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Today's featured article

Seal of Matilda

Empress Matilda (1102–1167) was the claimant to the English throne during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The daughter of King Henry I, she moved to Germany to marry the future Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor. Her younger brother died in 1120, leaving a succession crisis. On Henry V's death in 1125, her father arranged for her to marry Geoffrey of Anjou. Henry I nominated her as his heir before his death in 1135, but she faced opposition from the Norman barons and the throne was taken by her cousin Stephen of Blois. In 1139, Matilda travelled to England to take the crown by force. She captured Stephen at the Battle of Lincoln in 1141, but crowds in London blocked her attempt to be crowned and she was never formally declared queen. Her half-brother was captured and Matilda exchanged him for Stephen. A stalemate developed and she returned to Normandy in 1148, leaving her eldest son—later Henry II—to continue the campaign. She then focused on leading Normandy and giving her son political advice. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

April 8

Little Nemo

1271 – Crusades: The Knights Hospitaller surrendered the Krak des Chevaliers, a castle in present-day Syria, to the army of the Mamluk sultan Baybars.
1904 – France and the United Kingdom signed the Entente Cordiale, agreeing to a peaceful coexistence after centuries of intermittent conflict.
1911 – American cartoonist Winsor McCay released the silent short film Little Nemo (featured), one of the earliest animated films.
1933 – The Australian state of Western Australia voted to secede from the federation, but efforts to implement the result proved to be unsuccessful.
1973 – The Progress Party was founded in a movie theater in Oslo, Norway.

Caracalla (d. 217)
Mary Dee (b. 1912)
Christof May (b. 1973)
TBJZL (b. 1993)

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In the news

Yoon Suk Yeol

South Korea's Constitutional Court removes Yoon Suk Yeol (pictured) as the president of South Korea, following his earlier declaration of martial law.
US president Donald Trump announces trade tariffs on most countries.
Marine Le Pen, the runner-up in the 2017 and 2022 French presidential elections, is convicted of embezzlement and banned from standing in elections for five years.
A magnitude-7.7 earthquake leaves more than 5,300 people dead in Myanmar and Thailand.

Did you know...

Mongush Buyan-Badyrgy

... that Mongush Buyan-Badyrgy (pictured) helped his country go "right from a feudal system to a society of democratic norms"?
... that the trope of the found manuscript, in which a fictional work refers to another fictional work of literature, dates as far back as ancient Egypt?
... that Izawa Takushi is called the "Quiz King from Tokyo University"?
... that when MV Solong struck MV Stena Immaculate in March 2025, the former ship was falsely reported to be carrying highly toxic sodium cyanide?
... that while starting in place of Aaron Rodgers, backup quarterback Matt Flynn set the Green Bay Packers team record for passing yards (480) and touchdowns (6) in a victory against the Detroit Lions?
... that the Dutch author of books for children and adults Clare Lennart finally turned to full-time writing after her husband retired and took care of the household?
... that the Ten Arches Bridge in Amman, built as part of the Ottoman Hejaz railway, was one of the main targets for destruction during a 1918 Allied attack during World War I?
... that Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell wrote A Short Church History, which was used as a textbook for pupil teachers?
... that the codename "Neo" was used when writing the return of EastEnders character Keanu Taylor, in reference to the protagonist of The Matrix?

Today's featured picture

Picture of the day

Blue-ice areas are regions of Antarctica where the ice surface has a blue colour, contrasting with the more common white Antarctic surface. They form around 1% of the continent's ice area. Blue-ice areas typically form when the movement of both air and ice are obstructed by topographic obstacles such as mountains that emerge from the ice sheet, generating particular climatic conditions where the net snow accumulation is exceeded by wind-driven sublimation and snow transports. They are noted for being hard and flat, enabling their use as a runway, in addition to their stability. Ice of up to 2.7 million years in age has been extracted from blue-ice areas. There are also large numbers of meteorites accumulated on them, either from direct falls or having been transported from elsewhere by ice flow. This NASA photograph shows a blue-ice area in the Miller Range, with a meteorite.Photograph credit: Nina Lanza / NASA

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