Elvis Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular culture. Often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", Presley began his career in 1954 and became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll in the late 1950s. Conscripted in 1958, he relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. In 1968, he returned to live performance in a television special that led to an extended Las Vegas residency and a string of tours. In 1973, he staged the first concert broadcast globally via satellite, seen by around 1.5 billion viewers. Prescription drug abuse severely affected his health, and he died suddenly in 1977. With wide success in many musical genres, Presley is one of the best-selling solo artists in the history of popular music. He won three Grammys, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at the age of 36. (Full article...)
Recently featured:Title is the debut major-label studio album by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor (pictured), released on January 9, 2015. Initially a songwriter for other artists in 2013, Trainor signed with Epic Records the following year and began recording material she co-wrote with Kevin Kadish. They drew influence from retro-styled music as they were tired of chasing radio trends. Title includes "All About That Bass", which reached number one in 58 countries, and two other US Billboard Hot 100 top-10 singles: "Lips Are Movin" and "Like I'm Gonna Lose You". Reviewers criticized the album's repetitiveness and doubted Trainor's longevity, though some appreciated her wit and audacious attitude. It debuted at number one on charts in the US, Canada and the UK, and spent multiple weeks at the summit in Australia and New Zealand. Title was the ninth-best-selling album of 2015 worldwide. It was supported by the 2015 That Bass Tour and MTrain Tour. (This article is part of two featured topics: Title and Meghan Trainor albums.)
Recently featured:The Ferrari FF is a grand touring car made by the Italian carmaker Ferrari. Succeeding the 612 Scaglietti, the FF—whose name is an acronym for "Ferrari Four"—was produced between 2011 and 2016 in Ferrari's manufacturing facility in Maranello, Italy. Featuring the body style of a shooting brake, the vehicle made its first public appearance at the Geneva International Motor Show in 2011. Upon its release, the FF was the world's fastest four-seater car and Ferrari's second-fastest grand tourer after the 599 GTO. The FF features a 6.3 L V12 engine, producing a power output of 485 kW (660 PS; 651 hp) and a torque output of 683 N⋅m (504 lb⋅ft) to give the car a top speed of 335 km/h (208 mph) and a 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration of 3.7 seconds. The car has been praised by critics, who call it a "Ferrari for the whole family" and appreciate its design. The FF has received several awards, including Top Gear's Estate Car of the Year in 2011. (Full article...)
Recently featured:The tomb of Kha and Merit is the funerary chapel and burial place of the ancient Egyptian foreman Kha and his wife Merit, in the northern cemetery of the workmen's village of Deir el-Medina. Kha supervised the workforce who constructed royal tombs during the reigns of the pharaohs Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III (r. 1425 – 1353 BC) in the mid–Eighteenth Dynasty of the early New Kingdom of Egypt. He died in his 60s, while Merit died before him in her 20s or 30s. The couple's pyramid-shaped chapel has been known since at least 1818. The tomb was cut into the base of the cliffs. This position allowed the entrance to be quickly buried by debris deposited by landslides and later tomb construction, hiding its location from ancient robbers. Almost all of the contents of the tomb were awarded to the excavators and were shipped to Italy soon after the discovery. They have been displayed in the Museo Egizio in Turin since their arrival, and an entire gallery is devoted to them. (Full article...)
Recently featured:Smash Hit is a 2014 rail-shooter video game developed and published by the Swedish indie game studio Mediocre. Through the game's twelve levels, the player takes a first-person perspective, shooting metal balls to destroy glass obstacles. The player can also shoot up to five balls at once by smashing a consecutive sequence of crystals and gather power-ups that are activated for a limited amount of time. The game also features a one-time in-game purchase that allows the player to start from any unlocked checkpoint. The game's development team consisted of Dennis Gustafsson, Henrik Johansson, and Douglas Holmquist. A virtual reality adaptation of the game was released for platforms in 2015 and 2018. Smash Hit received positive acclaim from reviewers, who praised its physics engine, graphics, music, and sound effects. CNET and Apple listed it as one of the best mobile games of 2014. Gustafsson and Holmquist later worked on Teardown after Mediocre closed in 2017. (Full article...)
Recently featured:Volcanism of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex in British Columbia, Canada, spans more than 7 million years. The first magmatic cycle took place between 7.5 and 6 million years ago and is represented by the Raspberry, Little Iskut and Armadillo geological formations. Volcanism has taken place during five cycles of magmatic activity, each producing less volcanic material than the previous one. During these cycles volcanism has created several types of volcanoes, including cinder cones, stratovolcanoes, subglacial volcanoes, shield volcanoes and lava domes. The roughly 1,000-square-kilometre (400-square-mile) volcanic plateau of the MEVC originated from the successive eruptions of highly mobile lava flows. Several types of volcanic rocks were deposited by multiple eruptions of the MEVC. At least 10 distinct flows of obsidian were produced by volcanism of the MEVC, some of which were exploited by indigenous peoples in prehistoric times to make tools and weapons. (Full article...)
