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Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 2024

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August 1

Dionysus Cup, possibly referencing the seventh Homeric Hymn
Dionysus Cup, possibly referencing the seventh Homeric Hymn

The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three ancient Greek hymns and one epigram. They praise deities of the Greek pantheon and retell mythological stories, such as the abduction of Persephone and the seduction of Anchises by Aphrodite. In antiquity, the hymns were generally attributed to the poet Homer: modern scholarship has established that they vary widely in date. Performances of the hymns may have taken place at sympotic banquets, religious festivals and royal courts. They may originally have been performed by singers accompanying themselves on a lyre. The hymns influenced Alexandrian and Roman poets, and both pagan and early Christian literature. They were first published in print by Demetrios Chalkokondyles in 1488–1489, while George Chapman made the first English translation of them in 1624. They have since influenced, among others, Handel, Goethe, Shelley, Tennyson and Cavafy. Their influence has also been traced in the novels of James Joyce and Neil Gaiman, and in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. (Full article...)


August 2

Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Charles Edward (1884–1954) was at various times a British prince, the last ruling duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Germany, and a Nazi politician. Brought up in the United Kingdom, he was selected to succeed to the throne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1899 because he was deemed young enough to be re-educated as a German. He married Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein and the couple had five children. Charles Edward was a conservative ruler with an interest in art and technology. During the First World War, he supported the German Empire but was deposed during the German Revolution. During the 1920s, Charles Edward became a moral and financial supporter of violent far-right paramilitary groups, joining the Nazi Party in 1933. He was given multiple positions, including leader of the German Red Cross, and acted as an unofficial diplomat. After the war, he was interned for a period and given a minor conviction by a denazification court, dying of cancer in 1954. (Full article...)


August 3

Title page of Free and Candid Disquisitions
Title page

Free and Candid Disquisitions is an anonymously published 1749 pamphlet written and compiled by John Jones, a Welsh clergyman of the Church of England. The work promoted a series of reforms to the church and the Book of Common Prayer that Jones hoped would allow the more Protestant and independent Dissenters to be reintegrated into the church. Jones's proposals included shortening the Sunday liturgies, removing Catholic ritual influences, and providing improved hymns and psalms. Several responding texts were written, both lauding and criticizing Jones's work. While the proposals were not accepted by the Church of England, Jones's suggested alterations to the prayer book and advocacy of privately published liturgies influenced several Dissenter liturgical texts and early editions of the American Episcopal Church's prayer book. The pamphlet remained a major influence on proposed liturgical changes in the Church of England until the 19th-century Tractarian movement. (Full article...)


August 4

Aston Martin Rapide S
Aston Martin Rapide S

The Aston Martin Rapide is an executive sports saloon car that was produced by the British carmaker Aston Martin between 2010 and 2020. Development of the car commenced in 2005, and after about two months, a concept car, called the Rapide, was completed and displayed at the North American International Auto Show in 2006. In 2009, three years after the concept's unveiling, the production version debuted at the International Motor Show Germany. Official manufacture of the car began on 7 May 2010, at Magna Steyr's facility in Graz, Austria, but production was shifted to Gaydon, Warwickshire, in 2012 after Aston Martin received funding from the British government. Over its production run, the Rapide received two major updates, with the introduction of the Rapide S (pictured) in 2013 and the Rapide AMR in 2018. A battery electric version of the Rapide, called the Rapide E, was introduced in 2018 but Aston Martin announced in 2020 that it would not be series produced. (Full article...)


August 5

1295 depiction of Alice arriving at Acre
1295 depiction of Alice arriving at Acre

Alice of Champagne (c. 1193 – 1246) was the eldest daughter of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and Count Henry II of Champagne. In 1210, Alice married her stepbrother King Hugh I of Cyprus, receiving the County of Jaffa as dowry. After her husband's death in 1218, she assumed the regency for their infant son, King Henry I. Her attempts to bolster her claim to Champagne and Brie in France failed. Due to a debate with her uncle Philip of Ibelin, she left Cyprus in 1223. In exile, she married Bohemond, the heir apparent to the Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli, but their marriage was annulled. In 1229, she unsuccessfully laid claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem against the absent Conrad II. In 1240, she married Raoul of Nesle and the High Court of Jerusalem proclaimed them regents for Conrad in 1243, although their power was nominal. Raoul left the kingdom, and Alice, before the end of the year. Alice retained the regency until her death in 1246. (Full article...)


