June 12, 2023
today's featured article
[Most information will be redacted as it contains too much Korean words]
BTS is a South Korean boy band. A K-pop group, BTS debuted on June 12, 2013; by 2017, it had entered the global music market, leading the Korean Wave into the US, and becoming the first Korean ensemble to receive a Gold certification from the RIAA for the single "Mic Drop". BTS became the first act from South Korea to top the Billboard 200 with Love Yourself: Tear (2018). With a large, well-organized worldwide fan base, BTS is the best-selling artist in South Korean history, with sales of more than 40 million albums. Members have thrice addressed the United Nations General Assembly, and in 2022 visited the White House. Dubbed the "Princes of Pop", BTS has also appeared on Time's lists of the 25 most influential people on the internet (2017–2019) and the 100 most influential people in the world (2019). In 2018, they became the youngest recipients of the South Korean Order of Cultural Merit. Now on pause to allow members to complete their required military service, the group plans a reunion for 2025. (Full article...)
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About
Did you know ...
Kinjirō Ashiwara
... that Kinjirō Ashiwara (pictured), a self-proclaimed emperor, initially called himself a shogun?
... that Huntsville, Alabama, is nicknamed Rocket City?
... that Canadian pentathlon champion J. Howard Crocker introduced volleyball to China?
... that the nose of the Tarsus çatalburun, a scenthound native to Turkey, is separated by a deep indentation or cleft, often creating the illusion of having two noses?
... that Micro Star v. FormGen Inc. affirmed that copyright owners have the exclusive right to make sequels?
... that fictional religions, often described in speculative fiction, have in some cases inspired real religious movements?
... that Scottish painter Gordon Coutts left Australia without paying maintenance to his estranged wife, but was arrested in New Zealand?
... that the beat goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on?
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In the news
Rodri
In association football, Manchester City defeat Inter Milan to win the UEFA Champions League final (man of the match Rodri pictured).
Former US president Donald Trump is indicted after a special counsel investigation charges him with mishandling classified documents.
Wildfires in Canada cause evacuations and hazardous air conditions across parts of North America.
In golf, the PGA Tour, PGA European Tour and LIV Golf agree to a merger, ending their pending litigation.
In Ukraine, the Kakhovka Dam is breached, causing flooding and prompting mass evacuations.
Ongoing:Russian invasion of Ukraine
Sudan conflict
Recent deaths:William Spriggs
Elspeth Campbell
Ted Kaczynski
George Winston
James G. Watt
Marlene van Staden
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On this day
June 12: Dia dos Namorados in Brazil; Loving Day in the United States (1967)
Reagan speaking at the Brandenburg Gate
1775 – Thomas Gage, the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, offered a general pardon to colonists who remained loyal to Britain.
1914 – As part of the Ottoman Empire's policies of ethnic cleansing, Turkish irregulars began a six-day massacre of the predominantly Greek town of Phocaea.
1921 – Soviet politician Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko authorised the use of chemical weapons against a peasant rebellion in the Tambov Governorate.
1963 – The premiere was held in New York of the historical drama film Cleopatra, the most expensive film made to that point.
1987 – Cold War: During a speech at the Brandenburg Gate by the Berlin Wall, US president Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!" (speech featured).
Æthelflæd (d. 918)
Adriaen van Stalbemt (b. 1580)
Daisy Yen Wu (b. 1902)
Philippe Coutinho (b. 1992)
More anniversaries:June 11
June 12
June 13
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From today's featured list
Polynesian triller
Sixty-two species of birds have been recorded in Wallis and Futuna, a French overseas collectivity in Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean. It consists of three main islands, Wallis (Uvea), Futuna, and Alofi Island, along with several islets. Of the sixty-two bird species of the territory, five were introduced by humans. No species are endemic to the islands, but there are endemic subspecies of the collared kingfisher, the Polynesian triller (example pictured), the Fiji shrikebill, and the Polynesian starling. The shy ground dove has been extirpated from the islands, while the blue-crowned lorikeet is locally extinct on Uvea. Ducula david, an extinct species of imperial pigeon, was described from subfossil remains on the islands and is thought to have been widespread before the arrival of humans. (Full list...)
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Today's featured picture
Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) was a New Zealand physicist who was a pioneering researcher in both atomic and nuclear physics. In early work, Rutherford discovered the concept of radioactive half-life, the radioactive element radon, and differentiated and named alpha and beta radiation. This work formed the basis for a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded in 1908. With Thomas Royds, Rutherford developed the theory that alpha radiation is helium nuclei, and also theorized that atoms have their charge concentrated in a very small nucleus, and thereby pioneered the Rutherford model of the atom. He went on to perform the first artificially induced nuclear reaction in 1917 in experiments where nitrogen nuclei were bombarded with alpha particles. As a result, he discovered the emission of a subatomic particle which became known as the proton. Rutherford spent his later years as director of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. The chemical element rutherfordium was named after him in 1997. This photograph of Rutherford, published by the Bain News Service, was most likely taken in the 1920s.
Photograph credit: Bain News Service; restored by Bammesk