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From today's featured article

Illustration of an infant class

The history of infant schools in Great Britain began in 1816, when the first infant school was founded in New Lanark, Scotland. It was followed by other philanthropic infant schools across Great Britain. Infant teaching came to include moral education, exercise, and an authoritative but friendly teacher. Infant schools increased the education that many children received before leaving school to work. State-funded schools in England and Wales were advised in 1840 to include infant departments. Infant education came under pressure to achieve quick academic progress, notably through rote learning. Beginning in 1905, infant lessons in England and Wales shifted towards more child-centred methods of teaching, where education was meant to reflect the preferences of children. The child-centred approach reached its peak following a report in 1967. In 1988, a more centralised curriculum was introduced. The term "infant department" was used widely in Scotland in the 1960s but is no longer much used there. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Brian Driscoll

... that Brian Driscoll (pictured) became the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation by accident?
... that censorship in communist Poland delayed the publication of the novel Zaziemskie światy for nearly a decade due to its "inappropriate ideological basis" and positive portrayal of the United States?
... that the Russian government has been blamed for helping to escalate the Wars in the Caucasus by pursuing a policy of neocolonialism?
... that the concept of Weighing Souls with Sand reflects the guitarist's grief over the death of his first girlfriend?
... that Naenano was once known as "the face that Japanese girls most want to have right now"?
... that the Hennepin Avenue Steel Arch Bridge had to be put up for sale before it could be demolished?
... that Erin LeCount regularly rehearsed at a music venue owned by her primary school teacher?
... that Jacinda Ardern said that she was "sometimes a reluctant participant" of a documentary film about her?
... that an author referred to her book Accidental Gods as "dad non-fiction"?

In the news

Ōfunato wildfire

A wildfire (pictured) in Japan's Iwate Prefecture becomes the largest in the country in at least five decades.
Chinese architect Liu Jiakun is awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
The United States imposes—and later partially delays—tariffs on Canada and Mexico and increases tariffs on China, incurring retaliatory tariffs from Canada and China.
Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost soft-lands on the Moon as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

On this day

March 7: Feast day of Saints Perpetua and Felicity (Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism)

Police attacking civil rights activists outside Selma, Alabama

1573 – A peace treaty brought the Ottoman–Venetian War to an end, ceding Cyprus from the Republic of Venice to the Ottoman Empire.
1871 – José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco, began a four-year premiership as Prime Minister of the Empire of Brazil, the longest in the state's history.
1941 – The German submarine U-47, one of the most successful U-boats of World War II, disappeared with 45 men on board.
1965 – Unarmed civil rights activists marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, were attacked by police (pictured) on "Bloody Sunday".
2021 – A series of four explosions at a military barracks in Bata, Equatorial Guinea caused at least 107 deaths.

Maurice Ravel (b. 1875)
Masako Katsura (b. 1913)
Mochtar Lubis (b. 1922)
Divine (d. 1988)

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From today's featured list

The American women acknowledge the crowd in Vancouver after winning silver medals at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Ten goaltenders and seventy-three skaters have played for the United States in the Olympic Games. The United States women's national ice hockey team has participated in every Winter Olympic tournament since 1998, when the Olympic Games first featured women's ice hockey. The American women's team has played in every gold medal match except for 2006, winning two gold medals, four silver medals, and one bronze medal. Four players from the American teams over the years (Natalie Darwitz, Cammi Granato, Angela Ruggiero, and Krissy Wendell) are members of the Hockey Hall of Fame. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

SpaceX CRS-20 was a Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on March 7, 2020. Contracted by NASA and flown by SpaceX, the mission was the final flight of Dragon 1, before the introduction of Dragon 2. CRS-20 was launched aboard Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and used Dragon capsule C112, which had previously flown to the ISS on CRS-10 and CRS-16. CRS-20 arrived at the ISS on March 9, 2020, and was captured by the station's robotic arm. It carried 1977 kilograms (4358 lbs) of cargo. This photograph shows the CRS-20 capsule approaching the ISS while around 267 miles (430 kilometres) above Namibia.

Photograph credit: Johnson Space Center; edited by Nythar

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