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S. Balachander

Andha Naal (That Day) is a 1954 Indian Tamil-language mystery-thriller film, produced by A. V. Meiyappan and directed by S. Balachander (pictured). It is the first film noir in Tamil cinema, and the first Tamil film made without songs, dancing, or stunt sequences. It is set in Madras during World War II; after a radio engineer Rajan (Sivaji Ganesan) is killed, each suspect's account points to a new suspect. The film developed from a play script that Balachander wrote, adapting the narrative style of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. The screenplay was written by Javar Seetharaman, and cinematography was handled by S. Maruti Rao. Released on 13 April 1954, the eve of Tamil New Year, the film was initially a commercial failure, but it was re-released after winning a Certificate of Merit in 1955 at the National Film Awards and became a box-office success. In 2013, Andha Naal was included in CNN-News18's list of the "100 Greatest Indian Films of All Time". (Full article...)

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Robert Hunter

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In the news

Coronavirus pandemic

George Pell

The High Court of Australia quashes the conviction of Cardinal George Pell (pictured) for child sex abuse and orders his acquittal.
Cyclone Harold impacts the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga, killing at least thirty people.
Vincent van Gogh's painting The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen is stolen from the Singer Laren museum in the Netherlands.

On this day

April 13: Vaisakhi (Sikhism, 2020)

Jefferson Memorial

1204 – Troops of the Fourth Crusade entered Constantinople and began a sack of the city, temporarily dissolving the Byzantine Empire.
1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act received royal assent, removing the most substantial restrictions on Catholics in the United Kingdom.
1943 – The Neoclassical Jefferson Memorial (pictured) in Washington, D.C., was formally dedicated on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.
1976 – Forty people died in an explosion at an ammunition factory in Lapua, Finland.
1984 – Kashmir conflict: Indian forces launched a pre-emptive attack on the disputed Siachen Glacier region of Kashmir, triggering a military conflict with Pakistan.

Herbert I, Count of Maine (d. 1035)
Pierre Gaspard Chaumette (d. 1794)
Max Mosley (b. 1940)

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Prince Royce

The 26th Lo Nuestro Awards were presented by the American network Univision, honoring the best Latin music of 2013 in the United States. The ceremony took place on February 20, 2014, at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. The Lo Nuestro Awards were presented in 33 categories, with the ceremony televised by Univision and hosted by Mexican singer Ninel Conde and Cuban-American actor William Levy. American singer Prince Royce (pictured) earned three awards, including Artist of the Year, while American artist Marc Anthony received the highest number of accolades, at five. Multiple winners also included deceased Mexican-American performer Jenni Rivera, Puerto Rican singers Tito El Bambino and Olga Tañón, Mexican-American norteño artist Gerardo Ortíz, and American rapper Pitbull. (Full list...)

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The Portuguese real was the unit of currency of Portugal from around 1430 to 1911. It replaced the dinheiro at the rate of 1 real for 840 dinheiros, and was itself replaced by the escudo as a result of the Republican revolution of 1910 at a rate of 1 escudo for 1,000 réis.

This picture shows a 2,400-real banknote issued as part of Portugal's second issue of paper money in 1798–99. The Portuguese text on the note's obverse (top) translates to: 'The Royal Treasury has to pay the bearer of this policy within one year of today two thousand and four hundred réis. As its representative I swear, Lisbon, 23 April 1799.' It was thus a receipt payable to the bearer of the document, rather than the original depositor. The curved cut in the scrollwork in the left margin was an early anti-counterfeiting measure; the severed portion was retained by the issuing authority and could be compared to the note when it was presented for payment. This banknote is now in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Banknote design credit: Imperial Treasury, Kingdom of Portugal; photographed by Andrew Shiva

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