August 6

Existential quantifier, used in logic to express existence
Existential quantifier, used in logic to express existence

Existence is the state of having being or reality. It is often contrasted with essence, since one can understand the essential features of something without knowing whether it exists. Ontology studies existence and differentiates between singular existence of individual entities and general existence of concepts or universals. Entities present in space and time have concrete existence, in contrast to abstract entities, like numbers and sets. Other distinctions are between possible, contingent, and necessary existence and between physical and mental existence. Some philosophers talk of degrees of existence but the more common view is that an entity either exists or not, with no intermediary states. It is controversial whether existence can be understood as a property of individual objects and, if so, whether there are nonexistent objects. The concept of existence has a long history and played a role in the ancient period in pre-Socratic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Daoist philosophy. (Full article...)


August 7

Original premises of Blackrocks
Original premises of Blackrocks

Blackrocks Brewery is a craft brewery in Marquette, Michigan, United States. Taking the name from a local landmark, former pharmaceutical salesmen David Manson and Andy Langlois opened Blackrocks in 2010. They originally brewed their products in the basement of a Victorian-style house (pictured), and the building's two other floors were used as a taproom. By 2013, persistent high demand for Blackrocks' beer led Manson and Langlois to expand their brewing capacity, including the purchase and conversion of a former Coca-Cola bottling plant. In the early 2020s, they expanded Blackrocks' taproom into an adjacent property, which doubled its available indoor area. Blackrocks produced 12,687 barrels of beer in 2023, up about 11 percent from the year prior, and they are the largest craft brewery in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Their most popular beer is 51K, an American IPA named for a local ski marathon. (Full article...)


August 8

Albert Stanley, 1st Baron Ashfield

Albert Stanley, 1st Baron Ashfield (8 August 1874 – 4 November 1948), was the managing director and chairman of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) from 1910 to 1933, and the chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) from 1933 to 1947. At a young age, he held senior positions in the tramway systems of Detroit and New Jersey. In 1907 he was recruited by the UERL, where he integrated the company's management and used advertising and public relations to improve profits. As managing director of the UERL from 1910, he led the take-over of competing companies and operations to form Combine, an integrated transport operation. He was Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne from 1916 to 1920 and President of the Board of Trade between 1916 and 1919. He returned to the UERL and then chaired it and its successor the LPTB during the organisation's greatest period of expansion between the two world wars, making it an exemplar of the best form of public administration. (Full article...)


August 9

St Melangell's Church

St Melangell's Church is a Grade I listed medieval building in the former village of Pennant Melangell, in the Tanat Valley, Powys, Wales. Built over a Bronze Age burial ground, the church was founded around the 8th century to commemorate the reputed grave of Melangell, a hermit and abbess who founded a convent and sanctuary in the area. The current church was built in the 12th century and has been renovated several times, including major restoration work in the 19th and 20th centuries. Archaeological excavation in the 20th century uncovered prehistoric and early medieval activity. The church contains the reconstructed shrine to Melangell, considered the oldest surviving Romanesque shrine in northern Europe and which was a major pilgrimage site in medieval Wales. The interior of the church holds a 15th-century rood screen depicting Melangell's legend, two 14th-century effigies, paintings, and liturgical fittings. (Full article...)


August 10

Phoolan Devi (1963–2001) was an Indian dacoit (bandit) who later became a member of parliament (MP). She was a woman of the Mallah subcaste who grew up in poverty in the state of Uttar Pradesh. After marrying aged eleven and being sexually abused, she joined a gang of dacoits who robbed higher-caste villages and held up trains. When she became its leader, she evaded capture by the authorities, making her a heroine for the Other Backward Classes. She was charged in absentia for the 1981 Behmai massacre, in which twenty Thakur men were executed, allegedly on her command. Afterwards, calls to apprehend her were amplified. She surrendered two years later and spent eleven years in Gwalior prison awaiting trial. She was released in 1994 after the charges against her were set aside and she became an MP for the Samajwadi Party. Her global fame had grown after the release of the controversial film Bandit Queen, of which she did not approve. In 2001, she was assassinated outside her home in New Delhi. (Full article...)


