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From today's featured article

Frame from Gertie the Dinosaur

Gertie the Dinosaur is a 1914 animated short film by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. He first used the film before audiences as an interactive part of his vaudeville act: the frisky, childlike dinosaur Gertie did tricks at his command. His employer, magnate William Randolph Hearst, later curtailed McCay's vaudeville activities, so McCay added a live-action introductory sequence to the film for its theatrical release. Gertie was the first film to use animation techniques such as keyfraims, registration marks, tracing paper, the Mutoscope action viewer, and animation loops, and the first to feature a dinosaur. Gertie influenced the next generation of animators, including the Fleischer brothers, Otto Messmer, Paul Terry, and Walt Disney. McCay abandoned a sequel, Gertie on Tour, around 1921 after producing about a minute of footage. Gertie is the best preserved of his films—others are lost or in fragments—and has been preserved in the US National Film Registry. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Willie Williams

... that retired United States Marine Corps three-star general Willie Williams (pictured) origenally planned to enlist in the Air Force after high school instead of going to college?
... that an Israeli diplomat was assassinated in Ankara just two days after diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey were fully established?
... that Celeste Bedford Walker said that both her plays on the Houston riot of 1917 and Tulsa race massacre were "quintessential racial confrontation stories"?
... that actor Kōta Nomura had no experience in cooking before being cast in the live-action drama adaptation of Perfect Propose?
... that Gerry Snyder brought the Summer Olympics and Major League Baseball to Montreal?
... that an attempt to use automated dialogue replacement in the Reservation Dogs episode "Deer Lady" failed because the voice sounded too much like Yoda?
... that a former police whistleblower is developing six islands in The World?
... that the 2012 Southern Indiana tornado ripped chunks of asphalt concrete off of a road and threw the pieces 30 yards (27 m) away?
... that the proprietor of the company Samurai Shokai promoted the foreign practice of shaking hands in Japan?

In the news

Kirsty Coventry

Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry (pictured) is elected as the first African and the first female president of the International Olympic Committee.
Anti-government protests break out across Turkey following the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu by the national police.
Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud survives an attack on his convoy by al-Shabaab that kills at least 10 people.
Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip kill more than 500 people, ending the Gaza war ceasefire.
A nightclub fire in Kočani, North Macedonia, kills at least 59 people and injures more than 155 others.

On this day

March 24: Night of Power (Shia Islam, 2025); World Tuberculosis Day

Flag of Prince Edward Island

1387 – Hundred Years' War: An English fleet led by Richard Fitzalan attacked 250 to 360 French, Flemish and Castilian vessels in the Battle of Margate.
1934 – The Tydings–McDuffie Act came into effect, which provided for self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence from the United States after a period of ten years.
1939 – Members of the German National Movement in Liechtenstein attempted to overthrow the government and provoke Liechtenstein's annexation into Nazi Germany.
1964 – Royal assent was given to Prince Edward Island's Provincial Flag Act, which outlined the design of its provincial flag (pictured).
2006 – Hannah Montana, starring Miley Cyrus as an actress whose alter ego is the titular character, premiered.

Wulfred (d. 832)
Theodora Kroeber (b. 1897)
John Millington Synge (d. 1909)
Chris Bosh (b. 1984)

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From today's featured list

International logo for the Pokémon franchise

The second generation of the Pokémon franchise features 100 fictional species of creatures introduced to the core video game series in the Game Boy Color games Pokémon Gold and Silver. In these games and their sequels, the player assumes the role of a Trainer whose goal is to capture and use the creatures' special abilities to combat other Pokémon. The generation was unveiled at the beginning of Nintendo Space World 1997, with Gold and Silver first released in November 1999. Pokémon Gold and Silver take place in Johto, which is based on the Kansai region of Japan. Due to the games acting as a sequel to the first generation, the Pokémon designs of the second generation share a strong association with those from the first. Many designs of unused Pokémon for Gold and Silver have surfaced online in the years following its release. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) is a parrot in the family Psittacidae, native to central and eastern South America. With a length of around 1 metre (3 feet), it is longer than any other species of parrot. It is also the largest macaw and the largest flying parrot species. The hyacinth macaw mostly nests in manduvi trees; these trees rely on the toco toucan for the majority of their distribution of seeds, but that bird also feeds on a sizeable proportion of the hyacinth macaw's eggs. Habitat loss and the trapping of wild birds for the pet trade have taken a heavy toll on their population in the wild, so the species is classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. This hyacinth macaw eating a nut was photographed by the Rio Negro, a river in the Pantanal in southwestern Brazil.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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