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From today's featured article

Obverse of the Yuan Shikai coinage

Beginning in 1914, the Yuan Shikai coinage, designed by Tianjin Mint engraver Luigi Giorgi, was struck by the Republic of China to replace imperial and foreign coins then in circulation. They depict Yuan Shikai on the obverse (pictured), and a wreath of grain and the denomination of one yuan on the reverse. Coins were produced by mints across China. Until 1920, all coins were dated Republican Year 3 (1914) regardless of when they were struck. The Nationalist government ordered an end to their production in 1929, but striking continued, with poorer-quality examples produced in Communist-held areas during the 1930s. Later issues were in response to hyperinflation during the Chinese Civil War, including a large run of coins at Canton in 1949. They were struck again in the mid-1950s for use in newly annexed Tibet and rural southwestern China. In total, around 1.1 billion Yuan Shikai dollars were produced from 1914 to 1954, not including local issues produced by warlords or revolutionaries. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Clara Sansoni

... that the performance of Iberia by Clara Sansoni (pictured) was called a "dual revelation" of Isaac Albéniz's "originality" and her own "courage and affection"?
... that the producers of Assalamualaikum Beijing had to hire an Indonesian embassy chef when shooting on location?
... that William Rogers Chapman has been described as "the father of good music in Maine"?
... that the video game character Luigi first appeared as a silhouette?
... that Sofia Spångberg traced her lifelong pacifism to age seven, when a weeping soldier picked up her infant brother and said "I have one like this at home"?
... that the 28 Sassacus-class gunboats constituted the largest class of warships built in the United States prior to World War I?
... that YouTuber Ruben Sim has documented explicit content on the platform Roblox?
... that after three tenants left New York City's 135 East 57th Street, its owners went from having a nearly fully-occupied building to being unable to make payments?
... that Peter Nagy based his song "Profesor Indigo" on his former math teacher?

In the news

Peter Magyar

Péter Magyar's (pictured) Tisza Party wins the Hungarian parliamentary election, ending sixteen years of rule by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz.
The emperor penguin is declared an endangered species by the IUCN due to the effects of climate change.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon kill at least 357 people, hours after a ceasefire is announced in the region.
NASA's Artemis II lands in the Pacific Ocean, completing its crewed lunar flyby mission.

On this day

April 13: Yom HaShoah in Israel (2026)

George Frideric Handel

1742 – The first performance of the oratorio Messiah by George Frideric Handel (pictured) took place in Dublin.
1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act received royal assent, removing the most substantial restrictions on Catholics in the United Kingdom.
1976 – Forty people died in an explosion at an ammunition factory in Lapua, Finland.
1996 – An Israel Defense Forces helicopter fired rockets at an ambulance, killing two women and four children in Mansouri, Lebanon.
2009 – Andrew Hussie's webcomic Homestuck debuted, and later concluded on the same day in 2016.

Ida of Lorraine (d. 1113)
Catherine de' Medici (b. 1519)
Max Weinberg (b. 1951)
Neco Williams (b. 2001)

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Shonda Rhimes

One hundred eleven episodes of the American medical drama series Private Practice aired over six seasons between 2007 and 2013. The series was created by Shonda Rhimes (pictured) and broadcast by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). It is a spin-off from the long-running series Grey's Anatomy, another ABC medical drama created by Rhimes. The basic premise of the program was first introduced during the third season of Grey's Anatomy through a two-part backdoor pilot titled "The Other Side of This Life". Private Practice premiered with a nine-episode first season on September 26, 2007, and four additional seasons followed between 2008 and 2012. A sixth and final season was then announced, for which ABC opted not to order a back nine, concluding the thirteen-episode season on January 22, 2013. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Oradour-sur-Glane is a commune in Haute-Vienne, a department of Nouvelle-Aquitaine in west-central France, with a population of 2,477 as of 2019. It is best known for the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre, which occurred on 10 June 1944 (four days after the Normandy landings on D-Day), in which 642 inhabitants, including 207 children, were killed by Nazi German troops. Only a handful of people survived by feigning death. The massacre was led by Adolf Diekmann, who had intended to attack the nearby village of Oradour-sur-Vayres, which had supported French and Belgian Resistance fighters, but took a wrong turn en route. After the war, a new settlement was built nearby, while the destroyed village was preserved on the orders of Charles de Gaulle as a memorial, alongside the Centre de la mémoire d'Oradour, a commemorative museum. This photograph, taken in 2017, shows part of the preserved ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane.

Photograph credit: Davdavlhu

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