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From today's featured article

Roman statuette of a Carthaginian war elephant

The Battle of the Bagradas River was a victory by a Carthaginian army led by Xanthippus over a Roman army led by Marcus Atilius Regulus in early 255 BC, nine years into the First Punic War. The previous year Roman forces had advanced on the city of Carthage in North Africa and defeated the Carthaginian army at the Battle of Adys. In despair, the Carthaginians sued for peace, but the proposed terms were so harsh they decided to fight on. They gave charge of their army to the Spartan mercenary general Xanthippus, who led 12,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 100 war elephants (statuette pictured) against the Romans' 15,000 infantry and 500 cavalry. The Romans had no effective answer to the elephants, their outnumbered cavalry were chased from the field, and most of their infantry were surrounded and wiped out. The Romans subsequently evacuated Africa. The war ended in 241 BC with a Roman victory; the terms agreed were more generous than those proposed 14 years earlier. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Prince Baltasar Carlos in the Riding School (1636)

... that Juan Mateos and Alonso Martínez de Espinar, both writers on hunting in Spanish Baroque literature, are depicted in Prince Baltasar Carlos in the Riding School (pictured) by Diego Velázquez, whose half-length portrait of Mateos was similarly identified from an engraving by Pedro Perete, son of Pieter Perret?
... that the 1986 Soviet song "Khochu Peremen" is frequently sung by opponents of Alexander Lukashenko during the ongoing 2020 Belarusian protests?
... that World War II war correspondent James R. Shepley has been called the "father" of HBO?
... that the poem "Das Wandern ist des Müllers Lust" was first set to music by Schubert, and became a popular German Volkslied with the melody by Carl Friedrich Zöllner?
... that "fap" as an onomatopoeia for masturbation originates from the manga series Heartbroken Angels?
... that Mübeccel Argun, a Turkish-language presenter for the BBC World Service in London for 25 years, was formerly a physical-education teacher and one of the first female athletes in her country?
... that the City Bank–Farmers Trust Building had a shooting gallery in the basement for the guards protecting the bank vault to practice in?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Portal

Shinzo Abe

Using gravitational-wave astronomy, a black hole in the mass gap is detected for the first time.
Parliamentary elections in Montenegro result in the first victory for opposition parties in 30 years.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (pictured) of Japan announces his intention to resign due to medical concerns.
Hurricane Laura kills more than 50 people across the Caribbean and the United States.

On this day

September 5

Lynette Fromme

917 – Liu Yan declared himself emperor, establishing the Southern Han state in southern China, at his capital of Panyu (present-day Guangzhou).
1774 – In response to the British Parliament's enactment of the so-called Intolerable Acts, representatives from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies convened the First Continental Congress at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia.
1882 – A group of London schoolboys led by Bobby Buckle founded Hotspur Football Club to continue to play sports during the winter months.
1915 – The Zimmerwald Conference, the first of three international socialist conferences forming the Zimmerwald movement, opened in Switzerland.
1975 – Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (pictured), a devotee of Charles Manson, attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford of the United States.

Lester Allan Pelton (b. 1829)
Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb (b. 1876)
Jochen Rindt (d. 1970)

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Today's featured picture

John G. Carlisle (September 5, 1834 – July 31, 1910) was an American politician from the commonwealth of Kentucky and was a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives seven times, and served as Speaker of the House from 1883 to 1889. He subsequently served as a U.S. senator from Kentucky from 1890 to 1893, and then as Secretary of the Treasury from 1893 to 1897, during a serious economic depression.

This picture is a line engraving of Carlisle, produced around 1902 by the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, as part of a presentation album of the first 42 secretaries of the treasury.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva

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