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Capcom head office in Osaka, Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages are two 2001 action-adventure games in The Legend of Zelda series, developed by Flagship, a subsidiary of Capcom (head office pictured), and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color. The player controls the protagonist Link from an overhead perspective as he collects various items hidden in dungeons and guarded by bosses. After experimenting with porting the original Legend of Zelda to the Game Boy Color, the Flagship team, supervised by Yoshiki Okamoto, began developing three interconnected Zelda games that could be played in any order; they later canceled one of the games. Both Seasons and Ages were critical successes, and sold 3.96 million units each. Critics complimented the gameplay, colorful designs and graphic quality, but criticized the inconsistent sound quality. Both games were re-released on the Virtual Console for the Nintendo 3DS in May 2013, and on the Nintendo Switch Online service in July 2023. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Street sign of Dumb Woman's Lane

... that Paul McCartney wrote a poem about Dumb Woman's Lane (pictured)?
... that Sofia Vakman relinquished a career as a concert pianist because a skin disorder she contracted after swimming made it painful for her to play?
... that the shining St John's wort owes its bright colors partly to carotenoid compounds?
... that Jessica Mutch McKay hosted debates between the leaders of New Zealand's two major political parties?
... that some WNBA seasons, including this year's, have a break for the Summer Olympic Games?
... that public historian Richard Smith called Henry David Thoreau the "first punk rocker"?
... that The Anxious City introduced a recurring figure in Paul Delvaux's paintings: a man who is ignorant of the pretty women and disasters around him?
... that offensive lineman Andy Dickerson is not to be confused with offensive lineman Andy Dickerson?

In the news

Alexei Navalny

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny (pictured) dies in a penal colony near Kharp, Russia, at the age of 47.
In American football, the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers to win the Super Bowl.
In association football, the Africa Cup of Nations concludes with Ivory Coast defeating Nigeria in the final.
Alexander Stubb is elected President of Finland.
Marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum dies in a car crash at the age of 24.

On this day

February 17

Helicopter stolen in the 1974 White House incident

1859 – Cochinchina campaign: French Navy forces captured the Citadel of Saigon, defended by 1,000 Vietnamese soldiers of the Nguyễn dynasty.
1904 – Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala in Milan to poor reviews, forcing him to revise the opera.
1964 – Gabonese military officers overthrew President Léon M'ba, but French forces, honouring a 1960 treaty, forcibly reinstated him two days later.
1974 – A U.S. Army soldier stole a Bell UH-1 helicopter (pictured) and landed it on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.
2011 – Arab Spring: Bahraini security forces killed four protesters in a pre-dawn raid at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, while the "Day of Rage" took place in Libya with nationwide protests against Muammar Gaddafi's government.

Jovian (d. 364)
Joseph Favre (b. 1849)
María de las Mercedes Barbudo (d. 1849)
Don Tallon (b. 1916)

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Today's featured picture

The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings in the centre of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum. It is located in the small valley between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills. Archaeological evidence shows that the site was originally a grassy wetland, which was drained in the 7th century BC with the building of the first structures of the Cloaca Maxima sewer system. The earliest structures in the Forum were discovered in two separate locations: the site of the Comitium and the group of sanctuaries of Regia, House of the Vestals and Domus Publica. Further structures were added over the centuries including the Temple of Saturn (497 BC), the Temple of Castor and Pollux (484 BC) and the Basilica Fulvia (179 BC), followed by major work in the 80s BC, in which the plaza was raised and permanent marble paving stones laid. Further significant work was undertaken by Julius Caesar and Augustus, and the reign of Constantine the Great saw the completion of the construction of the Basilica of Maxentius (AD 312), the last significant expansion of the complex. The Forum today is a sprawling ruin of architectural fragments and intermittent archaeological excavations attracting 4.5 million or more sightseers yearly. This panoramic photograph, taken in 2018 from the Capitoline Museums, shows some of the surviving structures of the Roman Forum, including the Tabularium, the Gemonian stairs, the Tarpeian Rock, and several temples and basilicas.

Photograph credit: Wolfgang Moroder

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