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Sjafruddin Prawiranegara (1911–1989) was an Indonesian statesman and economist. He became active in politics after an education in law, and joined the Indonesian nationalist movement during the Japanese occupation of 1942–1945. He was appointed finance minister in the republican government during the Indonesian National Revolution of 1945–1949. In December 1948, the Indonesian revolutionary leaders were captured and Sjafruddin served as head of government for seven months. After Indonesia's independence he first served as deputy prime minister, then again as finance minister until 1951. A pragmatic policymaker, he espoused religious socialism based on a liberal interpretation of Islam; he was a staunch opponent of communism. Sjafruddin's opposition to the government's system of Guided Democracy resulted in his leading three years of guerrilla warfare, which ended with his surrender in 1961. Imprisoned until 1966, he became a vocal critic of the Indonesian government until his death in 1989. (Full article...)

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Great Pyramid and Great Sphinx of Giza, from The Archives of the Planet

... that The Archives of the Planet includes 72,000 color photographs (example pictured) of human cultures taken in 50 countries between 1908 and 1931?
... that Port Jefferson village officials opposed the expansion of the Caithness Long Island Energy Center because they feared it would lead to the decommissioning of the Port Jefferson Power Station?
... that Jusuf Muda Dalam is the only Indonesian politician to date to be sentenced to death for corruption?
... that the construction of Washington State Route 512 included a new high school football stadium to replace a demolished one?
... that journalist W. A. Hewitt refereed the first game played in the history of ice hockey at the Olympic Games?
... that the 3rd Plurinational Legislative Assembly of Bolivia has suspended multiple sessions due to open brawls and fights between opposition and ruling party parliamentarians?
... that Romy Golan's 2021 book Flashback, Eclipse is an exploration of Italian art of the 1960s that moved away from the art created under Italian fascism?
... that in 1999, donors to the American Airlines Theatre could pay US$75,000 for their name on a bathroom?

In the news

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Ukraine, represented by Kalush Orchestra with the song "Stefania", wins the Eurovision Song Contest.
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Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, is imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope.
The 2021 Southeast Asian Games open in Hanoi, Vietnam.

On this day

May 15: Feast day of Saint Carthage (Catholicism); Nakba Day in Palestinian communities

Baily's beads observed during a solar eclipse in 1999

1252 – Pope Innocent IV issued the papal bull Ad extirpanda, authorizing the use of torture on heretics during the Medieval Inquisition.
1836 – English astronomer Francis Baily observed Baily's beads (example pictured), a phenomenon during a solar eclipse in which the rugged topography of the lunar limb allows sunlight to shine through.
1864 – American Civil War: A small Confederate force, which included cadets from the Virginia Military Institute, forced the Union Army out of the Shenandoah Valley.
1972 – The Ryukyu Islands were returned to Japan by the United States, and the U.S. occupation government was abolished.
2010 – Three days before her seventeenth birthday, Jessica Watson arrived in Sydney after sailing non-stop and unassisted around the world.

Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (bapt. 1633)
Jakucho Setouchi (b. 1922)
Jean-Luc Dehaene (d. 2014)

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Today's featured picture

Élie Metchnikoff (15 May 1845 – 15 July 1916) was a Russian and French zoologist of Romanian noble ancestry and Ukrainian Jewish origin, best known for his pioneering research on immunology, for which he was jointly awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Ehrlich. Metchnikoff developed a theory that ageing is caused by toxic bacteria in the gut and that consumption of lactic acid could prolong life. Supporters of life extension celebrate 15 May as Metchnikoff Day. This photograph of Metchnikoff working in a laboratory was taken in 1913.

Photograph credit: Agence Rol; restored by Adam Cuerden

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