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The Midland Railway War Memorial is a First World War memorial in Derby, England, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. It commemorates employees of the Midland Railway who died while serving in the First World War. The Midland was the largest employer in Derby; around a third of the company's workforce left to fight and 2,833 were killed. The memorial consists of a cenotaph surrounded on three sides by a screen wall. Affixed to the wall are bronze plaques which list the names of the dead. The cenotaph is surmounted by a recumbent effigy of a soldier, covered by a coat and resting on a catafalque. Lutyens anonymises the soldier by lifting him high above eye level. The Midland published a book of remembrance, and sent a copy to the family of each man listed on the memorial. Unveiled on 15 December 1921, the memorial stands in a conservation area and is a Grade II* listed building. Repairs were undertaken in 2010 after several stolen bronze plaques were recovered. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Skeletal remains

... that prior to Mary Manhein's forensic-anthropology work in Louisiana, unidentified bones (examples pictured) "usually ended up in a box"?
... that Hans van Manen's ballet Adagio Hammerklavier is inspired by a recording of the Beethoven score that was played at an exceptionally slow tempo?
... that Judith Ehrlich incorporated her NPR work on pacifism into a documentary focusing on conscientious objectors during World War II?
... that Israel's mixed cities don't have much mixing?
... that Greenlandic author Pipaluk Freuchen was praised for the "unrelenting realism" in her first book, where a child kills a polar bear?
... that it took seven years for Gwazi, a pair of dueling wooden roller coasters, to be refurbished into the hybrid roller coaster Iron Gwazi?
... that The Tale of Genji's Kaoru Genji has been called literature's first antihero?
... that in Jackson, Tennessee, there was a 50–50 chance a reference to Dixie was about a radio station?

In the news

Ranil Wickremesinghe

Protesters storm the President's House in Colombo, Sri Lanka, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (pictured) to agree to resign.
Angola's former president José Eduardo dos Santos dies at the age of 79.
Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is assassinated while giving a speech in Nara.
Boris Johnson announces his intention to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

On this day

July 11

Robert F. Kennedy (Triborough) Bridge

1789 – French Revolution: Jacques Necker was dismissed as Director-General of Finances of France, sparking public demonstrations in Paris that led to the storming of the Bastille.
1833 – Yagan, a Noongar warrior wanted for leading attacks on British colonists in Western Australia, was killed, becoming a symbol of the unjust and sometimes brutal treatment of indigenous Australians by colonial settlers.
1936 – New York City's Triborough Bridge (pictured), the "biggest traffic machine ever built", opened to traffic.
2010 – The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carried out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others.

Robert II, Count of Artois (d. 1302)
Boris Grigoriev (b. 1886)
Balaji Sadasivan (b. 1955)

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Mario Draghi

Since 1861, 59 men have served as Prime Minister of Italy. The Italian prime minister is the head of the Council of Ministers, which holds effective executive power in the Italian government. The first officeholder was Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, who was sworn in on 23 March 1861 after the unification of Italy. During the monarchy, prime ministers were appointed by the king of Italy, as laid down in the Albertine Statute. From 1925 until the fall of his regime in 1943, fascist dictator Benito Mussolini formally modified the office title to "Head of Government, Prime Minister and Secretary of State". From 1861 to 1946, 30 men served as prime minister, leading 65 governments in total. After the abolition of the Kingdom of Italy in 1946 and the proclamation of the Italian Republic, the office was established by Articles 92 to 96 of the Constitution of Italy. Since 1946, 29 men have assumed the office in 75 years. The current officeholder is Mario Draghi (pictured), who was appointed on 13 February 2021. The longest-serving prime minister in the history of Italy was Mussolini, who ruled the country from 1922 until 1943; the longest-serving prime minister of the Italian Republic is Silvio Berlusconi, who held the position for more than nine years between 1994 and 2011. (Full list...)

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Duke Humfrey's Library is the oldest reading room in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. It is named after Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who donated 281 books after his death in 1447. Sections of the libraries were restored and expanded in the 16th and 17th centuries, including the addition of a second storey, and east and west wings. The library currently functions as a reading room.

Photograph credit: David Iliff

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