August 11

T3, a sister ship of T2
T3, a sister ship of T2

T2 was a torpedo boat of the Royal Yugoslav Navy. Originally a 250t-class torpedo boat of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, commissioned on 11 August 1914 as 77T, she saw active service during World War I, performing convoy, patrol, escort, minesweeping and minelaying tasks, anti-submarine operations, and shore bombardment missions. Present in the Bocche di Cattaro during the short-lived mutiny by Austro-Hungarian sailors in early February 1918, members of her crew raised the red flag but took no other mutinous actions. The boat was part of the escort force for the Austro-Hungarian dreadnought Szent István when that ship was sunk by Italian torpedo boats in June 1918. Following Austria-Hungary's defeat in 1918, the boat was allocated to the Navy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which became the Royal Yugoslav Navy in 1921, and was renamed T2. During the interwar period, Yugoslav naval activity was limited by reduced budgets. Worn out after twenty-five years of service, T2 was scrapped in 1939. (This article is part of a featured topic: Ships of the Royal Yugoslav Navy.)


August 12

Robinson performing on the Worlds Live Tour in 2014
Robinson performing on the Worlds Live Tour in 2014

Worlds is the debut studio album by American electronic music producer Porter Robinson, released on August 12, 2014, by Astralwerks. Initially known for his heavier bass-centric production, Robinson became increasingly dissatisfied with the electronic dance music (EDM) genre, believing it limited his artistic expression. Following the release of his 2012 single "Language", Robinson decided to prioritize aesthetic and emotional qualities in his work, taking inspiration from media that evoked nostalgia for his childhood and integrating elements taken from anime, films, and sounds from 1990s video games. The album was promoted with four singles and later a tour (pictured) in North America and Europe. Worlds was well-received by most critics, who praised it as innovative and forecasted a promising career for Robinson, though others felt the record lacked coherence or was unexciting. The album has been retrospectively noted for its impact on the EDM scene. (Full article...)


August 13

Flag of Japan

The national flag of Japan is a white rectangular flag with a large red disc (representing the sun) in the center. It is officially called Nisshōki in Japanese, but more commonly known as the Hinomaru. Although considered the de facto flag, it was designated as Japan's national flag on August 13, 1999. In early Japanese history, the Hinomaru motif was used on flags of daimyos and samurai. During the Meiji Restoration both the sun disc and the Rising Sun Ensign were symbols in the Japanese empire. Use of the Hinomaru was restricted during the American occupation after World War II, but this was later relaxed. The flag is not frequently displayed due to its past association with nationalism. There is no requirement to fly the flag on any national holiday or special events. If used the flag may be flown from sunrise until sunset, although businesses and schools are permitted to fly the flag from opening to closing. (Full article...)


August 14

Hudson Volcano

Hudson Volcano is a volcano in the rugged mountains of southern Chile. Lying in the Southern Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it was formed by the subduction of the oceanic Nazca Plate under the continental South American Plate. Hudson has the form of a 10-kilometre-wide (6-mile) volcanic caldera filled with ice. The volcano has erupted numerous times in the past 2.5 million years forming widespread tephra deposits, and is the most active volcano in the region. Four large eruptions have taken place in the past 20,000 years: 17,300–17,440 before present (BP), 7,750 BP, 4,200 BP, and in 1991. The 7,750 BP eruption was among the most intense volcanic eruptions in South America during the Holocene, devastated the local ecosystem and may have caused substantial shifts in human settlement and lifestyle. During the 1991 eruption, volcanic ash covered a large area in Chile and Argentina, and was deposited as far as Antarctica. The last eruption was in 2011. (Full article...)


August 15

Original "Bondi Blue" iMac
Original "Bondi Blue" iMac

The iMac G3, originally released as the iMac, is a series of personal computers sold by Apple Computer from 1998 to 2003. Following Steve Jobs's return to the financially troubled company that he co-founded, he aggressively restructured its offerings. The iMac was envisioned as Apple's new inexpensive and consumer-friendly desktop product, focused on easy connection to the Internet. Apple's head of design Jony Ive and his team created a striking teardrop-shaped all-in-one design based around a cathode-ray tube display, shrouded in translucent colored plastic. The iMac eschewed legacy technologies like serial ports and floppy-disk drives in favor of CD-ROMs and USB ports. Selling more than six million units, the iMac was a commercial success for Apple, helping to save it from bankruptcy whilst influencing the look of future computers and consumer products. The original model was revised several times and was succeeded by the iMac G4 and eMac. (Full article...)


August 16

Complete set of snooker balls
Complete set of snooker balls

Snooker is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets. First played by British Army officers stationed in India circa 1875, the game uses twenty-two balls (pictured) – a white cue ball, fifteen red balls, and six other balls collectively called "the colours". Using a snooker cue, individual players (or teams) take turns to strike the cue ball to pot the other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each foul committed by the opposing player/team. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player or team that has scored the most points. A snooker match ends when a player/team has won a predetermined number of frames. The standard rules of snooker were first established in 1919. As a professional sport, snooker is governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Top players of many nationalities compete in regular tournaments around the world, earning millions of pounds on the World Snooker Tour. (Full article...)


