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Shepard on the Moon during Apollo 14

Alan Shepard (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961 he became the second person and the first American to travel into space, and in 1971 he walked on the Moon (pictured). Shepard saw action with the surface navy during World War II. He became a naval aviator in 1947, and a test pilot in 1951. He was one of NASA's original Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959, and in May 1961 he made his first spaceflight: Mercury-Redstone 3, the first crewed Project Mercury flight. In 1971, he commanded the Apollo 14 mission, piloting the Apollo Lunar Module Antares. He became the fifth and the oldest person to walk on the Moon, and the only one of the Mercury Seven astronauts to do so. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1971, and was the first astronaut to reach that rank. He was Chief of the Astronaut Office from November 1963 to July 1969, and from June 1971 to April 1974. He retired from NASA and the United States Navy in July 1974. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

... that some Catholics considered Tom Lehrer's "The Vatican Rag" (audio featured) to be blasphemous?
... that Hilda Hilst impersonated a journalist to meet Marlon Brando, and asked him about Franz Kafka's works?
... that after the Iraqi government lost control of its northern territories following the 1991 Gulf War, the Legislative Council of the Autonomous Kurdistan Region was based in Baghdad?
... that the killing of hundreds of thousands of Soviet civilians by starvation in the siege of Leningrad was ruled not criminal by an American court?
... that Stella Alexander, the first female mayor of Issaquah, was nicknamed "Madame Mussolini" by her detractors?
... that Canadian photographer and architectural activist Brian Merrett's works prompted the preservation of Montreal's Shaughnessy House, now the Canadian Centre for Architecture?
... that Susan Murabana created Africa's first permanent planetarium?
... that @NYT_first_said's most popular tweet, as of 2019, was simply "shithole"?

In the news

Pedro Sánchez

Pedro Sánchez (pictured) is invested as Prime Minister of Spain, after proposing amnesty for Catalan separatists and then receiving support from them.
In the Myanmar civil war, opposition forces capture multiple cities in a major offensive against the ruling military junta.
In stock car racing, Ryan Blaney wins the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
In baseball, the Hanshin Tigers defeat the Orix Buffaloes to win the Japan Series.

On this day

November 18

Aftermath of the Aggie Bonfire collapse

1809 – Napoleonic Wars: In the Bay of Bengal, a French frigate squadron captured three ships carrying recruits for the armies of the East India Company.
1956 – At the Polish embassy in Moscow, a phrase in an address by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was translated into English as "We will bury you", prompting Western envoys to leave the room.
1999 – Texas A&M University's Aggie Bonfire collapsed (aftermath pictured), killing 12 people and injuring 27 others, and causing the university to officially declare a hiatus on the 90-year-old annual event.
2014 – Two Palestinian men attacked the praying congregants of a synagogue in Jerusalem with axes, knives, and a gun, resulting in eight deaths, including the attackers themselves.

Rose Philippine Duchesne (d. 1852)
Lise Østergaard (b. 1924)
Margaret Atwood (b. 1939)
Chloë Sevigny (b. 1974)

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Featured picture (Check back later for today's.)

The European bison (Bison bonasus), also known as the wisent, is a mammal in the family Bovidae. It is one of two extant species of bison. Having been hunted to extinction in the wild by the early 20th century, the European bison was reintroduced to the wild in various European countries by the 2010s, following captive breeding programmes. It is the heaviest wild land animal in Europe, and individuals in the past may have been even larger than their modern-day descendants. The largest bulls of the species have a mass of up to 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb). The European bison is a herd animal, which lives in both mixed and solely male groups. Mixed groups consist of adult females, calves, young aged two to three years, and young adult bulls. A typical herd numbers around eight to thirteen animals on average. This male European bison was photographed in the Białowieża Forest, Poland.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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