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Bruce Springsteen

Darkness on the Edge of Town is the fourth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen (pictured), released on June 2, 1978, by Columbia Records. The album was recorded during sessions in New York City with the E Street Band from June 1977 to March 1978, after a series of legal disputes between Springsteen and his former manager Mike Appel. Darkness musically strips the Wall of Sound production of its predecessor, Born to Run, for a rawer hard rock sound emphasizing the band as a whole. The lyrics focus on ill-fortuned characters who fight back against overwhelming odds. Released three years after Born to Run, Darkness did not sell as well but reached number five in the United States. Critics initially praised the album's music and performances but were divided on the lyrical content. In recent decades, Darkness has attracted acclaim as one of Springsteen's best works and has appeared on lists of the greatest albums of all time. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Oliveira in 2018

... that Brazilian Olympic gymnast Lorrane Oliveira (pictured) trained for the circus before starting gymnastics?
... that some estimate that maintenance of existing software costs up to nine times as much as creating it in the first place?
... that at age 15, Lilia Cosman moved from the United States to Romania to compete for Romania's Olympic gymnastics team?
... that Baubau city filed two different budgets at the same time, losing their chance at becoming the capital of Southeast Sulawesi?
... that in 1948, Jane Wallis Burrell became the first CIA officer to die in service?
... that after being freed from Buq Buq labor camp in Italian-occupied Egypt, Libyan Jewish prisoners had to walk home across the desert?
... that Aminata Barrow is the first female Olympic swimmer for The Gambia?
... that the Newton Lower Falls Branch was operated with a single electric railcar nicknamed the "Ping-Pong"?
... that after disappearing in 2019, a donkey is now "living his best life" with a wild elk herd?

In the news

Tadej Pogačar

Landslides kill at least 257 people in Geze Gofa, Ethiopia.
In cycling, Tadej Pogačar (pictured) wins the Tour de France.
Incumbent U.S. president Joe Biden withdraws from the 2024 presidential election.
In golf, Xander Schauffele wins the Open Championship.

On this day

July 28

Reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo helmet

1540 – King Henry VIII of England had his chief minister Thomas Cromwell executed for treason and heresy.
1866 – At the age of 18, Vinnie Ream became the youngest artist and first woman to receive a commission from the United States government for a statue—that of Abraham Lincoln currently in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.
1911 – The Australasian Antarctic Expedition began with the departure of SY Aurora from London.
1939 – During the excavation of a 7th-century ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England, archaeologists discovered a helmet (reconstruction pictured) that is widely associated with King Rædwald of East Anglia.
2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army announced the formal end of its armed campaign to overthrow British rule in Northern Ireland and create a united Ireland.

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (d. 1794)
Lucy Burns (b. 1879)
Vida Blue (b. 1949)
Zach Parise (b. 1984)

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Today's featured picture

Bultfonteinite is a pink, light-brown or colorless mineral with the chemical formula Ca₂SiO₂(OH,F)₄. It was first discovered in 1903 or 1904 in the Bultfontein mine in Kimberley, South Africa, with other finds in the same country in the following years. It has since been found across the world including in Australia, Botswana, Japan, Russia and the United States. The mineral occurs as radiating prismatic acicular crystals and radial spherules up to 2 centimetres (0.79 inches). This specimen of bultfonteinite, measuring 5.0 cm × 3.0 cm × 3.0 cm (2.0 in × 1.2 in × 1.2 in), was extracted from Shijiangshan Mine near Chifeng in Inner Mongolia, China.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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