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Today's featured article

Firefighter watching the Boundary Fire

The Boundary Fire was a 2017 wildfire in Arizona that burned 17,788 acres (7,199 ha) of the Coconino and Kaibab National Forests. The fire was ignited on June 1 when lightning struck a spot on the northeast side of Kendrick Peak within the Coconino National Forest. The fire spread rapidly because of high temperatures, steep terrain, leftovers from a wildfire in 2000, and high wind speeds. The winds blew smoke over local communities and infrastructure, leading to the closure of U.S. Route 180 from June 8 to June 21. Smoke was also visible from the Grand Canyon. The Boundary Fire burned out on July 3, 2017, after 32 days of firefighting. The cost of managing the fire was $9.4 million (equivalent to $11.5 million in 2023). Damage to the area's foliage increased the risk of landslides into 2018. The Boundary Fire was one of 2,321 wildfires in Arizona in 2017 that burned a total of 429,564 acres (173,838 ha). (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

May 30: Statehood Day in Croatia (1990)

Johann Sebastian Bach

1431 – Hundred Years' War: After being convicted of heresy, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.
1723 – Johann Sebastian Bach (pictured) assumed the office of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, presenting the cantata Die Elenden sollen essen in St. Nicholas Church.
1922 – The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., featuring a sculpture of the sixteenth U.S. president Abraham Lincoln by Daniel Chester French, opened.
1963 – Buddhist crisis: A protest against pro-Catholic discrimination was held outside the National Assembly of South Vietnam in Saigon, the first open demonstration against President Ngô Đình Diệm.
2008 – The Convention on Cluster Munitions, prohibiting the use, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster bombs, was adopted.

Ma Xifan (d. 947)
Colin Blythe (b. 1879)
Norris Bradbury (b. 1909)
Wynonna Judd (b. 1964)

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In the news

Gitanas Nausėda

Gitanas Nausėda (pictured) is re-elected as president of Lithuania.
In cricket, the Kolkata Knight Riders defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad to win the Indian Premier League.
A landslide in Papua New Guinea's Enga Province leaves thousands of people missing and presumed dead.
The European Union passes the Artificial Intelligence Act, aiming to establish a regulatory and legal framework for AI.

Did you know...

Galileo's middle finger

... that Galileo's middle finger (pictured) is considered a secular relic?
... that Richard Osman, who wrote "the biggest thing in fiction since Harry Potter", lost confidence in his writing ability after his experience with Boyz Unlimited?
... that Green Bay Packers player Travis Glover started at three separate positions along the offensive line during his college football career?
... that even though about 100,000 mines were laid in Le Touquet during World War II, making it the most mined city in France, it was the first resort in northern France to open its beaches after the liberation?
... that for his first recital as the organist of the restored Frauenkirche in Dresden, Samuel Kummer chose music by Bach, Brahms, and himself?
... that El Salvador was the first country to recognize Manchukuo, apart from Japan?
... that poet Peggy Pond Church became a strong pacifist and a member of the Society of Friends after the Manhattan Project used her home as a place to build nuclear weapons?
... that librarian Anne Griffiths was one of the first British women to cross the Antarctic Circle?
... that a firearm blank goes off during The Days of '98 Show shootout, startling the audience?

Today's featured picture

Picture of the day

A peanut, also known as a groundnut, is the fruit of Arachis hypogaea, a plant in the family Fabaceae. The peanut is classed as a grain legume rather than as a botanical nut, although in culinary and colloquial use it is generally treated as one. Uses of peanuts include consumption as a snack and in various dishes, peanut butter, and – due to its high oil content – as a vegetable oil. Peanuts cause allergic reactions in some humans. Clockwise from top left, this photograph shows a peanut with its shell cracked open, a whole unshelled peanut, an unpeeled peanut seed, a halved peeled seed, and a whole peeled seed. This picture was focus-stacked from 31 separate images.Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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