August 17

Pan Am Boeing 707-121, similar to the one destroyed in the accident
Pan Am Boeing 707-121, similar to the one destroyed in the accident

On December 8, 1963, Pan Am Flight 214 crashed near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 crew and passengers. Flight 214 had originated at Isla Verde International Airport in San Juan, flying to Friendship Airport near Baltimore, and then took off for Philadelphia. The crash was Pan Am's first fatal accident with the Boeing 707-121, which it had introduced to its fleet five years earlier. An investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board concluded that the probable cause of the crash was a lightning strike that had ignited fuel vapors in one of the aircraft's fuel tanks, causing an explosion that destroyed the left wing. The exact manner of ignition was never determined, but the investigation increased awareness of how lightning can damage aircraft, leading to new regulations. The crash also led to research into the safety of several types of aviation fuel and into ways of changing the design of aircraft fuel systems to make them safer in the event of lightning strikes. (Full article...)

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August 18

One of Kes's costumes with wig and ear prosthetics
One of Kes's costumes with wig and ear prosthetics

Kes is a fictional character in the science fiction television show Star Trek: Voyager, played by Jennifer Lien. Kes joins the crew of the starship USS Voyager in the pilot episode, opening an aeroponics garden and working as a medical assistant. She is a member of a telepathic alien species with a life span of only nine years. She leaves the ship in the fourth season after her powers threaten to destroy it. She reappears in an episode in the sixth season and features in Star Trek: Voyager novels and short stories. Voyager's creators intended Kes to provide audiences with a different perspective on time. Although Kes is portrayed as fragile and innocent, she is also shown as having hidden strength and maturity. Voyager's producers reluctantly fired Lien after her personal issues affected her reliability on set. Kes was a fan favorite character while Voyager was airing, although critics reacted more negatively, finding her boring and without a clear purpose. Lien was praised for her performance. (Full article...)

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August 19

St Oswald's Church, Winwick
St Oswald's Church, Winwick

The Battle of Winwick was fought on 19 August 1648 between a Scottish Royalist army and a Parliamentarian army during the Second English Civil War. The Scottish army invaded north-west England and was attacked and defeated at Preston on 17 August. The surviving Royalists fled south, closely pursued. Two days later, hungry, cold, soaking wet, exhausted and short of dry powder, they turned to fight at Winwick. Parliamentarian infantry launched a full-scale assault which resulted in more than three hours of furious but indecisive close-quarters fighting. The Parliamentarians fell back, pinned the Scots in place with their cavalry and sent their infantry on a circuitous flank march. When the Scots saw this force appear on their right flank they broke and fled. Parliamentarian cavalry pursued, killing many. The surviving Scottish infantry surrendered either at Winwick church (pictured) or in nearby Warrington; their cavalry on 24 August at Uttoxeter. Winwick was the last battle of the war. (Full article...)


August 20

Alex Beachum, creative director of Outer Wilds
Alex Beachum, creative director of Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds is a 2019 action-adventure video game developed by Mobius Digital and published by Annapurna Interactive. The game follows the player character as they explore a planetary system stuck in a 22-minute time loop that resets after the sun goes supernova and destroys the system. Through repeated attempts they investigate alien ruins to discover their history and the cause of the time loop. The game began development in 2012 as the master's thesis of director Alex Beachum (pictured), and became a commercial project in 2015. It was released for Windows, the Xbox One, and the PlayStation 4 in 2019, for the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S in 2022, and for the Nintendo Switch in 2023. It was positively received, with most critics acclaiming its design and some criticizing the uneven difficulty of gameplay and pursuing the game's mysteries. An expansion, Echoes of the Eye, was released in 2021. Outer Wilds won in multiple categories at award shows, including Best Game at the 16th British Academy Games Awards. (Full article...)


August 21

Map of the area ruled by the Turabays
Map of the area ruled by the Turabays

The Turabay dynasty was a family of Bedouin emirs who governed the district of Lajjun in northern Palestine during Ottoman rule in the 16th–17th centuries. The family's forebears had served as chiefs of Jezreel Valley during Mamluk rule in the late 15th century. During the Ottoman conquest of the region in 1516–1517, the family aided Ottoman sultan Selim I. The Ottomans kept them as guardians of the strategic Via Maris and DamascusJerusalem highways and rewarded them with tax farms. Although in the 17th century several of their emirs lived in towns, the Turabays largely remained nomads, camping with their tribesmen near Caesarea in the winters and the plain of Acre in the summers. The eastward migration of their tribesmen to the Jordan Valley, Ottoman centralization, and falling tax revenues brought about their political decline and they were permanently stripped of office in 1677. Descendants of the family continue to live in the area. (Full article...)


