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John Tyndall (1934–2005) was a British fascist and political activist. A member of various small neo-Nazi groups during the late 1950s and 1960s, he led the National Front from 1972 to 1974 and again from 1976 to 1980, and then headed the British National Party from 1982 to 1999. He unsuccessfully stood for election to the House of Commons several times and to the European Parliament in 1999. Tyndall promoted a racial-nationalist belief in a distinct white "British race", arguing that this race was threatened by a Jewish conspiracy to encourage non-white migration into Britain. He called for an authoritarian state which would deport all non-whites from the country, engage in a eugenics project, and re-establish the British Empire through the military conquest of parts of Africa. He never gained mainstream political respectability in the United Kingdom but was popular among sectors of the British far-right. In 2005, Tyndall was charged with incitement to racial hatred but died before trial. (Full article...)

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The pakhavaj, a traditional barrel-shaped, two-headed drum

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... that the defiant owner of a Miami TV station kept its marquee lit for 18 months after losing its license?
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... that Arizona state senator W. P. Mahoney became an acquaintance of Wyatt Earp when he was a miner?
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In the news

Chinese paddlefish

The World Health Organization declares the monkeypox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
The Chinese paddlefish (pictured), one of the world's largest freshwater fish species, is declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Amid protests over the economic crisis, Ranil Wickremesinghe is elected President of Sri Lanka by the parliament.
Heat waves across Europe leave more than 4,200 people dead.

On this day

July 24: Pioneer Day in Utah, United States (1847)

Battle of Harlaw monument

1411 – Scottish clansmen led by Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles, and Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, fought the Battle of Harlaw (monument pictured) near Inverurie, Scotland.
1980 – The Australian swimming team, nicknamed the Quietly Confident Quartet, won the men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay at the Moscow Olympics.
2009 – MV Arctic Sea, declared to be carrying a cargo of timber, was allegedly boarded by hijackers off the coast of Sweden in an incident that remains incompletely explained.
2014 – Fifty minutes after departing Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Air Algérie Flight 5017 disappeared from radar; its wreckage was found the next day in Mali, with no survivors of the 116 people aboard.

Princess Charlotte of Prussia (b. 1860)
Martin Van Buren (d. 1862)
Marjorie Cameron (d. 1995)

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Today's featured picture

Turgot map of Paris, general overview map

The Turgot map of Paris is a highly accurate and detailed map of the city of Paris, France, as it existed in the 1730s. It was published in 1739 as an atlas of twenty non-overlapping sectional bird's-eye-view maps, each approximately 50 cm × 80 cm (20 in × 31 in), in isometric perspective toward the southeast, as well as one simplified overview map – shown here – with a four-by-five grid indicating the general layout of the twenty sectional maps. It has been described as "the first all-comprising graphical inventory of the capital, down to the last orchard and tree, detailing every house and naming even the most modest cul-de-sac".

Map credit: Louis Bretez and Claude Lucas

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