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From today's featured article

The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula and southwestern France. It is the sole living member of the genus Oryctolagus and has two subspecies. The European rabbit eats plants and lives in grasslands, and is highly adaptable to different environments, making its distinctive burrows known as warrens to live underground. It is the only species of rabbit to be domesticated, and the many breeds of European rabbit vary widely in size and shape, though the typical European rabbit has brown, grey or black fur with white undersides and is smaller than a European hare or mountain hare. In the European rabbit's mating system, dominant males have multiple female mates, though monogamous relationships are common in groups with fewer females. European rabbits have been introduced to every continent except for Antarctica, but are facing population declines in their native range due to overhunting, habitat destruction, and disease. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Agus Djaya

... that Indonesian painter Agus Djaya (pictured) exhibited throughout Europe during the National Revolution?
... that the anime film 100 Meters has a 3-minute 40-second long-take scene that includes 9800 rotoscoped frames and took a year to produce?
... that Junius Wilson was a deaf American who spent almost 70 years as a patient in a mental hospital despite not being mentally ill?
... that the quarries in Aris, Namibia, contain at least three minerals found nowhere else on Earth?
... that Filipino rock singer Gian Bernardino sometimes wears androgynous outfits while performing onstage?
... that the village of Gangfang was ceded from Burma to China in 1960 after a 50-year dispute?
... that creative director Al Hope had ideas for Alien: Isolation 2 before the original Alien: Isolation had been finished?
... that the Dutch East India Company's participation in a Johor conflict triggered a siege of Dutch Malacca?
... that scholars debate whether A Tale of Two Nations was not at all, mildly, or distinctly antisemitic?

In the news

Earthquake damage in Pereira

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake (damage pictured) strikes Chocó Department, Colombia, leaving at least 254 people dead.
In cycling, Demi Vollering wins the Tour de France Femmes.
Shootings at a residence and a school in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, leave at least nine people dead.
A consortium led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund purchases video game publisher Electronic Arts in a leveraged buyout.

On this day

August 14: Arba'in (Shia Islam), Independence Day in Pakistan (1947)

Kenji Hatanaka

1720 – The Spanish Villasur expedition, intended to slow the progress of French influence on the Great Plains of North America, ended in failure when it was ambushed by Pawnee and Otoe forces.
1888 – One of the first recordings of music, of Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", was played at a press conference in London to introduce Thomas Edison's phonograph.
1945 – Kenji Hatanaka (pictured) and other Japanese military officers launched an attempted coup d'état to prevent the surrender of Japan.
2005 – Helios Airways Flight 522 crashed into a mountain north of Marathon, Greece, killing all 121 people on board.
2007 – Four coordinated suicide bomb attacks detonated in the Yazidi communities of Qahtaniya and Jazeera, Iraq, killing 796 people and wounding 1,562 others.

Pieter Coecke van Aelst (b. 1502)
Louise Slaughter (b. 1929)
HueningKai (b. 2002)
Shammi Kapoor (d. 2011)

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From today's featured list

Dustin Martin

The Norm Smith Medal is an award in Australian rules football presented annually to the player adjudged the best on ground in the grand final of the Australian Football League (AFL). Before 1990, the competition was known as the Victorian Football League (VFL). The award was first presented in the 1979 VFL grand final, and it was won by Wayne Harmes, playing in Carlton's premiership victory against Collingwood. The award is named in honour of Norm Smith, who won four VFL premierships as a player and six as a coach for the Melbourne Football Club. Dustin Martin (pictured) is the only player to have won the Norm Smith Medal three times. The award is usually won by a player on the winning team in the grand final; only four players have received it as a member of the losing team. The Norm Smith Medal was most recently awarded to Brisbane's Will Ashcroft, after the 2025 AFL Grand Final. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Saint Patrick's Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi, and is located near the Empress Market in Saddar, a neighbourhood of Karachi, Pakistan. The cathedral was completed in 1881 and can accommodate 1,500 worshippers. It celebrated its centenary in 1978. In December 1998, the interior of the cathedral was partially damaged in a bomb attack that also injured one woman. This photograph of the interior of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, looking towards the high altar, was taken in 2020.

Photograph credit: Alexander Savin

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