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Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) was an English composer best known for his operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert. Among his early works were a ballet, a symphony, a cello concerto and a one-act comic opera, Cox and Box, which is still widely performed. He wrote his first opera with Gilbert, Thespis, in 1871. The impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte in 1875 engaged Sullivan to write the music for a one-act piece, Trial by Jury, with a libretto by Gilbert. Its box-office success led the partners to create 12 full-length comic operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. Sullivan's only grand opera, Ivanhoe, though initially successful in 1891, has rarely been revived. His works include 24 operas, 11 major orchestral works, 10 choral works and oratorios, 2 ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous church pieces, songs, and piano and chamber pieces. His hymns and songs include "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "The Lost Chord". (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Frontispiece to a forty-hadith manuscript

... that works in the forty-hadith genre (example pictured) were produced based on a hadith promising special treatment on Judgement Day?
... that the Awlad al-Imam were venerated for their knowledge and legacy, but none of their works have survived?
... that the Canal of Zubaidah, built on the order of a queen, provided water to Hajj pilgrims for over a thousand years?
... that American academic Intisar A. Rabb was inspired by a Supreme Court blog to launch an online portal containing Sharia texts?
... that one scholar read the film Para Perintis Kemerdekaan as offering a "revolutionary Islam" that seeks to emancipate women?
... that "Japan's most renowned Islamic scholar" once wrote a light novel and a manga?
... that the Jordan-based fashion company Shukr sells clothing named after prominent Muslim women?
... that people in the Indian subcontinent eat a sweet dish resembling a bird's nest during Ramadan?
... that Raşit Küçük, a biographer of Muhammad, earned his doctorate exploring love?

In the news

Maikel García

The World Baseball Classic concludes with Venezuela defeating the United States in the final (tournament MVP Maikel García pictured).
In association football, the Confederation of African Football overturns the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final originally won by Senegal, declaring Morocco the winner of the tournament.
In Kazakhstan, voters approve a new constitution in a referendum.
More than 100 people are killed by a Pakistani airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan.

On this day

March 21: Harmony Day in Australia; Oltenia Day in Romania

Alcatraz Island

1556 – Thomas Cranmer, a former archbishop of Canterbury and one of the founders of Anglicanism, was burned at the stake for heresy in Oxford, England.
1844 – The Baháʼí calendar, used in the Baháʼí Faith, began.
1963 – The Federal Bureau of Prisons closed Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island (pictured) in San Francisco Bay, California.
1983 – In the West Bank, a number of Palestinian girls complained of breathing difficulties due to strange odors, leading to accusations of poison gas.
2006 – Jack Dorsey sent the first message on the social-media network Twitter.

Benito Juárez (b. 1806)
André Delvaux (b. 1926)
Rachael MacFarlane (b. 1976)
Nawal El Saadawi (d. 2021)

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Today's featured picture

The arc-eye hawkfish (Paracirrhites arcatus) is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Cirrhitidae, the hawkfishes. It is found across the tropical Indo-Pacific, from East Africa to the central Pacific (including the Hawaiian and Pitcairn Islands), and from Japan south to Australia. The arc-eye hawkfish inhabits lagoons and seaward coral reefs, often resting motionless among coral heads at depths of 1 to 30 metres (3 to 100 ft). With a length of up to 20 centimetres (8 in), it has variable colouration, typically pale pinkish-brown. The species feeds on crustaceans and small fishes, is usually solitary, and spawns in pairs. It is also collected for the aquarium trade. This arc-eye hawkfish was photographed off the coast of Zanzibar in Tanzania.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

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