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From today's featured article

Cedric Howell (17 June 1896 – 10 December 1919) was an Australian flying ace of the First World War. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1916 and was posted to the 46th Battalion on the Western Front. In November 1916, he was accepted for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps and was shipped to the United Kingdom for flight training. Graduating as a pilot, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and posted to No. 45 Squadron RFC in France during October 1917; two months later, the unit sailed to the Italian theatre. Howell spent eight months flying operations over Italy, conducting attacks against ground targets and engaging in sorties against aerial forces and he was credited with shooting down a total of nineteen aircraft. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the Military Cross and Distinguished Flying Cross. He was posted back to the United Kingdom in July 1918. In 1919, Howell was killed while taking part in the England-to-Australia air race. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Progenitor (red star) of SN 2025pht

... that SN 2025pht (star pictured) was one of the brightest supernovae observed in 2025?
... that Muwaffaq al-Din Yaqub ibn Siqlab was fluent in Classical Greek and regularly recited passages from Galen to inform his medical treatments?
... that a song uses satire in Spanish and English to critique anti-Mexican sentiment in the U.S. and anti-American sentiment in Mexico?
... that Dutch colonial presence in Mandailing territory began at Kotanopan, Northern Sumatra?
... that lawyer Guillaume Alexandre Tronson du Coudray was assigned to defend Marie Antoinette just two days before her trial began?
... that Mavety Media Group, an adult-oriented publishing company, once published a teen magazine?
... that, four years after Julien Nuijten won the largest award ever earned at a Magic: The Gathering tournament, he won four times as much playing poker?
... that the Amherstburg First Baptist Church was founded by escaped slaves?
... that college football player Grayson McCall attended a media-day session wearing a shirt that said "I piss teal"?

Help us improve Articulated bus!

Articulated bus

This week's article for improvement is Articulated bus, a type of vehicle found across the world! You can help make this article better by updating the history, adding information about different designs, finding sources about their use cases and limitations, and more!

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In the news

Jordan Staal

In ice hockey, the Carolina Hurricanes defeat the Vegas Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup Final (Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jordan Staal pictured).
In basketball, the New York Knicks defeat the San Antonio Spurs to win the NBA Finals.
Elon Musk becomes the world's first US-dollar trillionaire after his company SpaceX raises the largest initial public offering.
Princess Bajrakitiyabha of Thailand, a possible heir to the throne, dies at the age of 47 after a three-year comatose state.

On this day

June 17

Mumtaz Mahal

1579 – Explorer Francis Drake landed in a region of present-day California, naming it New Albion and claiming it for England.
1631 – Mumtaz Mahal (pictured), wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, died in childbirth; Jahan spent the next seventeen years constructing her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.
1919 – Hundreds of Canadian soldiers rioted in Epsom, England, leading to the death of a British police officer.
1952 – Guatemalan Revolution: The Guatemalan Congress passed Decree 900, redistributing unused land greater than 224 acres (0.91 km²) in area to local peasants.

M. C. Escher (b. 1898)
Richard Gagnon (b. 1948)
Amari Cooper (b. 1994)
Mohamed Morsi (d. 2019)

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From today's featured list

Map of Orkney

There are more than 70 islands and skerries in Orkney, an archipelago located 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) north of mainland Scotland. Twenty islands are permanently inhabited. In addition to the Mainland, there are three groups of islands. The North and South Isles lie respectively north and south of Mainland, and the Pentland Skerries are a group of small islands in the Pentland Firth, a dangerous stretch of water between mainland Scotland and the larger islands of Orkney, through which run the strongest tidal streams in Britain. The islands of South Ronaldsay, Burray, Lamb Holm and Glimps Holm are connected to the Orkney Mainland by a series of causeways known as the Churchill Barriers. Most of the islands have bedrock formed from Old Red Sandstone, which is about 400 million years old, and was laid down in the Devonian period. The archipelago has been continuously inhabited for thousands of years, and is home to the World Heritage Site of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney. The islands all fall within the Orkney Islands Council area and have a total population of 21,958 (as of 2022). (This list is part of a featured topic: Islands of Scotland.)

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Today's featured picture

Graphium colonna, the black swordtail or mamba swordtail, is a species in the family Papilionidae, the swallowtail butterflies. It is found widely across sub-Saharan Africa, from West Africa to eastern and southern Africa. The butterfly is predominantly black with green markings and the characteristic "tail" on the hindwing. The species breeds throughout the warmer months, and its caterpillars feed on plants in the genera Artabotrys, Uvaria and Annona. Graphium colonna belongs to the clade antheus of the genus Graphium and was first described by Christopher Ward in 1873. This G. colonna butterfly was photographed in Maputo National Park, Mozambique.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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