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From today's featured article

Taylor Swift

"Mean" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift (pictured), and is from her third studio album, Speak Now (2010). Big Machine Records released it to US country radio on March 7, 2011. Produced by Swift and Nathan Chapman, "Mean" is a six-string banjo-led country, country pop, and bluegrass track that incorporates fiddles and mandolins. In the lyrics, Swift addresses her detractors and strives to overcome the criticism and achieve success. Several publications have listed "Mean" as one of the best country songs. It won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance at the 2012 Grammy Awards. The track received certifications in Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The music video, which features themes of self-empowerment and anti-bullying, garnered multiple industry nominations. Swift included "Mean" in the set lists of the Speak Now World Tour (2011–2012) and the Red Tour (2013–2014). (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Miniature from the Book of Hours of Boussu

... that when the medieval Book of Hours of Boussu (miniature pictured) was restored in 2020, it was discovered that the spine of the book was still sewed with the original thread?
... that Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh may have facilitated the killing of a political rival through a United States airstrike?
... that Russian astrophysicist Inna Nikolaevna Leman-Balanovskaja was sentenced to five years in a Siberian labor camp as a result of false charges?
... that several aesthetic and gameplay elements of the video game Quarantine II: Road Warrior, in which the player drives a weaponized hovercab, were inspired by the Mad Max franchise?
... that Hans-Joachim Hacker worked at a state-owned food processing plant before joining the Volkskammer and Bundestag?
... that despite being promoted exclusively through word of mouth, New York City's Henry Phipps Plaza West was fully occupied within a year of opening?
... that net-filter coffee is named for its spoon-shaped filter, which resembles a hand net?
... that the Minneapolis Police Department initially attributed one of the murders committed by spree killer Andrew Cunanan to one of his victims?
... that March 7th first appeared on October 8th?

In the news

Ali Khamenei

Israel and the United States launch strikes on Iran, killing its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei (pictured), along with other senior officials.
A Lockheed C-130 Hercules of the Bolivian Air Force crashes into a road in El Alto, killing more than 20 people.
A military conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan escalates as the countries exchange cross-border strikes.
Floods in the Zona da Mata region of Minas Gerais, Brazil, leave at least 70 people dead and thousands of others displaced.

On this day

March 7: Feast day of Saints Perpetua and Felicity (Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism); Girls' Day in China

Daniel Webster

1850 – United States senator Daniel Webster (pictured) delivered a speech advocating compromise on slavery, which proved to be unpopular with abolitionists in his home state.
1900 – The German ocean liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse became the first ship to send a wireless telegraph message to an onshore receiver.
1936 – Nazi German forces re-occupied the demilitarized Rhineland, violating both the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties that were signed after World War I.
1945 – World War II: At the beginning of the Battle of Remagen, Allied forces unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge, which possibly hastened the war's conclusion.
1968 – Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam began Operation Truong Cong Dinh to sweep the area surrounding the Mekong Delta town of Mỹ Tho to root out Viet Cong forces in the area.

Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood (d. 1880)
Akseli Gallen-Kallela (d. 1931)
Bryan Cranston (b. 1956)
Amanda Gorman (b. 1998)

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Today's featured picture

The African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) is a subspecies of the leopard and part of the cat family, Felidae. It is widely distributed across much of Sub-Saharan Africa, although its historical range has become increasingly fragmented due to habitat loss and human activity. It has also been recorded in North Africa. It inhabits various habitats including mountainous forests, grasslands and savannahs. The African leopard's coat colour varies from pale yellow to deep gold, tawny or black, and is patterned with black rosettes while the head, lower limbs and belly are spotted with solid black. Male leopards are larger than females, averaging 58 kg (128 lb), while females weigh about 37.5 kg (83 lb) on average. The African leopard has a very broad diet, with prey ranging from dung beetles and other arthropods to rodents, birds, antelopes, hyraxes, hares, and even large ungulates such as elands. Leopards typically concentrate their hunting on locally abundant medium-sized ungulates but opportunistically take a wide variety of other prey. This African leopard was photographed in Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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