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From today's featured article

Territorials during the Battle of the Somme

The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer auxiliary created in 1908. It was designed to reinforce the British Army overseas during war without resorting to conscription, but for political reasons it was constituted as a home defence force in which foreign service was voluntary. It was not well regarded by the military authorities. On the outbreak of the First World War, the regular army was expanded by raising the New Army from scratch rather than relying on the Territorial Force. Territorials volunteered for foreign service in large numbers, and territorial divisions filled the gap between the near destruction of the regular army during the German offensive of 1914 and the arrival of the New Army in 1915. The force also provided the bulk of the British contingent in the Sinai and Palestine campaign. The territorial identity was eroded by the introduction of conscription in 1916, and by the war's end there was little to distinguish between regular, territorial and New Army formations. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Roland L. Bragg

... that the new eponym (pictured) of Fort Bragg stole a German ambulance and drove 20 miles (32 km) under fire to save a wounded soldier during the Battle of the Bulge?
... that a series of agreements at the Upstalsboom in 1323 prohibited bride kidnapping, provided the right to a speedy trial, and created a judicial veto in all Seven Sealands?
... that Time paid Alfred Wertheimer $3,000 to use a picture of Elvis Presley singing to a dog?
... that the political and media storm around so-called African gangs in Australia has been described by academics as a moral panic?
... that Palestinian singer Zeinab Shaath assumed a short film featuring her had been destroyed until a researcher discovered a copy in the archives of the Israel Defense Forces?
... that Our Friends from Frolix 8 could be Philip K. Dick's "most sterile" novel?
... that Jerome Xavier learned Persian to work on the Mir'at al-quds, a biography of Jesus?
... that before playing in the NFL, Rip Owens worked at a steel mill?
... that researchers confirmed that they had discovered toilets at the Archaeological Site in Wanggung-ri by finding a high concentration of parasite eggs there?

In the news

Mark Carney

Mark Carney (pictured) succeeds Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada after winning the Liberal Party leadership election.
Martin Pfister is elected to the Swiss Federal Council.
In Pakistan, a train hijacking by the Balochistan Liberation Army leaves at least 71 people dead.
Former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte is arrested on the basis of an International Criminal Court warrant charging him with crimes against humanity.

On this day

March 15: Ides of March

Julius Caesar

44 BC – Julius Caesar (bust pictured), the dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by a group of senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus.
1823 – American sailor Benjamin Morrell erroneously reported the existence of New South Greenland, a phantom island, near Antarctica.
1916 – Six days after Pancho Villa and his cross-border raiders attacked Columbus, New Mexico, U.S. general John J. Pershing led a punitive expedition into Mexico to pursue him.
1917 – Russian Revolution: Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in the February Revolution, ending three centuries of Romanov rule.
1943 – The deportation of 50,000 Jews from the Greek city of Thessaloniki began.
1951 – The Iranian oil industry was nationalized in a movement led by Mohammad Mosaddegh.

Albert of Schwarzburg (d. 1327)
Matthew Charlton (b. 1866)
Ignace Tonené (d. 1916)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (b. 1933)

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Today's featured picture

Xysticus cristatus, the common crab spider, is a species in the family Thomisidae. It has a Palearctic distribution, being found throughout Europe (including Iceland) and east through Asia to Siberia, China, Korea and Japan. It has been introduced to Canada and the United States. The species is usually found in low vegetation and avoids woodland and closed canopy habitats, but is otherwise found in almost every habitat type. The female has a body length of about 6 to 8 millimetres (0.24 to 0.31 inches), and the male about 3 to 5 millimetres (0.12 to 0.20 inches), with coloration varying from light cream, dark brown to greyish. X. cristatus is an ambush hunter that spends much time sitting still with its forelegs spread wide, waiting for insects to blunder into them. During reproduction, the female builds a flat white ovisac containing developing eggs, usually fixed on plants. The female sits on it to protect it, until myriad little spiders are released. This female X. cristatus spider with its prey, a Carniolan honey bee, was photographed in Bled, Slovenia. The photograph was focus-stacked from seven separate images.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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