast day of St Augustine.
1637 – Pequot War: Allied Puritan and Mohegan forces attacked a fortified Pequot village in the Connecticut Colony, killing between 400 and 700 people.
1822 – The deadliest fire in Norwegian history (depicted) occurred at a church in Grue, killing at least 113 people.
1967 – The Beatles' eighth studio album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was released.
1991 – Shortly after leaving Bangkok, an engine thrust reverser on Lauda Air Flight 004 deployed without being commanded, causing the aircraft to break apart and killing all 223 people on board.

Edmond de Goncourt (b. 1822)
Adolfo de la Huerta (b. 1881)
Elizabeth Peer (d. 1984)

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Today's featured picture

Sally Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American physicist and astronaut. She joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman in space. She was the third woman in space overall, after Soviet cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). Ride had completed eight months of training for her third flight when the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred. She served on the two panels that investigated this accident and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Photograph credit: NASA; restored by Coffeeandcrumbs

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