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From today's featured article

William Lyon Mackenzie (March 12, 1795 – August 28, 1861) was a Scottish-born Canadian-American journalist and politician. He founded newspapers critical of the Family Compact, represented York County in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada and aligned with Reformers. Dundee-born, Mackenzie emigrated to York, Upper Canada, (now Toronto) in 1820 and published his first newspaper in 1824. He was elected to the legislative assembly in 1827 and became Toronto's first mayor in 1834. In 1837, he commanded the rebels in the Upper Canada Rebellion, but was defeated at the Battle of Montgomery's Tavern. He fled to the U.S. to rally American support for an invasion of Upper Canada. This violated the Neutrality Act and he was imprisoned. He discovered and published documents that outlined corrupt financial transactions and government appointments by New York state officials. He represented Haldimand County in the legislature of the Province of Canada from 1851 to 1858, and died in August 1861. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Marie Antoinette with a Rose by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

... that Marie Antoinette with a Rose (pictured) by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was a Salon exhibition replacement for her criticized portrait of the queen wearing a chemise?
... that particle physicist Arden Warner invented a magnetism-based method for cleaning up oil spills?
... that thousands of political prisoners in Indonesia were interned in the Waeapo River valley in Buru?
... that Linda Watson, a dramatic soprano born in San Francisco who made a career in Europe, is proud of a Grammy nomination for Wagner's Ring cycle with her as Brünnhilde?
... that after appointing the Gavrilița Cabinet, Moldova is only one of two republics in the world where the non-collective head of state and head of government are both currently women?
... that Natalie Simanowski began her "second life" as a Paralympian cyclist after being attacked by someone described as a "psychopath"?
... that Bicellariella ciliata, Crisularia plumosa, Bugulina flabellata and Bugulina turbinata form part of a bryozoan "turf" on steep or vertical rock exposed to moderate water movement?
... that Rosa Egipcíaca was the first black woman in Brazil to write a book?

In the news

Paralympics opening ceremony

Amid evacuations from Afghanistan, a suicide bombing kills at least 182 people at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
The Summer Paralympics open (ceremony pictured) in Tokyo, Japan.
Ismail Sabri Yaakob is appointed as prime minister by the King of Malaysia.
Hakainde Hichilema is elected President of Zambia.
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti kills more than 2,200 people.

On this day

August 28

Martin Luther King Jr. giving his "I Have a Dream" speech

1789 – With the first use of his new 1.2-metre (3.9 ft) telescope, then the largest in the world, William Herschel discovered a new moon of Saturn, later named Enceladus.
1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833, officially abolishing slavery in most of the British Empire, received royal assent.
1901 – Silliman University in Dumaguete, Philippines, was founded as the first American educational institution in Asia.
1963 – American civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (pictured) delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, envisioning a future in which blacks and whites coexisted harmoniously as equals.
1973 – Swedish police used gas bombs to end a seven-day hostage situation in Stockholm; during the incident the hostages had bonded with their captors, leading to the term Stockholm syndrome.

Johannes Banfi Hunyades (d. 1646)
Vittorio Sella (b. 1859)
Béla Guttmann (d. 1981)

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Today's featured picture

The Campbell albatross (Thalassarche impavida) is a medium-sized mollymawk in the albatross family, Diomedeidae. It breeds only on Campbell Island / Motu Ihupuku and the associated islet of Jeanette Marie, in an uninhabited subantarctic island group of New Zealand located in the South Pacific. Because of its restricted breeding range, the bird is considered to be a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The greatest threat it faces is from the fishing industry. This Campbell albatross in flight was photographed off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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