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From today's featured article

Richard Mansfield as Jekyll and Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a play written by Thomas Russell Sullivan in collaboration with the actor Richard Mansfield (pictured). It is an adaptation of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, an 1886 novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. The story focuses on the respected London doctor Henry Jekyll, who uses a potion to transform into Edward Hyde, a loathsome criminal. Intrigued by the opportunity to play a dual role, Mansfield secured the stage rights and asked Sullivan to write the adaptation. The play debuted in Boston on May 9, 1887, and opened on Broadway that September. Mansfield's performance was acclaimed by critics. The play opened in London in August 1888, just before the first Jack the Ripper murders. The press compared the murderer to the Jekyll character, and Mansfield was suggested as a suspect. Mansfield performed the play until shortly before his death in 1907. Sullivan made changes from Stevenson's story that have been adopted by subsequent adaptations, including film versions. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Gilbert LaBine with uranium ore for the Manhattan Project

... that the Manhattan Project feed materials program used uranium ore (pictured) from a mine in Canada near the Arctic Circle?
... that Godfrey Hattenbach is said to be the father of Sioux City's Jewish community?
... that the Church of Grace became the Church of Saint John of Kronstadt after it was sold for one euro to a Russian Orthodox congregation to maintain its status as a church?
... that American playwright Walter "Long Run" Hackett earned that nickname for his many long-running plays staged in London's West End?
... that the Magic: The Gathering YouTube channel Tolarian Community College has raised more than US$1.5 million for the suicide-prevention hotline Trans Lifeline?
... that John J. Beckley, the first librarian of Congress, came to America as an indentured child servant?
... that in the 2024 tournament, India became the first team to win the T20 World Cup without losing a game?
... that before the Richmond Tunnel was completed, Staten Island residents had to use water from siphons?
... that "Eaea" is "aggressively Spanish"?

In the news

Pope Francis

Pope Francis (pictured) dies at the age of 88.
Daniel Noboa is re-elected president of Ecuador.
Peruvian writer and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa dies at the age of 89.
A nightclub roof collapse in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, kills 231 people.

On this day

April 21: Natale di Roma in Italy (AD 47); Patriots' Day in some parts of the United States (2025)

Wignacourt Aqueduct

900 – A debt was pardoned by the chief of Tondo on the island of Luzon and recorded on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the earliest known calendar-dated document found in the Philippines.
1615 – The Wignacourt Aqueduct (pictured) in Malta was inaugurated, and was used to carry water to Valletta for about 300 years.
1725 – J. S. Bach's cantata Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, was first performed on Easter Monday.
1925 or 1926 – Al-Baqi Cemetery in Medina, the site of the mausoleum of four of the Twelve Imams of Shia Islam, was demolished by Wahhabis.
1975 – South Vietnamese president Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned on hearing of the fall of Xuân Lộc, the last battle of the Vietnam War.

Pope Alexander II (d. 1073)
Antonín Kammel (b. 1730)
Cheryl Gillan (b. 1952)
Vivian Maier (d. 2009)

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From today's featured list

Pel's pouched bat

There are 54 extant emballonurid species, which are members of Emballonuridae, one of the twenty families of bats in the mammalian order Chiroptera and part of the suborder of microbats. Members include sheath-tailed bats, sac-winged bats, and tomb bats. They are found in all continents besides Europe and Antarctica, primarily in forests and caves, though some species can also be found in shrublands, savannas, rocky areas, or deserts. They range in size from the Amazonian sac-winged bat, at 3 cm (1 in) plus a 1 cm (0.4 in) tail, to Pel's pouched bat (pictured), at 14 cm (6 in) plus a 4 cm (2 in) tail. The 54 extant species in Emballonuridae are divided into two subfamilies: Emballonurinae contains 36 species in 12 genera, and Taphozoinae contains 18 species in 2 genera. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Sherlock Jr. is a 1924 American silent comedy film starring and directed by Buster Keaton and written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, and Joseph A. Mitchell. It features Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, and Ward Crane. Production began in January 1924, and the film was released on April 21, 1924. It was selected in 1991 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2000, the American Film Institute, as part of its series AFI 100 Years..., ranked the film at number 62 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs.

Film credit: Buster Keaton

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