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USS Congress was a nominally rated 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate launched on 15 August 1799. She was one of the original six frigates of the newly formed United States Navy and, along with her sister ships, was larger and more heavily armed than standard frigates of the period. Her first duties were to protect American shipping during the Quasi-War with France. In 1804 and 1805, Congress helped to defeat the Barbary corsairs in the First Barbary War. During the War of 1812, she made several extended cruises with President: the pair captured 20 British merchant ships. At the end of 1813, due to a lack of materials to repair her, Congress was placed in reserve. In 1815, she took part in the Second Barbary War and made patrols through 1816. In the 1820s, she helped suppress piracy in the West Indies, made several voyages to South America, and was the first U.S. warship to visit China. Congress spent her last ten years as a receiving ship until she was broken up in 1834. (Full article...)

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Paraquilegia microphylla plant

... that a 1920 article segregated members of Isopyrum into the new genus Paraquilegia – assigning it P. grandflorum, P. caespitosa, P. microphylla (example pictured), and P. uniflora – but had the "rather less fortunate" effect of expanding Semiaquilegia beyond S. adoxoides?
... that the publication of Ten no Hate Made – Poland Hishi, the first legally published manga in Poland, has been described as the event that created the manga fandom in the country?
... that when Wilson Starbuck's play Sea Dogs was staged in 1939 it "contained some of the foulest language heard on Broadway" at that point in history?
... that Harry Clarke's Geneva Window was never installed in Geneva because of the "grave offense" it might cause?
... that Michal Pivoňka's father was demoted at work as a result of his son signing with the Washington Capitals?
... that more than 5,000 genres on Spotify use the suffix -core?
... that blackface minstrel show performer George L. Wade was also a race car manufacturer?
... that transportation during the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics accounted for 53 percent of the games' carbon footprint?
... that a specimen of Tyrannasorus rex had six legs and wings and was killed by a legume?

In the news

Blue Ghost lunar lander

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost (rendering shown) successfully soft-lands on the Moon as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
At the Academy Awards, Anora wins five awards, including Best Picture.
In the German federal election, the CDU/CSU, led by Friedrich Merz, wins the most seats in the Bundestag.
Archaeologists announce that the empty tomb Wadi C-4 near Luxor, Egypt, was that of the pharaoh Thutmose II.

On this day

March 3: Hinamatsuri in Japan

Célestine Galli-Marié as Carmen

1284 – The Statute of Rhuddlan was enacted, introducing English common law to the Principality of Wales.
1875 – Bizet's Carmen premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, with mezzo-soprano Célestine Galli-Marié in the title role (pictured).
1891 – Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming was established as the first national forest in the United States.
1913 – Thousands of women marched in Washington, D.C., "in a spirit of protest" against the exclusion of women from American society.
1991 – Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers during an arrest, causing public outrage that increased tensions between the African-American community and the police department over police brutality and social inequality.

Antony Bek (d. 1311)
Bonnie J. Dunbar (b. 1949)
Xavier Bettel (b. 1973)
May Cutler (d. 2011)

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Clint Eastwood

The 77th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 2004 and took place on February 27, 2005, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. Televised in the United States by ABC, the ceremony was produced by Gilbert Cates and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Chris Rock hosted the show for the first time. Million Dollar Baby won four awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Clint Eastwood (pictured). Other winners included The Aviator, with five awards, and The Incredibles and Ray, with two each. The telecast garnered more than 42 million viewers in the United States. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Apollo 9 was the third crewed mission in the United States Apollo program. Launched by a Saturn V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on March 3, 1969, and flown in low Earth orbit, the mission flight-qualified the Lunar Module (LM), showing that its crew could fly it independently, then rendezvous and dock, as would be required for Apollo 11, the first crewed lunar landing. Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon. A spacewalk tested the extravehicular life support backpack. McDivitt and Schweickart, entering the LM through the docking tunnel, became the first humans to pass between spacecraft without going outside them, two months after Soviet cosmonauts spacewalked to transfer between Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5. Apollo 9, a complete success, landed in the Atlantic Ocean on March 13 and was followed by Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11. This photograph, taken by Schweickart, shows Scott performing a stand-up extravehicular activity from the Command Module Gumdrop, seen from the docked LM Spider with the Earth in the background.

Photograph credit: NASA / Rusty Schweickart; edited by Coffeeandcrumbs

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