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Today's featured article

Margaret Sibella Brown (1866–1961) was a Canadian amateur bryologist specializing in species native to Nova Scotia. Early in her career she was involved with gathering sphagnum moss to be used as surgical dressings during World War I, when cotton was in short supply. After the war, she researched mosses from around the world, publishing papers on materials she had collected herself as well as cataloging samples collected by others; her collections are now housed at major herbaria in North America and Europe. Born into upper-class society, Brown was educated in Nova Scotia and abroad. Although lacking formal scientific training, she has been recognized for her contributions to bryology and as an authority on the mosses and liverworts of Nova Scotia. At the age of 84, Brown was awarded an honorary MA degree from Acadia University after declining their offer of a PhD. She died at her home in Halifax aged 95 and in 2010 was posthumously inducted into the Nova Scotia Scientific Hall of Fame. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

J. J. Walser Jr. House

... that Chicago's deteriorating J. J. Walser Jr. House (pictured) has not been repaired because it is unclear who owns the house?
... that the lifeboat Sir William Hillary was sent to Dover in case of aircraft crashes, but did not save anyone from an aircraft in ten years' service with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution?
... that Martha Burgess's 1993 sculpture of two female World War II personnel kissing was inspired by the photograph V-J Day in Times Square?
... that on the first day of the 1995 São Tomé and Príncipe coup d'état, President Miguel Trovoada emerged from hiding in his pajamas and nightgown?
... that Marcia Coyle, who covers the U.S. Supreme Court for PBS News Hour, got her start in journalism by writing obituaries?
... that Dutch East India Company officials considered the inhabitants of the Bungku Kingdom to be "the fiercest of all Malukan peoples"?
... that Ardo Hansson was appointed to the committee overseeing the transition from the Soviet ruble to the Estonian kroon as a replacement for someone who fell ill?
... that Keurbos's placement within arthropods is uncertain, as its two surviving fossils lack limbs?
... that Green Thumb Industries produces cannabis on lands of a former prison?

Today's featured picture

Raising a Flag over the Reichstag (Russian: Знамя Победы над Рейхстагом, romanized: Znamya Pobedy nad Reykhstagom, lit. 'Victory Banner over the Reichstag') is an iconic World War II photograph, taken during the Battle of Berlin on 2 May 1945 by Yevgeny Khaldei. The photograph was reprinted in thousands of publications and came to be regarded around the world as one of the most significant and recognizable images of World War II, but, owing to the secrecy of Soviet media, both the identity of photographer and the identities of the men in the picture were often disputed.

The Reichstag was seen as symbolic of, and at the heart of, Nazi Germany. It was arguably the most symbolic target in Berlin. After its capture on 2 May 1945, Khaldei scaled the now pacified Reichstag to take a picture. He was carrying with him a large flag, sewn from three tablecloths for this very purpose, by his uncle. The official story would later be that two hand-picked soldiers, Meliton Kantaria (Georgian) and Mikhail Yegorov (Russian), raised the Soviet flag over the Reichstag, However, according to Khaldei himself, when he arrived at the Reichstag, he simply asked the soldiers who happened to be passing by to help with the staging of the photoshoot; the one who was attaching the flag was 18-year-old Private Kovalev from Burlin, Kazakhstan; the two others were Abdulkhakim Ismailov from Dagestan and Leonid Gorychev (also mentioned as Aleksei Goryachev) from Minsk.

Photograph credit: Yevgeny Khaldei for TASS; restored by Adam Cuerden

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In the news

Mark Carney

In Canada, the Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney (pictured), wins the most seats in the federal election.
A major power outage affects most of the Iberian Peninsula.
An explosion and fire at the Port of Shahid Rajaee, Iran, kills at least 70 people and injures more than 1,200 others.
At least 11 people are killed in a car-ramming attack at a street festival in Vancouver, Canada.

On this day...

May 2: Flag Day in Poland

Mireya Moscoso in 2012

1559 – Presbyterian clergyman John Knox returned from exile to lead the Scottish Reformation.
1889 – The Treaty of Wuchale was signed, ending the Italo-Ethiopian War, but differences in translation later led to another war.
1964 – Vietnam War: An explosion attributed to Viet Cong commandos caused the escort carrier USNS Card to sink in the port of Saigon.
1999 – Mireya Moscoso (pictured) became the first woman to be elected President of Panama.
2014 – Two mudslides in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, killed at least 350 people.

Marutha of Tikrit (d. 649)
Mary Moser (d. 1819)
Giacomo Meyerbeer (d. 1864)
Engelbert Humperdinck (b. 1936)

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Today's featured list

The Leader of the Opposition in Australian Federal Politics is a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives. The position is usually held by the leader of the party which has the most seats but is not part of the Government. The leader is elected by the Opposition Caucus. A new Opposition Leader may be elected when the incumbent dies, resigns or is challenged for the leadership. The Current Leader of the Opposition is Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party. Previously Kim Beazley was Opposition Leader until he was defeated in a leadership ballot on 4 December 2006. To date there have been 29 Opposition Leaders, 15 of which have served terms as Prime Minister. (more...)

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