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Today's featured list: The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets less than 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has sixty-two moons with confirmed orbits, fifty-three of which have names, and only thirteen of which have diameters larger than 50 kilometers (31 mi). Saturn has seven moons that are large enough to become spherical, and dense rings with complex orbital motions of their own.

Today's featured topic: The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of one titular award. Several new awards have been introduced, and as of 2008^[update], eight awards are presented, including the Team of the Year, Overseas Personality, Lifetime Achievement Award, Helen Rollason Award, the Coach Award, and the Newcomer Award.

Listen to
Spring, from The Four Seasons

Today's featured sound: The Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723,The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. Performed by John Harrison and the Wichita State University Chamber Players.

Did you know...

Susanna Hoffs

... that Susanna Hoffs (pictured) sang on the studio recording of "Eternal Flame" naked after producer Davitt Sigerson pranked her by saying that Olivia Newton-John had done the same thing?
... that Thomas Mann insisted on omitting a passage on homoeroticism in the English translation of his work "On the German Republic"?
... that more than 100 European royals boarded the Cruise of the Kings, a 1954 cruise organised by the Greek queen consort Frederica of Hanover to promote tourism in Greece?
... that the first Acadian newspaper, Le Moniteur Acadien, was acquired in 2023 for just CA$1?
... that NCVs can assign different values to the lives of civilians of different nationalities?
... that Yuu Nagira, the author of My Beautiful Man, did not expect readers to love one of the main characters because she had written him to be creepy?
... that actress Agnes Mapes had to improvise a complex choreographed dance from basic poses for the 1907 play The Holy City?
... that in March 2022 Sonja van den Ende was the only Dutch journalist to report from the Russian-occupied Donbas on the war in Ukraine?
... that a restaurant in a Thai hotel serves "Chicken Volcano", a dish containing whiskey?

In the news
Jeremiah Manele Following the Solomon Islands general election, Jeremiah Manele (pictured) becomes the prime minister. Acting prime minister of Haiti Ariel Henry resigns, and the Transitional Presidential Council is sworn in. NASA announces that the Voyager 1 space probe is sending readable data for the first time in five months. The HDZ-led coalition wins the most seats in the Croatian parliamentary election but falls short of a majority. Ichthyotitan, the largest known marine reptile, is formally described. Ongoing: Israel–Hamas war Myanmar civil war Russian invasion of Ukraine timeline War in Sudan timeline Recent deaths: Peter Oosterhuis Wally Dallenbach Sr. Lyle Bauer C. J. Sansom Terry Medwin Mely G. Tan Nominate an article
On this day...
May 5: Easter (Eastern Christianity, 2024); Lixia begins in China (2024); Children's Day in Japan; Cinco de Mayo in Mexico and the United States Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall 1646 – First English Civil War: Charles I surrendered himself to Scottish Covenanter leader David Leslie near Newark, England. 1864 – American Civil War: Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign in Virginia began with the inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness in Spotsylvania County. 1891 – Carnegie Hall (interior pictured) in New York City, built by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, officially opened with a concert conducted by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. 1980 – The British Special Air Service recaptured the Iranian embassy in London following a six-day siege after Iranian Arab separatists had seized it. 2007 – Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashed immediately after takeoff from Douala International Airport in Cameroon, resulting in the deaths of all 114 people aboard. Samuel Cooper (d. 1672) William George Beers (b. 1841) Irene Gut Opdyke (b. 1918) More anniversaries: May 4 May 5 May 6 Archive By email List of days of the year

Today's featured picture

Ruddigore is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan, it was first performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre in London in 1887. Some critics and audience members initially felt that Ruddygore (its original title) did not measure up to its predecessor, The Mikado. After changes, including respelling the title, it achieved a run of 288 performances and was profitable. This 1887 illustration by Amédée Forestier depicts scenes and characters from Ruddygore for The Illustrated London News. Since D'Oyly Carte revived the piece in 1920, it has been regularly performed.

Illustration credit: Amédée Forestier; restored by Adam Cuerden

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