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Today's featured article

Courtyard of Ludwigsburg Palace

Ludwigsburg Palace is a 452-room complex of 18 buildings in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the largest palatial estate in the country and has been called the "Versailles of Swabia". Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg, began construction of the palace in 1704. Charles Eugene, the son of his successor, completed it and refurbished parts in the Rococo style, especially its theatre. Charles Eugene abandoned the palace in 1775, and it began a decline until Frederick, the future duke, moved into the palace in 1795. As King of Württemberg, Frederick and his wife Queen Charlotte renovated the entirety of the palace in the Neoclassical style. The palace was opened to the public in 1918. It underwent periods of restoration, including for its tercentenary in 2004. It has hosted the Ludwigsburg Festival annually since 1947. The palace is surrounded by gardens named Blooming Baroque (Blühendes Barock), laid out in 1954 as they might have appeared in 1800. (Full article...)

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In the news

Donald Trump

Former U.S. president Donald Trump (pictured) is found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records.
In Indy car racing, Josef Newgarden wins the Indianapolis 500.
In cricket, the Kolkata Knight Riders defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad to win the Indian Premier League.
Gitanas Nausėda is re-elected as president of Lithuania.
A landslide in Papua New Guinea's Enga Province leaves thousands of people missing and presumed dead.

Today's featured picture

Jeremiah Gurney (1812–1895) was an American daguerreotype photographer. Initially working in the jewelry trade in Saratoga, New York, he took up photography after learning of daguerreotype from Samuel Morse, moving to New York City where he began selling photographs alongside jewelry. He was one of the earliest photographers in the city, and may have been the owner of the first photographic gallery in the United States. Gurney took this self-portrait photograph around 1869, now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Photograph credit: Jeremiah Gurney; restored by Adam Cuerden

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Did you know...

Yunxian 1 skull

... that the skulls of Yunxian Man (example pictured) are "relatively complete" despite being heavily crushed?
... that Travis Clayton went from the eighth tier of English rugby union to being drafted into the National Football League, even though he never played in a football game?
... that David Ben Avraham was granted Israeli residency after being killed by an IDF soldier?
... that the mouse protagonist Mrs. Brisby from The Secret of NIMH had her name changed because of a trademark issue from a toy named "Frisbee"?
... that Tachikawa Sumito made a hit cover in 1976 of a song that he first discovered when a housewife called into his radio show requesting to hear a version of it?
... that Riley Testut developed AltStore because he wanted to publish his emulator Delta?
... that the Obonga–Ottertooth Provincial Park is a significant habitat for woodland moose?
... that Albert Wesker's character design evokes the aesthetic of the Nazi ideal of the Übermensch, reflecting Resident Evil's "core" theme of eugenics?
... that after John Henry Newman wrote his Apologia Pro Vita Sua in response to an attack by Charles Kingsley, Kingsley compared Newman to a "treacherous ape" and implied that he was insane?

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