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From today's featured article

Jacques Offenbach

Orpheus in the Underworld (Orphée aux enfers, 1858) is a comic opera with music by Jacques Offenbach (pictured) and words by Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy. It was extensively revised and expanded in 1874 for a run that broke box-office records at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, Paris. In the opera, a lampoon of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, Orpheus is a rustic violin teacher who is glad to be rid of his wife when she is abducted by the god of the underworld. The reprehensible conduct of the gods of Olympus was widely seen as a veiled satire of the court and government of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. Some critics expressed outrage at the librettists' disrespect for classic mythology and the composer's parody of Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice; others praised the piece highly. It was Offenbach's first full-length opera and remains the one that is most often performed. Can-can cabaret acts still use its "Galop infernal", adopted later in the 19th century by the Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergère. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Elliot See and Charles Bassett

... that NASA test pilots Charles Bassett and Elliot See (pictured) are among the fallen astronauts whose names are etched on a plaque on the Moon, placed by the crew of Apollo 15?
... that The Unsafe Asylum, a book of short stories by Anirudh Kala, explores the psychological effects of the Partition of India?
... that Australian theatre director and former chemistry demonstrator May Hollinworth was described as "a wizard with lighting effects"?
... that while Caltech's historic South Houses were renovated, its North Houses were recommended for demolition for lack of architectural appeal?
... that Samuel Adalberg, pioneer of Polish paremiology, committed suicide upon learning of the Germans' plans to construct the Warsaw Ghetto?
... that after a 2002 study inaccurately claimed a measles and autism link due to improper qPCR data, scientists developed the MIQE guidelines to show the minimum level of reported data required for qPCR?
... that the Melkite Christian Sarjun ibn Mansur, who headed the fiscal administration of Syria under the first five Umayyad caliphs, was the father of Saint John of Damascus?
... that the JFK Express subway service in New York City never actually went to JFK Airport?

In the news

Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson (pictured) succeeds Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party and becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló announces his resignation following protests in the wake of a social messaging scandal involving his cabinet.
The Netball World Cup concludes, with New Zealand defeating Australia in the final.
Avengers: Endgame becomes the highest-grossing film, surpassing Avatar.

On this day

July 25

Pratibha Patil

1139 – Prince Afonso Henriques led Portuguese troops to victory over the Almoravid Moors at the Battle of Ourique.
1261 – Alexios Strategopoulos led the Nicaean forces of Michael VIII Palaiologos to recapture Constantinople, re-establish the Byzantine Empire, and end the Latin Empire.
1898 – Spanish–American War: After over two months of sea-based bombardment, the United States invaded Puerto Rico.
1965 – Bob Dylan, who had previously been known for folk music, gave a controversial performance at the Newport Folk Festival playing songs with an electric guitar.
1969 – Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announced that the United States would not "undertake all the defense of the free nations of the world", beginning the Vietnamization of the war.
2007 – Pratibha Patil (pictured) was sworn in as the first female president of India.

Isaac Luria (d. 1572) · Rosalind Franklin (b. 1920) · Randy Pausch (d. 2008)

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Today's featured picture

The baptism of Jesus is one of the five major milestones in the gospel narrative of the life of Jesus, the others being the transfiguration, the crucifixion, the resurrection and the ascension. It is described in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. John's gospel does not directly describe Jesus's baptism. Most modern theologians view the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist as a historical event to which a high degree of certainty can be assigned. Along with the crucifixion, most biblical scholars view it as one of the two historically certain facts about him and often use it as the starting point for the study of the historical Jesus.

This picture is a tempera-on-poplar painting titled The Baptism of Christ, produced by Italian painter Piero della Francesca sometime after 1437. It is in the collection of the National Gallery in London.

Painting credit: Piero della Francesca

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