August 22

Paul Verhoeven, director, in 2016
Paul Verhoeven, director, in 2016

Total Recall is a 1990 American science-fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven (pictured). Based on a 1966 short story by Philip K. Dick, the film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, and Michael Ironside. It tells the story of Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger) and the shadow organization that tries to prevent him from recovering memories of his past as a Martian secret agent. Schwarzenegger convinced Carolco Pictures to develop the film with him as the star, after the project had lingered in development hell at multiple studios over sixteen years. The film was one of the most expensive ever made at the time, and became the fifth-highest-grossing film of the year. Reviewers liked its themes of identity and questioning reality, but criticized content perceived as vulgar and violent. The practical special effects were well received, earning the film an Academy Award, and the score by Jerry Goldsmith has been praised as one of his best works. (Full article...)


August 23

Robert F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy in 1962
Robert F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy in 1962

In 1993, about 350 documents were forged by Lawrence X. Cusack III. These papers were supposedly from, or related to, John F. Kennedy. Some of them alleged that Kennedy had a secret first marriage and dealings with organized crime, had bribed FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and paid hush money to Marilyn Monroe. Cusack, son of a lawyer who had dealings with Monroe's family, claimed to have found the papers in the firm's files. He sold them for between six and seven million dollars. One of the buyers suggested showing them to Seymour Hersh, who was writing The Dark Side of Camelot (1997). Hersh began incorporating them into his book and proposed a television documentary. Checks by the networks uncovered flaws in the forgeries. These included the use of a ZIP Code in a paper dated two years before the ZIP Code was introduced, and the use of a typeball that had not yet been invented. Cusack was convicted of fraud, sentenced to nearly ten years in prison and ordered to refund the money to the buyers. (Full article...)


August 24

Anna Lee Fisher

Anna Lee Fisher (born August 24, 1949) is an American chemist, emergency physician and former NASA astronaut who was the first mother to fly in space. Fisher became an astronaut candidate with NASA Astronaut Group 8 and joined the Astronaut Office for the development of the Canadarm and the testing of payload bay door contingency spacewalk procedures. She was assigned to the search and rescue helicopters for four Space Shuttle missions, then involved in the verification of flight software at the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory and supported vehicle integration and payload testing at Kennedy Space Center. She flew into space on Space Shuttle Discovery for the STS-51-A mission and used the Canadarm to retrieve two satellites in incorrect orbits. Fisher then worked on procedures and training issues for the International Space Station (ISS), was a capsule communicator (CAPCOM) and the lead CAPCOM for ISS Expedition 33, and was involved in developing the display for the Orion spacecraft. (Full article...)


August 25

Symbol of the 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS
Symbol of the 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS

The 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjäger was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the Nazi Party that served alongside, but was never formally part of, the German armed forces during World War II. Formed on 18 July 1944 from a battalion, it was understrength and was soon reduced to a brigade. Its main task was fighting partisans on the rugged frontiers of Yugoslavia, Italy, and Austria, and it consisted mainly of ethnic Germans from Yugoslavia and Italy. It also disarmed Italian troops and protected ethnic German communities in Italy in the wake of the Italian surrender. Members of the division were implicated in the 25 August 1944 murder of 33 people in the village of Torlano near Nimis in Italy, and 22 other major crimes. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SS was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. (Full article...)


August 26

Black-throated loon

The black-throated loon (Gavia arctica) is a migratory aquatic bird that primarily breeds in freshwater lakes in northern Europe and Asia. It winters along sheltered, ice-free coasts of the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans. First formally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, it is about 70 centimetres (28 in) long and can weigh from 1.3 to 3.4 kilograms (2.9 to 7.5 lb). In breeding plumage, it has mostly black upperparts, a grey head and hindneck, white and black sides, mostly white underparts and flanks, and a mostly black throat. The loon builds an oval-shaped nest about 23 centimetres (9.1 in) across, in vegetation on or near the breeding lake. It usually lays two eggs, brown-green with dark splotches. Chicks are fed a diet of small fish and invertebrates, contrasting with the mostly fish diet of the adult. Overall, the population of this loon is declining, but the species is not threatened. It is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement. (Full article...)


