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From today's featured article

Carey in 1990

Mariah Carey (born 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She rose to fame with her self-titled debut album, released on June 12, 1990, and has released fifteen studio albums, most recently Caution (2018). Known for her five-octave vocal range and signature use of the whistle register, she has been dubbed the "Songbird Supreme" by the Guinness World Records. Carey is one of the best-selling music artists, with more than 220 million units sold worldwide, and holds the record for the most number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 by a solo artist. In addition, Carey's singles have spent a record 97 weeks on the chart, and she is the only artist to have their first five singles reach number one on the chart. Carey has received various accolades, and has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. Rolling Stone ranked her as the fifth-greatest singer of all time in 2023. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Statue of Gigeiten at Akishinodera

... that the sculpture of the Japanese goddess Gigeiten (pictured) at the temple Akishinodera has an 8th-century head and a 13th-century body?
... that David Mavrogonato was exempted from a tax on Jews due to his services to Venice in the 1450s?
... that The Old Elm was used by the Ottoman Turks to hang captured hajduci?
... that Mohamed Asswai Khalifa was the first Libyan to compete at the Olympics?
... that the author of Octavia based one character on a former lover?
... that Rae Lil Black, who was at one point one of the 20 most popular models on Pornhub, left the adult industry and converted to Islam after visiting Malaysia?
... that the Roman lawyer Cicero defended Gnaeus Plancius in 54 BCE, but neither the verdict nor exactly what Plancius was accused of have survived?
... that Larry Steinbach did not start high school until the age of 22?
... that the Scottish invasion of England in 1648 was defeated by an army less than half their size?

In the news

Brian Wilson in 1990

The Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson (pictured) dies at the age of 82.
A shooting at a secondary school in Graz, Austria, leaves eleven people dead.
At the Tony Awards, Purpose wins the Best Play and Maybe Happy Ending wins the Best Musical.
Prime Minister of Mongolia Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene resigns after weeks of protests.
In the Netherlands, an early election is called after the Schoof cabinet collapses as the PVV abandons the governing coalition.

On this day

June 12: Dia dos Namorados in Brazil; Loving Day in the United States (1967)

Boeing 777

1798 – Following the successful French invasion of Malta, the Knights Hospitaller surrendered Malta to Napoleon, initiating two years of occupation.
1864 – Union general Ulysses S. Grant pulled his troops out of the Battle of Cold Harbor in Hanover County, Virginia, ending one of the bloodiest, most lopsided battles in the American Civil War.
1914 – As part of the Ottoman Empire's policies of ethnic cleansing, Turkish irregulars began a six-day massacre in the predominantly Greek town of Phocaea.
1954 – Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at his death in 1857, was canonized by Pope Pius XII, making him one of the youngest non-martyred saints in the Catholic Church.
1994 – The Boeing 777 (pictured), the world's largest twinjet, made its maiden flight.

Æthelflæd (d. 918)
Samuel Cooper (b. 1798)
Eugénie Brazier (b. 1895)
Malekeh Malekzadeh Bayani (d. 1999)

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Today's featured picture

The grey-breasted mountain toucan (Andigena hypoglauca) is a near-threatened species of bird in the toucan family, Ramphastidae, and a member of the genus Andigena, the mountain toucans. Found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, grey-breasted mountain toucans are 41 to 48 centimetres (16 to 19 inches) long and weigh 244 to 370 grams (8.6 to 13 ounces). The species inhabits wet temperate montane forest, including cloud, elfin, and secondary forest, generally between 2,200 and 3,650 metres (7,200 and 12,000 feet) in elevation. This grey-breasted mountain toucan of the subspecies A. h. hypoglauca was photographed perching on a branch in the mountains of the Cordillera Central near Manizales, Colombia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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