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Today's featured article

Paul Verhoeven, director, in 2016

Total Recall is a 1990 American science-fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven (pictured). Based on a 1966 short story by Philip K. Dick, the film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, and Michael Ironside. It tells the story of Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger) and the shadow organization that tries to prevent him from recovering memories of his past as a Martian secret agent. Schwarzenegger convinced Carolco Pictures to develop the film with him as the star, after the project had lingered in development hell at multiple studios over sixteen years. The film was one of the most expensive ever made at the time, and became the fifth-highest-grossing film of the year. Reviewers liked its themes of identity and questioning reality, but criticized content perceived as vulgar and violent. The practical special effects were well received, earning the film an Academy Award, and the score by Jerry Goldsmith has been praised as one of his best works. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

August 22: Madras Day in Chennai, India (1639)

Reconstruction of Fort Stanwix

1777 – American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold used a ruse to convince the British that a much larger force was arriving, causing them to abandon the siege of Fort Stanwix (reconstructed fort pictured).
1864 – Under the leadership of Henry Dunant and the International Committee of the Red Cross, twelve European states signed the First Geneva Convention, establishing rules for the protection of victims of armed conflict.
1914 – First World War: German forces captured Rossignol in Belgium, taking more than 3,800 French prisoners.
1961 – Ida Siekmann jumped from a window in her tenement building trying to flee to West Berlin, becoming the first person to die at the Berlin Wall.
2012 – A series of ethnic clashes between the Orma and the Pokomo in Kenya's Tana River District resulted in at least 52 deaths.

Jan Kochanowski (d. 1584)
Thomas Tredgold (b. 1788)
Madame Nhu (b. 1924)
Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. (b. 1934)

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In the news

Kasia Niewiadoma

In cycling, Katarzyna Niewiadoma (pictured) wins the Tour de France Femmes.
Doctors strike and protests occur across India after the rape and murder of a female physician in Kolkata.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Prime Minister of Thailand after Srettha Thavisin is dismissed by the Constitutional Court.
The World Health Organization declares the mpox epidemic to be a global health emergency.

134B Nethergate, Dundee

... that in 1989, Rockstar North opened its first offices above a former fish and chip shop (pictured) in Dundee?
... that the discovery of Laquintasaura challenged the idea that early dinosaurs could not survive in equatorial regions?
... that the Yerevan Children's Art Museum deliberately kept no records from the 1970s to the 1990s?
... that Sam Carling is the first UK member of Parliament to be born in the 21st century?
... that an Idaho TV station lost its network affiliation after less than two years on the air but did not permanently close for another decade?
... that some LGBT people wear shorter nails on their middle and index fingers to allow for easier manual sex and to express a queer identity?
... that Eilish Cleary was controversially dismissed as New Brunswick's chief medical officer of health while studying glyphosate, a herbicide widely used in the province's industries?
... that in 1683 ice floes on the River Trent in England badly damaged the bridges at Nottingham and Newark?
... that a superseded combination is not a synonym for a synonym?

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