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Jim Lovell (born March 25, 1928) is an American retired astronaut. The first person to fly four times in space, he commanded Apollo 13 (1970), which suffered a failure en route and looped around the Moon. Lovell also flew twice during Project Gemini, and flew with Frank Borman and William Anders on Apollo 8 (1968), the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon. Lovell was the first person to fly to the Moon twice, though due to the Apollo 13 abort, he never landed on it. A graduate of the Naval Academy class of 1952, Lovell became a test pilot, and missed selection by NASA as one of the Mercury Seven astronauts due to a temporarily high bilirubin count. He was accepted in September 1962 as a member of NASA's second group of astronauts, and is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He co-authored the book Lost Moon, the basis for the film Apollo 13, in which he appeared in a cameo. (This article is part of a featured topic: NASA Astronaut Group 2.)

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Did you know ...

Silk dress from the Palmwood wreck

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... that Ralph E. Brock was the first academically trained African-American forester in the United States?
... that the system of native administration, used in Sudan to govern rural areas, was adapted for use in camps for internally displaced people?
... that Muhammad al-Jawad was the ninth of the Twelve Imams and, with his unexplained death at about twenty-five, the shortest-lived?
... that Newark Liberty International Airport was the first commercial airport in the United States with a paved airstrip?
... that on the opening night of her concert R3.0, singer Regine Velasquez also released a triple album of the same name?
... that Panagiotis Kavvadias boasted that he had excavated the Acropolis of Athens so thoroughly that "not the slightest quantity of soil ... [had] not been investigated"?
... that Ron Brown, the United States secretary of commerce, leased equipment to a TV station in Washington, D.C., whose owner turned out to be his lover?

In the news

Shohei Ohtani

The World Baseball Classic concludes with Japan defeating the United States for the championship (MVP Shohei Ohtani pictured).
An earthquake in Afghanistan and Pakistan kills at least 30 people and injures more than 380 others.
Swiss bank UBS announces its intention to acquire its competitor Credit Suisse in a government-brokered deal.
The International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova for the abduction of children from Ukraine.

On this day

Yongle Emperor

March 25: Bengali Genocide Remembrance Day; Earth Hour (20:30 local time, 2023)

717 – Byzantine emperor Theodosius III abdicated in favour of Leo the Isaurian after he captured Theodosius's son.
1410 – The Yongle Emperor (pictured) of Ming China launched the first of his military campaigns against the Mongols, resulting in the fall of the Mongol khan Bunyashiri.
1807 – The Slave Trade Act became law, abolishing the Atlantic slave trade in the British Empire.
1903 – The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition anchored in the South Orkney Islands with the intention of establishing the first weather station in Antarctic territory.
1934 – Enrico Fermi published his discovery of neutron-induced radioactivity, for which he was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Sophie Blanchard (b. 1778)
Selim Sırrı Tarcan (b. 1874)
Lorna Arnold (d. 2014)

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Today's featured picture

The Annunciation is an oil painting by the Early Netherlandish master Jan van Eyck, painted around 1434–1436. Originally on panel, the work was transferred to canvas in the 19th century. It is thought to have been the left (inner) wing of a triptych, although there have been no sightings of the other wings since before 1817. The painting depicts the biblical scene of the Annunciation, in which the Archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she will bear the son of God. The inscription shows his words: AVE GRA PLENA ('Hail, full of grace'). She modestly draws back and responds, ECCE ANCILLA DNI ('Behold the handmaiden of the Lord'); these words appear upside down. The Annunciation is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Painting credit: Jan van Eyck

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