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From today's featured article

The Parachute Jump is a defunct amusement ride on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and protected as a New York City designated landmark, it consists of a 250-foot-tall (76-meter), 170-short-ton (150-metric-ton) open-frame, steel parachute tower. The ride has twelve cantilever steel arms radiating from the top of the tower. When it was in operation, riders were belted into a suspended two-person canvas seat, lifted to the top, and dropped; a parachute and shock absorbers slowed their descent. The jump was the tallest structure built for the 1939 New York World's Fair at Flushing Meadows. The ride was moved to its current location in 1941, where it operated until the 1960s, when the Steeplechase amusement park shut down. After a period of neglect, the frame was restored and fitted with a light-show system in 2006. (Full article...)

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Female cicada laying eggs

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In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Alexei Navalny

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (pictured) is airlifted from Omsk to Germany for treatment after falling into a coma.
Keith Rowley is sworn in for a second term as prime minister after the People's National Movement wins the Trinidad and Tobago general election.
In Mali, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta resigns and dissolves the government after his arrest in a military coup following months of protests.

On this day

August 23: Black Ribbon Day

Stained-glass depiction of William Wallace

1305 – After a show trial, William Wallace (depicted), leader of the Scottish resistance against England during the Wars of Scottish Independence, was hanged, drawn and quartered.
1873 – The Albert Bridge, spanning the River Thames in London, opened.
1943 – Second World War: A decisive Soviet victory against German forces at the Battle of Kursk gave the Red Army the strategic initiative for the rest of the war.
2010 – A former Philippine National Police officer hijacked a tourist bus in Manila and held its occupants hostage for nearly 11 hours before being killed by police.

Isabella of Aragon, Queen of Portugal (d. 1498)
Abraham Yates Jr. (b. 1724)
Oscar Hammerstein II (d. 1960)

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Today's featured picture

The common blue (Polyommatus icarus) is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It has a wingspan of 28 to 36 millimetres (1.1 to 1.4 in); the upper surface of the male's wings is an iridescent blue with a thin black border, while the female's wings are primarily brown, with a variable amount of blue. The underside has a greyish base colour in males and a more brownish hue in females. Common blues sequester flavonoids from their host plants and allocate these ultraviolet-absorbing pigments into their wings. Females do this more efficiently than males, and it is these pigments that attract males. This photograph shows a pair of mating common blues (male on the left, female on the right) in Yoesden, a nature reserve in Buckinghamshire, England.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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