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From today's featured article

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...)

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Did you know ...

Cannonball

... that the Cannonball (pictured), a commuter train on the Long Island Rail Road, was once operated exclusively with parlor cars?
... that Piper Kelly secured her position as a competitor in speed climbing at the 2024 Olympics by reaching the final race at the 2023 Pan American Games, before winning the race?
... that a Bangladeshi government agency collected ৳6.5 billion (equivalent to US$150 million in 2023) from corruption suspects, but a court ruled it was illegal?
... that after Jamal Valizadeh was tortured in Iran, hid for six months, and escaped, he qualified to compete in the Olympics as a member of the Refugee Olympic Team?
... that the electoral victory of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress in 2018 led to DR Congo's first peaceful transition of power since its independence from Belgium in 1960?
... that in May 1983 British public health physician Spence Galbraith suggested withdrawing blood products made from blood donated in the U.S. after 1978?
... that Jack White released his sixth studio album unannounced by including unmarked vinyl copies of it with purchases made at Third Man Records stores?
... that Aniya Holder secured a spot at the 2024 Summer Olympics by winning a speed climbing competition, for which she had started training without even knowing that it was an Olympics qualifier?
... that the only known solution to the Erdős–Moser equation is 1 + 2 = 3?

In the news

Ismail Haniyeh

Following a mass stabbing in Southport, far-right protesters riot across the United Kingdom.
The United States, Russia, and their respective allies agree to a prisoner exchange of 26 people.
Ismail Haniyeh (pictured), the political leader of Hamas, is assassinated in Tehran, Iran.
Landslides in Wayanad, India, kill more than 350 people.

On this day

August 5: Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day in Croatia (1995)

Henry I of England

1100 – Henry I (pictured) was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
1716 – Austro-Turkish War: The Ottoman army were defeated in their attempt to capture the Habsburgs-controlled Petrovaradin Fortress despite having double the number of soldiers.
1816 – Sir John Barrow, secretary at the Admiralty, rejected a proposal to use Francis Ronalds's electrical telegraph, deeming it "wholly unnecessary".
1888 – Bertha Benz made the first long-distance automobile trip, driving 106 km (66 mi) from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany, in a Benz Patent-Motorwagen.
1949 – An earthquake registering 6.4 M_s struck near Ambato, Ecuador, killing 5,050 people.
1984 – A Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircraft crashed while attempting to land in Dhaka, killing 49 people in the deadliest aviation accident in Bangladeshi history.
2012 – An American white supremacist carried out a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six people and wounding four others.

Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe (d. 1799)
Tom Thomson (b. 1877)
Pete Burns (b. 1959)
Eddie Nolan (b. 1988)

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From today's featured list

A black-capped chickadee, the provincial bird of New Brunswick

The Canadian province of New Brunswick has 441 species of birds. The Maritime province lies within the Appalachian Mountain range and is largely covered by temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, with the northern part of the province also containing boreal forest. These ecosystems contribute to the diversity of birds in the province. Additionally, the Atlantic Flyway passes through New Brunswick's coast, with areas within the Bay of Fundy such as the Shepody Bay significantly contributing to the variety of bird species that breed in or migrate through the province. Of the 441 species, 94 are accidentals, 55 are noted as rare as defined by the New Brunswick Bird Records Committee (NBBRC), eight were introduced to North America, three are extinct and another is possibly extinct. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Malabar pied hornbill (Anthracoceros coronatus) is a bird in the hornbill family of tropical near-passerines. It is a common resident breeder in India and Sri Lanka, where its habitat is evergreen and moist deciduous forests, often near human settlements. It is an omnivorous species, consuming fruits, small mammals, birds, small reptiles and insects. It eats by killing its prey and swallowing it whole. Figs are an important food, contributing at least 60% of the bird's diet throughout the year. It breeds in March and April, during which time figs form up to 75% of the fruits delivered at the nest. This Malabar pied hornbill was photographed in Yala National Park, Sri Lanka.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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