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Today's featured article

Anonymous double portrait of Qalaherriaq

Qalaherriaq (c. 1834 – 1856) was an Inughuit hunter from Cape York in northwestern Greenland. Born around 1834 and baptized Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua, he was taken aboard the British barque HMS Assistance in 1850 as an interpreter during the search for Franklin's lost expedition. He guided the ship to Wolstenholme Fjord to investigate rumors of a massacre of Franklin's crew, but found the corpses of local Inughuit and crew from an unrelated British vessel. Poor sea conditions prevented the Assistance from returning to Qalaherriaq's family, and he was instead taken to England and placed in the custody of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He was enrolled in St Augustine's College at Canterbury and studied English and Christianity. In 1855, he was tasked by Edward Feild, Bishop of Newfoundland, to join him on a mission to the Labrador Inuit. Qalaherriaq's health problems, which he had developed during his service as an interpreter, worsened after his arrival in Newfoundland, and he died at St. John's in 1856 around 22 years old. (Full article...)

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In the news...

Flooding in Kłodzko, Poland

At least 39 people are killed and thousands of others are injured after electronic devices used by Hezbollah members explode in Lebanon and Syria.
Severe flooding (pictured) in central Europe leaves at least 25 people dead and 11 others missing, with several towns submerged.
Amid widespread protests, Mexico ratifies constitutional changes that will see the federal judiciary chosen by popular vote.
Former president of Peru Alberto Fujimori dies at the age of 86.

Did you know...

Black Eagle Silver Certificate

... that between 1899 and 1923 the United States government issued 3,604,239,600 one-dollar Black Eagle Silver Certificates (example pictured)?
... that although J1407b eclipsed V1400 Centauri in 2007, nobody noticed for over three years?
... that in order to attend breakdancing classes as a child, future Olympian Amir Zakirov had to give up eating lunch?
... that The Book of Virtues inspired PBS's first animated primetime series?
... that one researcher found that nearly a third of the people cancelled over antisemitism allegations in Germany have been Jews?
... that plans for a statue of Dirk Nowitzki to have three basketballs were scrapped?
... that during the writing of El Eternauta: segunda parte, Héctor Germán Oesterheld became victim of an enforced disappearance?
... that arguments in favor of a Palestinian right of armed resistance are often based on Article 1(4) of Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions?
... that a magical inanimate dog may have been a taxidermy dog, an automaton, or a metaphor?

On this day...

September 22

François Duvalier

1236 – Livonian Crusade: The Livonian Brothers of the Sword were soundly defeated by pagan Samogitian and Semigallian troops at the Battle of Saule.
1789 – The office of United States Postmaster General was formally established.
1957 – François Duvalier (pictured), nicknamed Papa Doc, was elected President of Haiti as a populist before consolidating power and ruling as a dictator for the rest of his life.
2003 – Dolphin, the first emulator for the GameCube that could run commercial video games, was released.
2013 – Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan, was attacked by two suicide bombers who killed 127 people.

Ibn Khallikan (b. 1211)
Louise McKinney (b. 1868)
Ice Box Chamberlain (d. 1929)
Florence Merriam Bailey (d. 1948)

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Today's featured picture

Boeing Crew Flight Test was the first crewed mission of the Boeing Starliner capsule. Launched on 5 June 2024, the mission flew a crew of two NASA astronauts, Barry E. Wilmore and Sunita Williams, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to the International Space Station. The mission was intended to last eight days, ending on 14 June with a landing in the American Southwest. However, the capsule's thrusters malfunctioned as Starliner approached the ISS. After more than two months of investigation, NASA decided it was too risky to return Wilmore and Williams to Earth aboard Starliner. Instead, the Boeing spacecraft returned uncrewed on 7 September 2024, and the astronauts will ride down on the SpaceX Crew-9 spacecraft in February 2025. This photograph shows the Crew Flight Test launch, with capsule Calypso atop an Atlas V rocket.