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William Hardham (31 July 1876 – 13 April 1928) was a New Zealand soldier. Born in Wellington, Hardham volunteered to serve with the New Zealand Military Forces in the Second Boer War. Posted to the 4th Contingent in 1900, he served in South Africa and was awarded the Victoria Cross for the rescue of a wounded soldier while under fire. When the First World War began, he joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) and was posted to the Wellington Mounted Rifles (WMR) to serve overseas as a captain. Wounded during the Gallipoli campaign, he was repatriated to New Zealand. On recovery he was made the commandant of Queen Mary Hospital in Hanmer Springs. He rejoined the WMR, then in Palestine, in late 1917 and reached the rank of major by the end of the war in 1918. Returning to civilian life after his discharge from the NZEF, he worked for a newspaper and later the Public Works Department as well as being involved in veterans' affairs. He died in 1928 at the age of 51. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Statue in John Paul II Park

... that a park in Chile features a 7-metre-tall (23 ft) statue of Pope John Paul II covered in plants (pictured)?
... that Pirngadi mapped Indonesia's ethnic groups for the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition?
... that Madonna's new film features Debi Mazar, with whom she used to party in the 1980s before either of them was famous?
... that Theo Faiss was remembered by Rudolf Steiner after his death as "You dear Sun-Boy, you"?
... that Um, Jennifer? describe their music as "slut rock"?
... that a Utah TV station was historically preferred by non-Mormon viewers?
... that Vitiges divorced his wife so that he could strengthen his legitimacy as king by forcibly marrying the granddaughter of Theodoric the Great?
... that the statue of Austin Blair, according to the newspaper City Pulse, is one of only two monuments in the United States to mention slavery as a cause of the American Civil War?
... that Lionel Messi bathed a six-month-old Lamine Yamal for a charity photo shoot in 2007?

In the news

Earthquake damage

A magnitude 6.8 M_ww earthquake (damage pictured) strikes Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, leaving at least 36 people dead.
In Gaelic football, the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship concludes with Mayo defeating Kerry in the final.
In cycling, Tadej Pogačar wins the Tour de France.
Cockroach Janta Party–led protests following an exam leak conclude with the resignation of India's minister of education Dharmendra Pradhan.

On this day

July 31: Lā Hae Hawaiʻi (Flag Day) and Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (Sovereignty Restoration Day) in Hawaii (1843)

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

1777 – The Second Continental Congress passed a resolution commissioning the Marquis de Lafayette (pictured) as a major general in the American revolutionary forces.
1941 – The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring authorised SS officer Reinhard Heydrich to handle preparations for the "Final Solution of the Jewish question".
2000 – Three years after being hit by a mudslide, the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Hong Kong fully reopened.
2002 – Hamas attackers detonated a bomb at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, killing nine students and injuring about 100 more.
2020 – A mid-air collision in Soldotna, Alaska, United States, killed seven people, including state representative Gary Knopp.

Alessandro Algardi (b. 1598)
Louis Hachette (d. 1864)
Hedd Wyn (d. 1917)

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From today's featured list

Map of Colorado's congressional districts since 2022

Colorado has sent congressional delegations to the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives since it became a U.S. state in 1876, beginning with the 44th United States Congress. Before becoming a state, the Colorado Territory sent non-voting delegates to the House of Representatives from 1861 to 1876. Prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913, senators were elected by the Colorado General Assembly. Today, voters in Colorado elect two members of the Senate to six-year terms and, since the 2020 United States census, eight members of the House to two-year terms, one for each of Colorado's congressional districts (map pictured). As of April 2026, 83 people have served Colorado in the House and 37 have served Colorado in the Senate. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The streaked spiderhunter (Arachnothera magna) is a species in the family Nectariniidae, the sunbirds, found in forests from the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia. About the size of a sparrow, it has olive-yellow plumage with dark streaking and a long, curved black beak adapted for feeding on nectar. Its nest is made by binding leaves together with cobwebs. This streaked spiderhunter was photographed in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand.

Photograph/ credit: JJ Harrison

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