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From today's featured article

The Byzantine Empire, sometimes referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, originally founded as Byzantium). It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Both "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" are historiographical terms created after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire (Ancient Greek: Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, tr. Basileia tôn Rhōmaiōn; Latin: Imperium Romanum), or Romania (Ῥωμανία), and to themselves as "Romans." (Full article...)

Did you know...

• ... that Buzzfeed printed fake news about President Trump?
• ... that Lord Minginish is the first Gaelic-speaking Chairman of the Scottish Land Court?
• ... that the Sacred Heart Church in Exeter, England is the earliest surviving architectural work of Leonard Stokes?
• ... that Donald Trump was elected the 45th US President and defeated Hillary Clinton?
• ... that Istanbul was formerly known as Constantinople and before 324AD was known as Byzantium?
• ... that there are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac?
• ... that Ian McDonald's 2015 science fiction novel Luna: New Moon has been called "Game of Thrones in space"?

In the news (from Infogalactic News)

• After Thousands Of Parents Refused To Comply Another CA School District Vax Mandate Falls
  Judge Ruled Schools Have No Authority To Mandate Medical Procedures For Children
• Ghislaine Maxwell Found Guilty of 5 Of 6 Charges
  Will She Be Epsteined?
• Aaron Rodgers: "If Science Can't Be Questioned, It's Not Science Anymore"
  "It's Propoganda"
  

• Jake Tapper's Producer Resigns From CNN
  Amid Pedo Scandal
• Israel Orders 100 Million Eggs Due To Bird Flu Outbreak
  Eggs And Hens Must Be Destroyed To Contain The Outbreak
• Twitter Suspends mRNA Tech Inventor Dr. Robert Malone
  Ran Counter To Covid Narrative
• Life Expectancy In 2020 Fell 2.3% To 77 Years
  Does This Justify The Covid Panic?
  

On this day...

November 21

• 1832 – Wabash College is founded in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
• 1877 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound.
• 1905 – Albert Einstein's paper, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", is published in the journal Annalen der Physik. This paper reveals the relationship between energy and mass. This leads to the mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc².
• 1953 – The Natural History Museum, London announces that the "Piltdown Man" skull, initially believed to be one of the most important fossilized hominid skulls ever found, is a hoax.
• 1985 – United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested for spying after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to life in prison.
• 1996 – Humberto Vidal explosion: Thirty-three people die when a Humberto Vidal shoe shop explodes.
• 2002 – NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.

• More anniversaries:
  • November 20
  • November 21
  • November 22

November 22

• 1718 – Off the coast of North Carolina, British pirate Edward Teach (best known as "Blackbeard") is killed in battle with a boarding party led by Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard.
• 1943 – Lebanon gains independence from France.
• 1989 – In West Beirut, a bomb explodes near the motorcade of Lebanese President René Moawad, killing him.
• 1995 – A 7.3 M_W earthquake strikes Gulf of Aqaba between the Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia, the largest tectonic event in the area for many decades.
• 2002 – In Nigeria, more than 100 people are killed at an attack aimed at the contestants of the Miss World contest.
• 2003 – Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident: Shortly after takeoff, a DHL Express cargo plane is struck on the left wing by a surface-to-air missile and forced to land.
• 2012 – Ceasefire begins between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Israel after eight days of violence and 150 deaths.

• More anniversaries:
  • November 21
  • November 22
  • November 23

• 1174 – Saladin enters Damascus, and adds it to his domain.
• 1531 – The Second War of Kappel results in the dissolution of the Protestant alliance in Switzerland.
• 1940 – World War II: Romania becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers.
• 1976 – Apneist Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m undersea without breathing equipment.
• 1981 – Iran–Contra affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
• 1992 – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• 1993 – Rachel Whiteread wins both the £20,000 Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year.

• More anniversaries:
  • November 22
  • November 23
  • November 24

Today's featured picture

Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləm vɑn ˈɣɔx];<ref group =note>The pronunciation of "Van Gogh" varies in both English and Dutch. Especially in British English it is /ˌvæn ˈɡɒx/ van-GOKH or sometimes /ˌvæn ˈɡɒf/ van-GOF. U.S. dictionaries list /ˌvæn ˈɡoʊ/ van-GOH, with a silent gh, as the most common pronunciation. In the dialect of Holland, it is [ˈvɪnsɛnt fɑŋˈxɔx], with a voiceless V. He grew up in Brabant (although his parents were not born there), and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: [vɑɲˈʝɔç], with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh.

Van Gogh painted several versions of landscapes with flowers, including his View of Arles with Irises, and paintings of flowers, including Irises, Sunflowers, lilacs and roses. Some reflect his interests in the language of color, and also in Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. (Full article...)

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