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Ernest Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that significantly influenced later 20th-century writers, he is often romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle, and outspoken and blunt public image. Most of Hemingway's works were published between the mid-1920s and mid-1950s; these included seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works. His debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926. His wartime experiences as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms, and he drew on his experience as a journalist in the Spanish Civil War for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway was with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. He was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Women's 400 metres hurdles medallists at the 2024 EAC

... that Femke Bol won the women's 400 metres hurdles at the 2024 European Athletics Championships (medallists pictured) in a championship record of 52.49 seconds?
... that Steve Elcock's Symphony No. 6 is dedicated to "the everlasting execration of self-serving politicians, the obscenely rich and the system that allows them to remain so"?
... that to embody her role as a short-track speed skater in the movie Breaking Through, actress Meng Meiqi inserted a rock into one of her ice skates to feel real pain?
... that British physician James A. Glover found that "spacing-out" beds prevented epidemics of meningitis in the military during World War I?
... that a co-founder of Braver Angels designed their Red/Blue political depolarization workshops based on couples therapy?
... that the 1969 leadership election for the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick was blacklisted by the American Federation of Musicians because one of the candidates was indebted to them?
... that American ornithologist Judy Kellogg Markowsky died after disappearing in the river that she worked to protect during her life?
... that the third Josef Hoop cabinet survived an attempted coup from a domestic Nazi party?
... that author Anna Smith Spark is also known as the "Queen of Grimdark"?

In the news

Nguyễn Phú Trọng

General secretary and former president of Vietnam Nguyễn Phú Trọng (pictured) dies at the age of 80.
The International Court of Justice finds the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories to be a violation of international law.
A faulty software update by CrowdStrike, an American cybersecurity company, causes global computer outages.
In the Rwandan general election, Paul Kagame is re-elected as the president, and the Rwandan Patriotic Front coalition win a majority in the lower house.

On this day

July 21: Belgian National Day (1831)

Depiction of the Ciompi Revolt

625 – Paulinus was consecrated as the first bishop of York by Justus, the archbishop of Canterbury.
1378 – Unrepresented labourers revolted and violently took over the government of the Republic of Florence (depicted), demanding that they be granted political office.
1946 – After weeks of unrest, rioters lynched Bolivian president Gualberto Villarroel, desecrating and hanging his corpse in the streets of La Paz.
1959 – The inaugural International Mathematical Olympiad, the leading mathematical competition for pre-university students, began in Romania.
1977 – Libyan forces carried out a raid at Sallum, sparking a four-day war with Egypt.

John Atta Mills (b. 1944)
Claus von Stauffenberg (d. 1944)
Jimmie Foxx (d. 1967)
Lettice Curtis (d. 2014)

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Today's featured picture

Frances Cleveland (July 21, 1864 – October 29, 1947) was the first lady of the United States from 1886 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897, as the wife of President Grover Cleveland. She met him while an infant, as he was a friend, and later the estate executor, of her father, Oscar Folsom. Grover settled Oscar's debts and provided for Frances. She graduated from Wells College, then married Grover while he was president. When he lost reelection in 1888, they went into private life for four years, returning when he was elected again in 1892. Much of her time during Grover's second term was dedicated to their children. They had five; four survived to adulthood. Frances Cleveland served on the Wells College board, supported women's education, and organized kindergartens. Grover died in 1908, and she married Thomas J. Preston Jr. in 1913. During World War I, she advocated military preparedness. She died in 1947 and was buried alongside Grover Cleveland in Princeton Cemetery. This portrait photograph of Frances Cleveland was taken in 1886.

Photograph credit: Charles Milton Bell; restored by Adam Cuerden

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