20250715
From today's featured article
Manitoba is a province of Canada. Indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba for thousands of years. In the early 17th century, English and French fur traders arrived and established settlements in the area. The Kingdom of England secured control of the region in 1673 and created Rupert's Land, which included present-day Manitoba, under the administration of the Hudson's Bay Company. Negotiations for the creation of the province of Manitoba commenced in 1869 but disagreements over the right to self-determination led to the Red River Rebellion. The resolution of the conflict and further negotiations led to Manitoba becoming the fifth province to join Canadian Confederation on 15 July 1870. Manitoba is Canada's fifth-most populous province. It has a widely varied landscape, from Arctic tundra and the Hudson Bay coastline to dense boreal forest, large freshwater lakes, and prairie grassland. Manitoba's largest city and capital is Winnipeg. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that Alicella gigantea (example pictured) grows up to 34 cm (13 in) in length, making it the world's largest amphipod?
- ... that eight poems dedicated to the sixth-century Brittonic king Urien Rheged may be among the oldest vernacular literature from Europe?
- ... that the surname Baena was popular among Spanish Jews forced to convert to Catholicism during the Reconquista, even though few Jews in Baena had Jewish surnames in the first place?
- ... that the National Baseball Hall of Fame does not know who first used the notation "ꓘ" to represent a strikeout looking?
- ... that Guilty as Sock! was described as "the perfect arena" for "unsettled beef"?
- ... that a late-night live stream of Frei Gilson praying the Rosary during Lent in 2025 reached one million people?
- ... that Redhill MRT station features pink walls?
- ... that Katherine Balch is "like some kind of musical Thomas Edison"?
- ... that although Seal Island attracts tourists due to its reef, transport to the island is hard due to its reef?
In the news
- The International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Taliban leaders Hibatullah Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani (pictured) over their alleged persecution of women in Afghanistan.
- Flooding in Central Texas, United States, leaves at least 130 people dead.
- Astronomers announce the discovery of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object passing through the Solar System.
- The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile releases the first light images from its new 8.4-metre (28 ft) telescope.
On this day
July 15: Statehood Day in Ukraine (2022)
- 1410 – The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald, the decisive engagement of the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.
- 1815 – Aboard HMS Bellerophon, French emperor Napoleon (pictured) surrendered to Royal Navy captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, concluding the Napoleonic Wars.
- 1983 – Sega's first home video game console, the SG-1000 (pictured), was released in Japan.
- 2009 – A Mw 7.8 earthquake struck a remote region of Fiordland, New Zealand, the country's largest earthquake magnitude since the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.
- 2018 – Croatian Mario Mandžukić scored the first own goal in a FIFA World Cup final in their defeat to France.
- Rembrandt (b. 1606)
- Nina Bari (d. 1961)
- Cherry (b. 1975)
- Celeste Holm (d. 2012)
Today's featured picture

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is a short play by W. S. Gilbert that parodies William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The main characters in Gilbert's play are King Claudius and Queen Gertrude of Denmark, their son Prince Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Ophelia. The play first appeared in the magazine Fun in 1874 after having been rejected for production by several theatre companies. Its first professional performances were an 1891 benefit matinée and an 1892 run at the Court Theatre in London of around 77 performances, with Decima Moore as Ophelia, Brandon Thomas as Claudius, and Weedon Grossmith as Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern was revived in London and New York over the next 20 years and occasionally thereafter. A review in The Times said: "There is more brilliance of merely verbal wit in this little play than in anything else of Mr. Gilbert's. ... It is really a very subtle piece of criticism, sometimes of Shakespeare’s play, sometimes of the commentators, sometimes of the actors who have played the great part." This ink drawing was created by Ralph Cleaver for a 1904 celebrity charity performance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the Garrick Theatre in London. The drawing depicts various characters in the play and identifies the actors who portrayed them, including Gilbert himself as Claudius.
Drawing credit: Ralph Cleaver; restored by Adam Cuerden