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Today's featured article

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) was a Russian composer and conductor, considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music. He studied music under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov until the latter's death in 1908. Soon after, Stravinsky met the impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who commissioned the composer to write three ballets for the Ballets Russes's Paris seasons: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913), the last of which caused a near-riot at the premiere due to its avant-garde nature. His compositional style varied greatly, being influenced at different points by Russian folklore, neoclassicism, and serialism. His ideas influenced the composers Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, Béla Bartók, and Pierre Boulez, who were all challenged to innovate beyond traditional tonality, rhythm, and form. Stravinsky died in 1971, leaving six memoirs, an earlier autobiography, and a series of lectures. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

September 28: Meskel in Ethiopia and Eritrea (2024)

Alexander Fleming

48 BC – Pompey was killed by Lucius Septimius at Pelusium in Egypt.
1066 – William the Conqueror and his fleet of around 600 ships landed at Pevensey, Sussex, beginning the Norman conquest of England.
1901 – Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas killed more than forty American soldiers in a surprise attack on the town of Balangiga on the island of Samar.
1928 – Scottish biologist and pharmacologist Alexander Fleming (pictured) discovered penicillin when he noticed a bacteria-killing mould growing in his laboratory.
1975 – An attempted robbery of Spaghetti House, a restaurant in Knightsbridge, London, turned into a six-day hostage situation.

Rabbi Akiva (d. 135)
Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale (b. 1626)
Florence Violet McKenzie (b. 1890)
Guillermo Endara (d. 2009)

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In the news

Hassan Nasrallah

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (pictured) is killed by an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Lebanon.
Hurricane Helene makes landfall near Perry, Florida, United States, as a Category 4 hurricane.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake is elected President of Sri Lanka.
At least 77 people are killed and more than 255 others are injured in an Islamist militant attack by JNIM on Mali's capital, Bamako.

Did you know...

Niall Ó Glacáin

... that Irish physician Niall Ó Glacáin (pictured) worked as a travelling plague doctor in southern France in the 1620s?
... that Chlöe Swarbrick won the race for Auckland Central in 2020, during which she held a drag show as a campaign event?
... that many Jehovah's Witnesses in Singapore have been imprisoned for refusing to serve in the military?
... that PGA Tour golfer Max Greyserman and his brother Reed are the first brothers to win the New Jersey Amateur Championship?
... that many African countries provide for legal abortion in their reproductive health laws, but such laws have been passed without grounds for legal abortion in Madagascar and in Senegal?
... that Mariano R. Vázquez oversaw the integration of anarchists into the government during the Spanish Civil War?
... that the author of The Power of Babel says that speakers of Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish are all speaking the same language?
... that in college, football player Cooper Mays was a member of the same offensive line as his brother?
... that the music of math rock band Jyocho has been alternatively described as akin to "madness" or "contemplative and melancholy"?

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Picture of the day

Olivia de Havilland (1916–2020) was a British, American and French actress. A member of the de Havilland family, her younger sister was the Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine, with whom she had a noted rivalry well documented by the media. During her career, de Havilland appeared in 49 feature films. She first came to prominence with Errol Flynn as a screen couple in adventure films such as Captain Blood (1935). Departing from ingénue roles in the 1940s, she went on to win two Academy Awards for Best Actress, for her roles in To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949). She received honours in the United States, the United Kingdom and France, including appointments to the Légion d'honneur and the Order of the British Empire. At the time of her death, she was widely considered the last surviving major star from the Golden Age of Hollywood. This 1985 photograph of de Havilland was taken by the Polish-born American photographer Bernard Gotfryd.Photograph credit: Bernard Gotfryd

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