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Today's featured article

Pierre Boulez (26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer and conductor. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. As a composer, he played a leading role in the development of integral serialism in the 1950s, and the electronic transformation of instrumental music in real time from the 1970s. Boulez conducted many of the world's great orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra. In the 1970s, he was the music director of the New York Philharmonic and the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He was particularly known for his performances of 20th-century music, including Debussy, Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Boulez's work in opera included the Jahrhundertring, a production of Wagner's Ring cycle for the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival. He also established several musical institutions, including the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique and the Ensemble intercontemporain. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

March 26

Elbridge Gerry

1344 – Reconquista: The Muslim city of Algeciras surrendered after a 21-month siege and was incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile.
1651 – The Spanish ship San José ran aground onto coasts controlled by the indigenous Cunco people, who subsequently killed the crew.
1697 – The Safavid Empire began a four-year occupation of the Ottoman city of Basra on the Persian Gulf.
1812 – The Boston Gazette printed a cartoon coining the term "gerrymander", named after Governor Elbridge Gerry (pictured), who approved the legislation that created oddly shaped electoral districts.
1939 – Nationalist forces began their final offensive of the Spanish Civil War, at the end of which they controlled almost the entire country.
1999 – A jury began deliberations in the trial of Jack Kevorkian, an American practitioner of physician-assisted suicide who was charged with murder in the death of a terminally ill patient.

'Adud al-Dawla (d. 983)
Julie-Victoire Daubié (b. 1824)
Jörg Streli (b. 1940)
D. M. Thomas (d. 2023)

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In the news

Decorative strap junction from the Melsonby Hoard

Archaeologists announce the discovery of the Melsonby Hoard, a collection of Iron Age artefacts (example pictured), in a field in North Yorkshire, England.
Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry is elected as the first female president of the International Olympic Committee and the first from an African country.
Anti-government protests break out across Turkey following the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu by the national police.
Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud survives an attack on his convoy by al-Shabaab that kills at least 10 people.

Did you know...

Ancient Egyptian stone vessels

... that ancient Egyptians crafted hundreds of thousands of stone vessels (examples pictured) before the workforce was redirected to build pyramids?
... that when the crime of mugging gained attention in the UK, one book argued that there was no crime as such?
... that in the essay "Toward European Unity" George Orwell presumed that one of the greatest obstacles to a federal Europe would be economic pressure by the United States?
... that Fadel al-Utol considers preserving Gaza's archaeological sites to be a peaceful act of resistance against Israel?
... that cyclist Mike Allen compared participating in the Olympics to Disneyland?
... that New York City's unbuilt River Walk development was delayed due to a $2 million study of striped bass?
... that a character from Gunbuster popularized an arm fold commonly seen in anime?
... that Marilyn Fisher Lundy developed one of Michigan's first accredited charter schools?
... that a journalist used vibe coding to create an app to suggest what to pack for lunch?

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