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Today's featured article

John Silva Meehan (February 6, 1790 – April 24, 1863) was an American publisher, printer, and newspaper editor. Born in New York City, he served in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812. He then moved to Philadelphia, publishing a Baptist religious journal. When the firm moved to Washington, D.C., in 1822, Meehan edited and published a Baptist weekly newspaper. In late 1825 he purchased the City of Washington Gazette, renaming it the United States' Telegraph and taking a partisan stance. He was appointed as Librarian of Congress in 1828. A large fire in December 1851 destroyed much of the Library of Congress's collection; Meehan oversaw its reconstruction. The election of Abraham Lincoln prompted Meehan's removal in 1861, and he died suddenly in 1863. Historians were critical of Meehan's tenure, noting that he deferred to the Joint Committee on the Library for policy, did not change the library's catalog system, and failed to make progress in transforming the institution into a true national library. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

February 6: Sámi National Day (1917); Waitangi Day in New Zealand (1840)

Signing of the Washington Naval Treaty

590 – Vistahm and Vinduyih deposed their brother-in-law Hormizd IV, King of Kings of the Sasanian Empire.
1579 – Domingo de Salazar, a Spanish Dominican friar, was appointed the first bishop of Manila.
1865 – Finland established its modern system of secular municipalities, separate from church parishes.
1922 – Representatives from France, Italy, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom signed the Washington Naval Treaty (pictured), agreeing to limits on naval construction in the hopes of preventing an arms race.
1987 – Mary Gaudron became the first woman to be appointed a justice of the High Court of Australia.

Aldus Manutius (d. 1515)
Isabella Beeton (d. 1865)
Zsa Zsa Gabor (b. 1917)
Mary Beth Edelson (b. 1933)

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In the news

Fireball from the Learjet crash

Eleven people are killed in a mass shooting at an adult education centre in Örebro, Sweden.
A Learjet 55 crashes (explosion pictured) into multiple buildings in Philadelphia, United States, killing at least 7 people and injuring 22 others.
A Beechcraft 1900 crashes in Unity State, South Sudan, killing 20 of the 21 people onboard.
Ahmed al-Sharaa is appointed president of the Syrian transitional government.

Did you know...

Sidney Lanier Bridge after its 1972 collapse

... that the 1972 collapse of the Sidney Lanier Bridge (pictured), which was caused by a collision with a cargo ship, caused ten deaths and over a million dollars in damages?
... that Christian death metal has been called the least likely musical development at the close of the 20th century?
... that the second edition of An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic more than doubled the length of the original text?
... that Wolseley Haig noted that it was not the "city's huge mosque" but the "far less pretentious" Jama Masjid that served as the congregational mosque in Hyderabad?
... that the violent end of a bog body might be related to the cult of the Celtic god Esus?
... that the three costliest tornadoes in Oklahoma's history hit the same town in 2013, in 1999 and in 2003?
... that a TV station in Windsor, Ontario, was spared from closure even though it lost money for ten consecutive years?
... that the leaves of the herb spiked savory, although protected under Israeli law, are foraged by local people to make a spice mix?
... that the earliest black holes in fiction appeared decades before the term black hole was coined?

Today's featured picture

Picture of the day

The orange-lined triggerfish (Balistapus undulatus) is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the triggerfish family, Balistidae. It has a wide Indo-Pacific range, and is typically found in coral reefs, coral lagoons, and external reef slopes. The orange-lined triggerfish has a dark brown to dark green body with orange lines that start behind the head and cover the rest of its body. Its maximum body size is about 30 centimetres (12 inches), with the head about one-third of the body length. Due to its broad diet and distribution, the species is a crucial component in coral reef ecosystems through top-down control, and especially through consumption of sea urchins. This orange-lined triggerfish was photographed in the Red Sea off the Egyptian coast.Photograph credit: Diego Delso

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