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Daniel Boone (November 2, 1734 – September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman. In 1775, he blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, despite resistance from Native Americans; by the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people had entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone. He was adopted into the Shawnee tribe in 1778 but resigned after his son was killed by members. In April 1781, Boone was elected to the Virginia General Assembly. An account of his adventures was published in 1784, making him famous in America and Europe. After the Revolutionary War, he worked as a surveyor and merchant but went into debt as a Kentucky land speculator. In 1799, Boone resettled in Missouri, where he spent most of his remaining life. After his death, he was the subject of works of fiction; his adventures helped create the archetypal frontier hero of American folklore. (Full article...)

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In the news

Duma Boko

An ancient Maya city, the second-largest in the Yucatán peninsula, dubbed Valeriana, is discovered in Campeche, Mexico.
The Umbrella for Democratic Change, led by Duma Boko (pictured), wins the most seats in the National Assembly in the Botswana general election, defeating the Botswana Democratic Party for the first time in the country's history.
In baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees to win the World Series (MVP Freddie Freeman pictured).
Flooding in Spain kills more than 200 people.

On this day

November 2

An emu killed by Australian soldiers

619 – Emperor Gaozu of Tang allowed the assassination of a khagan of the Western Turkic Khaganate by Eastern Turkic rivals, one of the earliest events in the Tang campaigns against the Western Turks.
1932 – The Australian military began a "war against emus" (man with dead emu pictured), flightless native birds blamed for widespread damage to crops in Western Australia.
1943 – World War II: A U.S. Navy task force turned away an Imperial Japanese Navy formation at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, thus protecting the landings at Cape Torokina.
1960 – In the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd, publisher Penguin Books was acquitted of obscenity for the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence.
2007 – In Tbilisi, Georgia, tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the allegedly corrupt government of president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Bettisia Gozzadini (d. 1261)
Edward Mitchell Bannister (b. 1828)
Hélène de Pourtalès (d. 1945)
Charmaine Dragun (d. 2007)

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Today's featured picture

The Mauritius kestrel (Falco punctatus) is a bird of prey from the family Falconidae endemic to the forests of Mauritius, where it is restricted to the southwestern plateau's forests, cliffs, and ravines. It colonized the island and evolved into a distinct species from other Indian Ocean kestrels, probably during the Gelasian or Early Pleistocene periods. The Mauritius kestrel can reach a size between 26 and 30.5 cm (10.2 and 12.0 in), with a mass of up to 250 g (8.8 oz) and rounded wings with a span of approximately 45 cm (18 in). Males are slightly smaller than the females. It is a carnivorous bird, eating geckos, dragonflies, cicadas, cockroaches, crickets, and small birds. It hunts by means of short, swift flights through the forests. This Mauritius kestrel was photographed in the Ebony Forest reserve near Chamarel, Mauritius.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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