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From today's featured article

Joseph A. Lopez (October 4, 1779 – October 5, 1841) was a Mexican Catholic priest who became a prominent ally of Emperor Agustín de Iturbide. As a priest in Peribán, he tried to arrest the first leader of the Mexican War of Independence, Miguel Hidalgo. Unsuccessful, he fled and became acquainted with Ana María Huarte, the wife of the future emperor of Mexico, Agustín de Iturbide. As a result, he was sent to Madrid to act as Iturbide's attorney and political informant, before returning to Mexico as chaplain and educator of the imperial family. He fled with the exiled family to Europe in 1823, and then returned to Mexico. Following Iturbide's execution in 1824, Lopez fled with the family to Washington, D.C., where he became chaplain to the Georgetown Visitation Monastery, and became a Jesuit. In 1840, Lopez was named the acting president of Georgetown University, becoming the first Latin American president of a university in the United States. He soon fell ill and was sent to St. Inigoes, Maryland, where he died. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

TWA Flight Center

... that contractors spent 5,500 man-hours on drawings for the design of the TWA Flight Center (pictured)?
... that today's London Marathon is not being run on its usual course, but instead as 19.6 laps around St James's Park, to prevent spectators from attending?
... that Aran Bell, who was profiled at age 11 in the dance documentary First Position, became a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre at age 21?
... that despite being very aggressive towards other ants, the common pugnacious ant is tolerant towards ants of its own species from other colonies?
... that Kanye West used an extended version of his track "Jesus Is Lord" under the title of "Every Knee Shall Bow" for his film Jesus Is King?
... that Myint Myint Khin, a professor at the Institute of Medicine, Mandalay, and a WHO consultant, published her first English-language poetry collection at age 89?
... that the decommissioned minesweeper USS Lucid was used as a floating warehouse by a scrap-metal dealer on Bradford Island for 18 years?
... that women called Honey Badgers are among the most prominent men's rights activists?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Portal

Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah

Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (pictured) becomes Emir of Kuwait after the death of his half-brother, Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
In ice hockey, the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Dallas Stars to win the Stanley Cup.
Azerbaijani and Armenian armed forces clash in Nagorno-Karabakh, prompting the introduction of martial law in both countries and mobilization in Armenia.

On this day

October 4: Cinnamon Roll Day in Sweden

Replica of Sputnik 1

1876 – Texas A&M University opened as the U.S. state's first public institution of higher education.
1917 – First World War: The Allies devastated the German defence at the Battle of Broodseinde, prompting a crisis among their commanders and causing a severe loss of morale in the 4th Army.
1957 – The Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 1 (replica pictured), the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
2003 – A suicide bomber killed 21 people and injured 60 others inside a restaurant in Haifa, Israel.
2010 – A waste-reservoir dam in western Hungary collapsed, freeing 1 million m³ (35 million cu ft) of red mud, which flooded nearby communities and killed ten people.

Anna of Tyrol (b. 1585)
Townsend Harris (b. 1804)
Graham Chapman (d. 1989)

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Today's featured picture

Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Steamboat Bill, Jr. is a 1928 silent comedy film starring Buster Keaton and co-directed by Charles Reisner. The film found humour from the relationship between a husky riverboat captain and his gawky, college-student son, who meet for the first time. Keaton performed his own stunts, and the film is known for the most famous of them all: the facade of an entire house falls on top of him while he stands in the perfect spot to survive unscathed as the frame of an open attic window lands around him. The film inspired the title of Walt Disney's cartoon Steamboat Willie, which was released six months later.

Film credit: Charles Reisner and Buster Keaton

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