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Dr. No is the sixth novel by the English author Ian Fleming to feature his British Secret Service agent James Bond. Written at Fleming's Goldeneye estate in Jamaica, it was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape in 1958. In the novel Bond looks into the disappearance in Jamaica of two fellow MI6 operatives who had been investigating Doctor No. Bond travels to No's Caribbean island and meets Honeychile Rider, who is there to collect shells. They are captured and taken to a luxurious facility carved into a mountain. The character of Doctor No, the son of a German missionary and a Chinese woman, was influenced by Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu stories. Dr. No was the first of Fleming's novels to face widespread negative reviews in Britain, but it was received more favourably in the United States. The story was adapted in 1962 as the first film in the Bond series, with Sean Connery in the lead role. (This article is part of a featured topic: Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and short stories.)

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Did you know ...

Indira Devi of Kapurthala

... that in 1935, Indian princess Indira Devi (pictured) secretly travelled to London to become an actress, telling only her two sisters?
... that dozens of men were indicted for the lynching-by-fire deaths of two Seminole boys in 1898?
... that the de Havilland Mosquito was almost cancelled in 1940, but Air Vice-Marshal Richard Peck persuaded Air Marshal Wilfrid Freeman to continue the programme?
... that in the music video for her song "Wheelie", Latto shows off a diamond cryptocurrency wallet made by celebrity jeweler Greg Yuna?
... that after Claudia Winterstein dropped plans to become an architect because of the Berlin Wall, she led her party as a member of the Bundestag?
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... that when the deputy finance minister rejected his proposal to create a national bank, Margono Djojohadikusumo tried again with the Vice President?
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In the news

William Ruto

William Ruto (pictured) is elected President of Kenya.
In Giza, Egypt, a church fire spreads to a nursery, killing 41 people, including at least 18 children.
Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, is critically injured after a stabbing at a speech in the United States.
A mass fish kill occurs in the river Oder in Poland and Germany.

On this day

August 20

Pluto

917 – Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Bulgarian forces led by Tsar Simeon I drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory at the Battle of Achelous.
1909 – Pluto (pictured) was photographed for the first time at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, U.S., 21 years before it was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.
1950 – Korean War: United Nations forces repelled an attempt by North Korea to capture the city of Taegu.
1989 – The final stage of the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South Australia, was completed, at the time the world's longest and fastest guided busway with buses travelling a total of 12 km (7.5 mi) at maximum speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph).

Bolesław Prus (b. 1847)
H. P. Lovecraft (b. 1890)
Amy Adams (b. 1974)

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The jaguar (Panthera onca) is a large species of cat and the only living member of the genus Panthera native to the Americas. With a body length of up to 1.85 metres (6 ft 1 in) and a weight of up to 96 kilograms (212 lb), it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the third-largest in the world. The distinctively marked coat features pale yellow to tan fur covered by spots that transition to rosettes on the sides, although a melanistic black coat appears in some individuals. Its powerful bite allows it to pierce the carapaces of turtles and tortoises, and to employ an unusual killing method: it bites directly through the skull of mammalian prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain. This male South American jaguar was photographed in the Encontro das Águas State Park, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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