August 27

Nadezhda Stasova

Nadezhda Stasova (1822–1895) was an educator and one of the earliest leaders of the Russian women's movement. She was born into a noble and wealthy family; Tsar Alexander I of Russia was her godfather, and she received extensive private tutoring as a child. In adulthood, she dedicated herself to women's empowerment. Along with Anna Filosofova and Maria Trubnikova, she founded and led several organizations designed to promote women's cultural and economic independence, including a publishing cooperative. In a decades-long effort, they successfully pushed government officials to allow higher education for women, although continual opposition sometimes limited or even reversed their successes. Stasova eventually became the lead organizer of the Bestuzhev Courses for women in 1878, but a decade later was forced to resign under political pressure. She continued her work on women's issues right up until her death in 1895, mentoring and inspiring younger feminists. (Full article...)


August 28

Bäckadräkten worn by Clue
Bäckadräkten worn by Clue

Bäckadräkten is Sweden's first unisex folk costume, designed in 2022 by musician Fredy Clue (pictured) and textile designer Ida Björs. Their mission was to encourage wider participation in folk traditions by providing an outfit that is not restricted to any gender or geographic region. The design merges elements traditionally considered either male or female and borrows heavily from older folk costumes. The release generated international press attention and discussions on social media, much of the latter about the relationship between folk arts and gender. Many welcomed the design, saying it provides an opportunity for non-binary Swedes to be more involved in folk culture. Others reacted negatively, resisting the social change they see as associated with it. Clue released a sewing pattern in 2023 and started taking custom orders by 2024, encouraging users to modify as they see fit, saying: "The real work continues with us learning to listen to oneself and others." (Full article...)


August 29

Yuan-era stele in the ruins of the Cross Temple
Yuan-era stele in the ruins of the Cross Temple

The Cross Temple is a former place of worship in Fangshan, Beijing. Built as a Buddhist temple, it may have seen Christian use during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The temple was used by Buddhists during the Liao dynasty (916–1125) and by Christians during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), returned to Buddhist use during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), and was sold in 1911. Its first modern mention was in 1919. The Cross Temple was damaged during the Cultural Revolution but recognised as a national-level protected site in 2006. Some scholars consider it to be the only place of worship of the Church of the East (also known as Nestorian Christianity) discovered in China. In the early 20th century, two stone blocks carved with crosses were discovered, one of which had an inscription in Syriac; they are presently on display at Nanjing Museum. Today, the site features two ancient steles (one pictured) dating to the Liao and Yuan dynasties, some groundwork and the bases of several pillars. (Full article...)


August 30

Luis Miguel in 2008
Luis Miguel in 2008

Segundo Romance (Second Romance) is the tenth studio album by Mexican singer Luis Miguel (pictured), released on 30 August 1994 through WEA Latina. Like Miguel's 1991 album Romance, Segundo Romance comprises cover versions of boleros (Latin ballads). It was produced by Miguel with Juan Carlos Calderón, Kiko Cibrian and Armando Manzanero, and recorded in early 1994 at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. Miguel promoted the album with tours in the United States and Latin America from August to December 1994. Four singles were released: "El Día Que Me Quieras", "La Media Vuelta", "Todo y Nada", and "Delirio". The former two reached the top of the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart in the United States. Segundo Romance received positive reviews from music critics and it won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Performance. By 1995, Segundo Romance had sold more than 4.5 million copies, achieved multi-platinum status in many Latin American countries and Spain, and was certified platinum in the United States. (Full article...)


August 31

Rachelle Ann Go

Rachelle Ann Go (born August 31, 1986) is a Filipino singer and actress. Known primarily for her work in theater, she has starred in musicals on Broadway and in the West End. She began her career as a pop artist in her native country, winning the television talent show Search for a Star in 2003. She has since released six albums. Go started her theater career in the Philippines, playing the lead roles of Ariel in The Little Mermaid (2011) and Jane Porter in Tarzan (2013). Her international breakthrough came when she was cast as Gigi Van Tranh in the West End revival of Miss Saigon in 2014. She gained further recognition for her portrayal of Eliza Schuyler in the original 2017 West End production of Hamilton. Go has also played Fantine in various stagings and tours of Les Misérables. Outside of music, she has had roles in the television series Diva (2010), Nita Negrita (2011), Biritera (2012), and Indio (2013). (This article is part of a featured topic: Overview of Rachelle Ann Go.)