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From today's featured article

Sahure was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the second ruler of the Fifth Dynasty, who reigned for about 12 years in the early 25th century BC during the Old Kingdom Period. He was probably the son of his predecessor Userkaf with Queen Neferhetepes II, and was in turn succeeded by his son Neferirkare Kakai. Sahure's reign marked the political and cultural high point of the Fifth Dynasty. He launched naval expeditions to modern-day Lebanon to procure cedar trees, slaves and exotic items. His expedition to the land of Punt brought back large quantities of myrrh, malachite and electrum. A relief in his mortuary temple shows him celebrating the success of this venture by tending a myrrh tree. Sahure sent expeditions to the turquoise and copper mines in Sinai and ordered military campaigns that captured livestock from Libyan chieftains in the Western Desert. His pyramid in Abusir is smaller than those of the preceding Fourth Dynasty, but his mortuary temple is more elaborate. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Tibetans with yak and sheep with salt bag, 1898

... that sheep were traditionally used to carry salt from Tibet to Nepal (traders pictured)?
... that Fulper Pottery produced a precursor to the modern water cooler named the Germ-Proof Filter?
... that the Polish public-television film Invasion "depicted LGBT rights activists as a foreign-backed threat to Polish children, religion, values, and the very biological continuation of the nation"?
... that before Carole Dawn Reinhart was appointed professor of trumpet at the Vienna Music Academy, she performed in several of Al Hirt's Fanfare shows in 1965?
... that the Gozo Phoenician shipwreck excavation is the first maritime archaeological survey to explore sunken vessels beyond a depth of 100 metres (330 ft)?
... that Edgar Claxton helped set up electrification of the UK mainline railway in the 1960s, and was awarded an MBE?
... that the character of Swiss-type cheeses comes from originally being made on high alpage pastures, as part of the historic culture of Alpine transhumance?
... that German children's author Kirsten Boie has published more than 100 books?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Portal

Arecibo Observatory

The National Science Foundation announces the decommissioning of the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope (pictured) in Puerto Rico.
Hurricane Iota makes landfall in Nicaragua, killing at least 54 people and leaving more than 41 others missing in Central and South America.
SpaceX Crew-1, with astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Soichi Noguchi, and Shannon Walker, docks with the International Space Station.
Maia Sandu is elected the first female President of Moldova.

On this day

November 20: Transgender Day of Remembrance; National Sovereignty Day in Argentina (1845)

Philip Mountbatten and Princess Elizabeth (1950)

1845 – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: The Argentine Confederation was defeated in the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado, but the losses ultimately made the United Kingdom and France give up the blockade.
1947 – Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George VI, married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten (both pictured), who was given the title Duke of Edinburgh.
1990 – Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, was arrested in Novocherkassk.
2003 – Suicide bombers blew up the British consulate and the headquarters of HSBC Bank in Istanbul, killing 59 people, including consul general Roger Short and actor Kerem Yılmazer.

Giovanni Battista Agucchi (b. 1570)
Carl Axel Arrhenius (d. 1824)
Pauli Murray (b. 1910)

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From today's featured list

Gérald Lacroix

The Archbishop of Quebec is the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec, responsible for looking after its spiritual and administrative needs. As the archdiocese is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province encompassing the north-central part of the Canadian province of Quebec, the Archbishop of Quebec also administers the bishops who head the suffragan dioceses of Chicoutimi, Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, and Trois-Rivières. The archdiocese began as the Apostolic Vicariate of New France, which was created on April 11, 1658. François de Laval was appointed its first bishop, and under his reign, the Séminaire de Québec was established. Fifteen men have been Archbishop of Quebec; another ten were heads of its antecedent jurisdictions. Of these, seven were members of institutes of consecrated life or societies of apostolic life. The current archbishop is Cardinal Gérald Lacroix (pictured). (Full list...)

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The Japanese government-issued rupee in Burma was Japanese invasion money issued as a replacement for the local currency during the Japanese occupation of Burma in the Second World War. Like most Japanese colonial currency from this period, a letter code was used on the notes; the first or top letter "B" indicates that the note was printed in and issued for the State of Burma; the second letter or letters indicate the block (or printing batch) of the note. The higher-value notes depict Ananda Temple in Bagan on the obverse. This five-rupee banknote is part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.

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Banknote design credit: Empire of Japan; photographed by Andrew Shiva

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