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John D. Whitney (July 19, 1850 – November 27, 1917) was an American Catholic priest who was the president of Georgetown University from 1898 to 1901. Born in Massachusetts, he joined the United States Navy at the age of sixteen. He became a Jesuit in 1872 and spent the next twenty-five years studying and teaching mathematics at Jesuit institutions in Canada, England, Ireland, and the United States. He became the vice president of Spring Hill College in Alabama before becoming the president of Georgetown. He oversaw the completion of Gaston Hall, the construction of the entrances to Healy Hall, and the establishment of Georgetown University Hospital and what would become the School of Dentistry. Afterwards, Whitney became the treasurer of Boston College and then engaged in pastoral work in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Baltimore, where he became the prefect of St. Ignatius Church. (This article is part of a featured topic: Presidents of Georgetown University.)

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Did you know ...

Big Duck

... that a big duck (pictured) helped promote duck farming on Long Island?
... that Cornell College professor Harriette Cooke was also a deaconess?
... that there were technical issues with the performance of "Luna" by the Colombian singer Feid at the 2024 Copa América opening ceremony?
... that Oey Kim Tiang was one of two "men with no name" to translate Jin Yong's Condor Trilogy into vernacular Malay?
... that the radio station at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire would go off the air in the middle of the day?
... that thirty years after playing his first season for the Miami Hurricanes, J. D. Arteaga became the team's head coach in 2024?
... that scientists tested the age of an African termite's inhabited mound—and found it to be 34,000 years old?
... that Albert Einstein wrote to Joseph Petzoldt in 1914 that he had "long shared his convictions", after reading one of his philosophical books?
... that in fiction, supernovae are induced to serve as weapons, power sources for time travel, and advertisements?

In the news

Paul Kagame

A faulty software update by CrowdStrike, an American cybersecurity company, causes global computer outages.
In the Rwandan general election, Paul Kagame (pictured) is re-elected as the president, and the Rwandan Patriotic Front coalition win a majority in the lower house.
KP Sharma Oli is appointed the prime minister of Nepal after the incumbent Pushpa Kamal Dahal loses a no confidence motion.
In association football, Euro 2024 concludes with Spain defeating England in the final, and the Copa América concludes with Argentina defeating Colombia in the final.

On this day

July 19

Remains of the Mary Rose

1333 – Second War of Scottish Independence: Scottish forces under Sir Archibald Douglas were heavily defeated by the English at the Battle of Halidon Hill while trying to relieve Berwick-upon-Tweed.
1545 – The English warship Mary Rose sank outside Portsmouth during the Battle of the Solent; it was raised from the seabed in 1982 (remains pictured).
1916 – First World War: The "worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history" occurred when Australian forces unsuccessfully attacked German defences at Fromelles, France.
1957 – The largely autobiographical novel The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh was published.
2014 – Gunmen ambushed an Egyptian military checkpoint in the Libyan Desert near Farafra, killing 22 soldiers.

William McSherry (b. 1799)
Khawaja Nazimuddin (b. 1894)
Kgalema Motlanthe (b. 1949)
Sylvia Daoust (d. 2004)

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German Mission House, Chatham

Ten locations in the Chatham Islands are listed on the New Zealand Heritage List. The Chatham Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about 800 kilometres (430 nautical miles) east of New Zealand's South Island, administered as part of New Zealand. Heritage New Zealand classification of sites on the New Zealand Heritage List / Rārangi Kōrero, in accordance with the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, distinguishes between Category 1 ("places of special or outstanding historical or cultural significance") and Category 2 ("places of historic or cultural significance"). Nine historic places (one pictured) are located on the main island of Chatham, while one, Whaler's Cottage, is on neighboring Pitt Island. Two additional sites – Hunts Forge on Pitt Island and Zimmerman House at Waitangi West on Chatham – were initially listed as Category 2 sites, but were later destroyed and removed from the list. (Full list...)

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Horatius Cocles was an officer in the army of the early Roman Republic who famously defended the Pons Sublicius from the invading army of Etruscan king Lars Porsena of Clusium in the late 6th century BC, during the war between Rome and Clusium. By defending the narrow end of the bridge, he and his companions were able to hold off the attacking army long enough to allow other Romans to destroy the bridge behind him, blocking the Etruscans' advance and saving the city. This fanciful engraving of Cocles was produced in 1586 by the German-born Dutch printmaker Hendrick Goltzius. The full-length portrait shows him holding a raised sword in his right hand and a shield in his left. In the lower right of the background, Cocles takes on an army by himself.

Engraving credit: Hendrick Goltzius

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