Recently featured:Josette Simon (born 1959 or 1960) is a British actor. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and played the part of Dayna Mellanby in the third and fourth series of the science-fiction television series Blake's 7 from 1980 to 1981. She was the first black woman in a Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) play when she appeared in Salvation Now in 1982, and has been at the forefront of colour-blind casting, playing roles traditionally taken by white actors, including Maggie, a character who is thought to be based on Marilyn Monroe, in Arthur Miller's After the Fall in 1990. Simon's first leading role at the RSC, the first principal part filled by a black woman for the company, was as Rosaline, in Love's Labour's Lost in 1984. Simon has won the Evening Standard's Best Actress award, a Critics' Circle Theatre Award, Plays and Players Critic Awards, and two film festival awards. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2000 for services to drama. (Full article...)
Recently featured:The cherry-throated tanager (Nemosia rourei) is a critically endangered bird native to the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. Since its description in 1870, there had been no confirmed sightings for more than 100 years, and it was feared that the species was extinct. It was rediscovered in 1998 in the state of Espírito Santo. By the end of 2023, 20 individuals were known and the total population was estimated to be less than 50 birds. The main threat to its survival is the large-scale destruction of the old-growth rainforest that it requires, and in 2018 it was estimated that the species was restricted to a total area of just 31 km2 (12 sq mi). It has a striking gray, black and white plumage, with a distinctive red throat patch. The yellow or dark amber eyes contrast with a black face mask. Its call is clear and far-carrying. A social species, it lives in flocks of up to eight birds. The birds breed once a year, building a cup nest of beard lichen and spider web; nests contain two or three eggs. (Full article...)
Recently featured:Night of January 16th is a play by Ayn Rand inspired by the death of Ivar Kreuger, an industrialist and accused swindler known as the Match King. The play is set in a courtroom during a murder trial and audience members are chosen to play the jury. The court hears the case of Karen Andre, a former secretary and lover of businessman Bjorn Faulkner, of whose murder she is accused. The jury must rely on character testimony to decide whether Andre is guilty; the play's ending depends on their verdict. Rand wanted to dramatize a conflict between individualism and conformity. The play was first produced in 1934 in Los Angeles under the title Woman on Trial. Producer A. H. Woods took it to Broadway for the 1935–36 season and re-titled it Night of January 16th (flyer pictured). It became a hit and ran for seven months. The play has been adapted as a film, as well as for television and radio. Rand had many disputes with Woods over the play, and in 1968 re-edited it for publication as her "definitive" version. (Full article...)
Recently featured:William Robinson Brown (January 17, 1875 – August 4, 1955) was a corporate officer of the Brown Company and a breeder of Arabian horses. He advocated for sustainable forest management practices and his innovations became industry standards. He was influenced by the progressive movement, instituting employee benefits at the Brown Company that predated modern workers' compensation laws. He founded the Maynesboro Stud in 1912 with bloodstock from American breeders of Arabian horses, also importing horses from England, France, and Egypt. At its peak, Maynesboro was the largest Arabian horse farm in the United States. To prove the abilities of Arabians, he organized several endurance races, which his horses won three times. He served as the president of the Arabian Horse Club of America from 1918 until 1939. His 1929 book The Horse of the Desert is an authoritative work on Arabians. A Republican, he served as a presidential elector for New Hampshire in 1924. (Full article...)
Recently featured:January 10: Tenth of Tevet (Judaism, 2025)
New OrleansJanuary 11: Prithvi Jayanti in Nepal
Cover of Smoking and HealthJanuary 12: Zanzibar Revolution Day in Tanzania (1964)
Comet McNaughtJanuary 13: Eugenio María de Hostos's birthday in Puerto Rico (2025); Saint Knut's Day in Finland and Sweden
William PriceJanuary 14: Ratification Day in the United States (1784)
Poster for the premiere of ToscaJanuary 15: John Chilembwe Day in Malawi
US Airways Flight 1549 crash and rescueA lime is a citrus fruit, which is typically round, lime green in colour, 3–6 centimetres (1.2–2.4 in) in diameter, and contains acidic juice vesicles. There are several species of citrus trees whose fruits are called limes, including the Key lime, Persian lime, kaffir lime, finger lime, blood lime, and desert lime. Limes are a rich source of vitamin C, are sour, and are often used to accent the flavours of foods and beverages. They are grown year-round, originally in tropical South and Southeast Asia but now in much of the world. Plants with fruit called "limes" have diverse genetic origins; limes do not form a monophyletic group. This photograph shows two limes grown in Brazil, one whole and one halved, and was focus-stacked from 23 images.
Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus
Recently featured:Michael William Balfe (1808–1870) was an Irish composer, best remembered for his operas. Balfe was born in Dublin and grew up on Pitt Street, which was renamed Balfe Street in 1917 in his honour. After moving to Wexford with his family as a child, he began a career as a violinist, moving to London in 1823 after his father's death, later relocating again to Italy and Switzerland, where he married the Hungarian-born singer Lina Roser. Balfe began pursuing an operatic singing career as well as composition, and moved back to London with his family in 1835. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he composed at least 29 operas, almost 250 songs, several cantatas, and other works. He was also a noted conductor, directing Italian opera at Her Majesty's Italian Opera House for seven years, among other conducting posts. His most notable opera is The Bohemian Girl, which continues to be performed. This photograph of Balfe was taken by the studio of the French photographer Nadar; this albumen print was made in 1900.
