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Today's featured list: The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets less than 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has sixty-two moons with confirmed orbits, fifty-three of which have names, and only thirteen of which have diameters larger than 50 kilometers (31 mi). Saturn has seven moons that are large enough to become spherical, and dense rings with complex orbital motions of their own.

Today's featured topic: The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of one titular award. Several new awards have been introduced, and as of 2008^[update], eight awards are presented, including the Team of the Year, Overseas Personality, Lifetime Achievement Award, Helen Rollason Award, the Coach Award, and the Newcomer Award.

Listen to
Spring, from The Four Seasons

Today's featured sound: The Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723,The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. Performed by John Harrison and the Wichita State University Chamber Players.

Did you know...

Precursor to challah adapted from a recipe in the Kitāb al-ṭabīẖ

... that the Kitāb al-ṭabīẖ, a medieval Andalusian cookbook, contains an early version of Jewish challah bread (pictured), which traveled with Jews expelled from Spain and likely influenced Ashkenazi cuisine?
... that at the 2024 Olympics, unranked North Korean table tennis pair Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong defeated the defending champions and went on to win the silver medal?
... that rivers form 23% of international borders?
... that after composer Maxim Berezovsky's death, Catherine the Great secretly ordered that the papers in his rooms be burned?
... that a Los Angeles summer camp teaches children how to become YouTubers by making toy unboxing videos?
... that brothers Mike McCartney and Paul McCartney, and sisters Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning, use their middle names as their first names?
... that Abdul Ali Deobandi stipulated that women were prohibited from learning to read and write, even at home?
... that actress Lisa Coleman attended artist Euan Uglow's studio one to three times a week from 1993 to 1996 to model for Articulation?
... that in The Gambia, there is a belief that people can summon evil spirits to cause abortions?

In the news
Paralympics opening ceremony The Summer Paralympics open (ceremony pictured) in Paris, France. More than four hundred people are killed in an Islamist militant attack in Barsalogho Department, Burkina Faso. The Islamic State claims responsibility for a mass stabbing that killed three people at a festival in Solingen, Germany. In cycling, Katarzyna Niewiadoma wins the Tour de France Femmes. Ongoing: Israel–Hamas war timeline Russian invasion of Ukraine timeline Sudanese civil war timeline Recent deaths: Bob Carr Rodolfo Hernández Suárez Danelle Barrett Leonard Riggio Joe D'Alessandris Sol Bamba Nominate an article
On this day...
September 4 Damage from the Canterbury earthquake in Christchurch 476 – Germanic leader Odoacer captured Ravenna and deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus, marking the fall of the Western Roman Empire. 1800 – French Revolutionary Wars: Facing starvation and a death rate of 100 soldiers per day, the French garrison in Malta surrendered to British forces, ending a two-year siege. 1843 – The state wedding of Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies and Emperor Pedro II of Brazil took place at the Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro. 1977 – The Golden Dragon massacre occurred in Chinatown, San Francisco, leaving five dead and spurring police to end Chinese gang violence in the city. 2010 – A magnitude-7.1 earthquake (damage pictured) struck the Canterbury Region of New Zealand, causing two deaths and up to NZ$40 billion in damages. Maria of Castile (d. 1458) Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (d. 1588) Konstantin Kalser (b. 1920) Yoani Sánchez (b. 1975) More anniversaries: September 3 September 4 September 5 Archive By email List of days of the year

Today's featured picture

John Milton Brannan (1819–1892) was a career United States Army artillery officer who served in the Mexican–American War and as a Union Army brigadier general of volunteers in the American Civil War. He was in command of the Department of Key West in Florida and assigned to Fort Zachary Taylor. Most notably, Brannan served as a division commander of the Union XIV Corps at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. This photograph of Brannan was produced by the studio of the American photographer Mathew Brady circa the 1860s.

Photograph credit: studio of Mathew Brady; restored by Adam Cuerden

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