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Posthumous Qing-dynasty depiction

Cai Lun (b. c. 50 – c. 62 CE; d. 121) was a Chinese eunuch court official traditionally regarded as the inventor of paper and the modern papermaking process, as he created paper in its modern form. Born in modern-day Leiyang, Cai served as chamberlain for Emperor Ming, and as imperial messenger for Emperor Zhang. To assist Lady Dou in securing her adopted son as designated heir, he interrogated Consort Song, who then killed herself. After Emperor He's ascension in 88 CE, Dou rewarded Cai with high office, where he remained despite He's purge of the Dou family in 92 CE. In 105 CE, Cai greatly improved the papermaking process with tree bark, hemp waste, old rags, and fishnets. After Lady Deng, the empress dowager, died in 121 CE, Cai was ordered to the Ministry of Justice because of his involvement in Song's death. Expecting execution, he killed himself instead. Cai's papermaking efforts are considered enormously impactful on human history. He is deified as the god of papermaking, and appears in Chinese folklore. (Full article...)

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In the news

Yulimar Rojas in 2019 and Karsten Warholm in 2017

Yulimar Rojas and Karsten Warholm

In Olympic athletics, Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas (pictured left) breaks a 26-year-old world record in the women's triple jump, and Norwegian Karsten Warholm (pictured right) sets a world record in the men's 400 metre hurdles.
Wildfires in southern Turkey kill at least eight people and injure more than 800 others.
Flooding in western Maharashtra, India, results in more than 250 deaths.
Typhoon In-fa and resulting flash floods leave more than 300 people dead across China, Japan, and the Philippines.

On this day

August 4

Napoleon at the Battle of Lonato

1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte (depicted), the French Army of Italy decisively defeated Austrian forces led by Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich at the Battle of Lonato.
1830 – American surveyor James Thompson produced the first plat of Chicago on the order of the Illinois and Michigan Canal Commissioners.
1991 – An explosion on the Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanos ruptured its hull, causing it to sink off the east coast of South Africa, with all 571 people on board rescued.
2006 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Seventeen employees of the French nongovernmental organization ACF International were massacred in Muttur.

Henry I of France (d. 1060)
Maurice Richard (b. 1921)
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (b. 1981)

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Today's featured picture

Brachysomophis cirrocheilos, the stargazer snake eel, is a marine fish belonging to the family Ophichthidae. It is native to shallow tropical and subtropical waters in the western Indo-Pacific region. It hunts at night for crustaceans and small fish, after which it submerges itself into the sediment tail first and remains there all day, with just its eyes and the top of its head projecting, as seen here in Batangas Bay in the Philippines.

Photograph credit: Rickard Zerpe

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