Photograph credit: Nadar; restored by Adam Cuerden
Recently featured:Colias croceus, also known as the clouded yellow, is a small butterfly of the family Pieridae, the yellows and whites. Its breeding range is North Africa and southern Europe and eastwards through Turkey into the Middle East, but it occurs throughout much of Europe as a summer migrant, sometimes as far north as Scandinavia. In Asia, its range extends into central Siberia in the north and barely into India in the south, although it is not found in Central Asia. The species can live in any open area in the countryside, including downland, coastal cliffs and fields containing the caterpillar's host plants, at an elevation up to 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) above sea level. Colias croceus has a wingspan of 46–54 millimetres (1.8–2.1 in), with the upperside of its wing being golden to orange yellow with a broad black margin on all four wings and a black spot near the centre forewing. This mating pair was photographed in Pirin National Park, Bulgaria.
Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
Recently featured:The Tocopilla railway was a mountain railway built to serve the sodium nitrate mines in the Toco area of the Antofagasta Region in Chile. With a gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm), it ran from the port of Tocopilla on the Pacific coast up to a height of 4,902 feet (1,494 metres), with gradients up to 1 in 24. The railway was built by a joint-stock company founded in London and was designed by William Stirling of Lima, with a detailed description of the initial operation of the railway published by his brother Robert in 1900.The line was electrified in the mid-1920s and expanded in 1930 with the addition of lines serving new areas of mining. It continued operating into the 21st century, but was forced to close in 2015 when flash flooding caused numerous washouts on the electrified section of the railroad. With the declining prospects for nitrate, it was not economical for the line to be repaired. This photograph taken in 2013 shows a boxcab on the Tocopilla railway, leading a train down towards the coast.
Photograph credit: David Gubler
Recently featured:John Henry Turpin (1876–1962) was a sailor in the United States Navy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was one of the first African-American chief petty officers in the U.S. Navy, becoming a chief gunner's mate on the cruiser Marblehead in 1917. He was transferred to the Fleet Reserve in 1919 and retired in 1925. He is also notable for surviving the catastrophic explosions of two U.S. Navy ships: USS Maine in 1898, and USS Bennington in 1905.
Photograph credit: unknown photographer; restored by Adam Cuerden
Recently featured:The fork-tailed flycatcher (Tyrannus savana) is a bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. Named after their distinguishably long, forked tails, particularly in males, fork-tailed flycatchers are seen in shrubland, savanna, lightly forested and grassland areas, from southern Mexico south to Argentina. They tend to build their cup nests in similar habitats to their hunting grounds (riparian forests and grasslands). Males perform aerial courtship displays to impress females involving swirling somersaults, twists, and flips, all partnered with their buzzing calls. These courtship displays utilise the long tail feathers. This male fork-tailed flycatcher of the subspecies T. s. monachus was photographed in Cayo District, Belize, demonstrating its characteristic forked tail while in flight.
Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
Recently featured:Nigeen Lake is a mildly eutrophic lake located in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. It is sometimes considered to be a part of Dal Lake and is connected to it via a narrow strait. This panoramic photograph shows the west bank of Nigeen Lake, with houseboats lining the shore. Hari Parbat, a hill overlooking Srinagar, is visible to the left of centre, and the snow-capped Pir Panjal Range can be seen in the distance.
Photograph credit: KennyOMG; edited by UnpetitproleX
Recently featured:Rhinanthus angustifolius, the narrow-leaved rattle or greater yellow-rattle, is a species of plant of the genus Rhinanthus, in the broomrape family, Orobanchaceae. It is an annual wildflower, native to temperate grasslands in much of Europe, and north and central Western Asia. The yellow flowers are mostly visited by bumblebees. This R. angustifolius inflorescence was photographed in Kulna, Estonia. The photograph was focus-stacked from 80 separate images.
Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus
Recently featured:The green iguana (Iguana iguana), also known as the American iguana, the common green iguana, or simply the iguana, is a large, arboreal, mostly herbivorous species of lizard of the genus Iguana. The species is native to a large geographic area, from southern Brazil and Paraguay as far north as Mexico. It grows to 1.7 metres (5.6 feet) in length from head to tail, although a few specimens have grown more than 2 metres (6.6 feet) with weights upward of 9.1 kilograms (20 pounds). Green iguanas possess a row of spines along their backs and tails, which helps to protect them from predators. Their whip-like tails can be used to deliver painful strikes, and like many other lizards, when grabbed by the tail, iguanas can allow it to break, so they can escape and eventually regenerate a new one. This green iguana was photographed in Palm Beach County, Florida, where the species has been introduced.
Photograph credit: Rhododendrites
Recently featured:Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher. Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and the first postmaster general. Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette at age 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richard's Almanack, which he wrote under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders". As a scientist, his studies of electricity made him a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics. His inventions include the lightning rod, bifocals, glass harmonica and the Franklin stove. This 1778 portrait of Franklin was painted by Joseph Duplessis.
Painting credit: Joseph Duplessis
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