20250924
From today's featured article
Burger's Daughter is a novel by the South African writer Nadine Gordimer (pictured). Set in the mid-1970s, it details a group of white anti-apartheid activists seeking to overthrow the South African government. It follows the life of Rosa Burger as she comes to terms with her father's legacy as an activist in the South African Communist Party. Gordimer was involved in South African politics and knew Bram Fischer, Nelson Mandela's treason trial defence lawyer. She modelled the novel's Burger family on Fischer's family and described Burger's Daughter as an homage to Fischer. The novel was first published in the United Kingdom in 1979. It was banned in South Africa a month after its publication, and its import and sale were prohibited by the South African Publications Control Board. Three months later, the Publications Appeal Board overturned the ban and restrictions were lifted. The novel was generally well received by critics and won the Central News Agency Literary Award in 1980. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that four statues at the tomb of Yue Fei (two pictured) in Hangzhou, China, were ritually defecated on for centuries?
- ... that on the same day as the Pikysyry campaign's final battle, Paraguayan president Francisco Solano López had his brother shot?
- ... that Émilienne Morin participated in the legal defence campaign of her future partner before they had even met?
- ... that Ex parte Rodriguez would have invalidated an 1873 election based on the placement of a semicolon in the Texas Constitution?
- ... that Rama Alexander Asia attempted to make community forestry permits last up to 100 years, although legally they could only last for 25?
- ... that Giant Digger opened in an area of Lotte World Adventure Busan designed as a mining town inhabited by ogres?
- ... that Lloyd A. Williams was Malcolm X's godson?
- ... that the Magong First Fishing Port opened in 1940, was severely damaged by US raids in 1945, and was only largely reactivated around 1955?
- ... that Japanese YouTuber Pocky named his channel after his dog?
In the news
- Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign an agreement to defend each other against attacks.
- American actor and filmmaker Robert Redford (pictured) dies at the age of 89.
- In boxing, Terence Crawford defeats Canelo Álvarez, becoming undisputed world champion in three weight classes.
- In television, The Studio wins best comedy and The Pitt wins best drama at the Primetime Emmy Awards.
On this day
September 24: Heritage Day in South Africa; Independence Day in Guinea-Bissau (1973)
- 1568 – At San Juan de Ulúa (present-day Veracruz, Mexico), a Spanish naval fleet forced English privateers to halt their trade (battle pictured).
- 1789 – The Judiciary Act of 1789 was signed into law, establishing the U.S. federal judiciary and setting the number of Supreme Court justices at six.
- 1903 – Alfred Deakin became the second Australian prime minister, succeeding Edmund Barton, who left office to become a founding justice of the High Court of Australia.
- 1950 – The "Great Smoke Pall", generated by the Chinchaga fire, the largest recorded fire in North American history, was first recorded in present-day Nunavut and may eventually have circled the entire globe.
- 1975 – Dougal Haston and Doug Scott of the Southwest Face expedition became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest by ascending one of its faces.
- Robert of Knaresborough (d. 1218)
- John Rutter (b. 1945)
- Pia Wurtzbach (b. 1989)
- Gennady Yanayev (d. 2010)
Today's featured picture

Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon is an 1816 biblical landscape painting by the British artist John Martin. It depicts an episode from the Book of Joshua, in which the Israelite leader Joshua comes to the assistance of the besieged city of Gibeon, appealing to God to halt the Sun in order to give his army more time to fight by daylight. Romantic in style, it was Martin's breakthrough picture, receiving praise both when it was shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1816 at London's Somerset House, and when it appeared at the British Institution the following year. Since 2004, it has been in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Photograph credit: John Martin