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Mr. Dooley is a fictional bartender created by American journalist Finley Peter Dunne, appearing in print between 1893 and 1915, and again in 1924 and 1926. The bartender's humorous but pointed commentary on American politics and international affairs first became nationally popular during the 1898 Spanish–American War. Dunne's essays are in the form of conversations in an Irish dialect of English between Mr. Dooley, the owner of a fictional tavern in the Bridgeport area of Chicago, and one of the bar's patrons. From 1898 onwards, the essays, and the books collecting them, gained national acclaim. Dunne became a friend of President Theodore Roosevelt, although the friendship did not curtail his satire. Beginning around 1905, Dunne had increasing trouble finding time and inspiration for new pieces, and, except for a brief resurrection in the mid-1920s, his columns ended in 1915. The columns originated lasting sayings such as "the Supreme Court follows the election returns". (Full article...)

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In the news

Aziz Akhannouch

The National Rally of Independents, led by Aziz Akhannouch (pictured), wins the most seats in the Moroccan general election.
A prison fire in Tangerang, Indonesia, kills 44 inmates and injures 77 others.
Carlos Vila Nova is elected President of São Tomé and Príncipe.
In Guinea, President Alpha Condé is captured by armed forces during a coup d'état.

On this day

September 12

Orchestra assembled to perform Mahler's Symphony No. 8

379 – Yax Nuun Ahiin I took the throne as the ruler (ajaw) of the Mayan city of Tikal.
1848 – Switzerland became a federal state with the adoption of the Swiss Federal Constitution.
1910 – Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire and popularly known as the "Symphony of a Thousand", was first performed in Munich (1916 performers pictured).
1952 – Three boys in Flatwoods, West Virginia, U.S., reported seeing a ten-foot-tall (3 m) monster in the woods while investigating a UFO.
2015 – An explosion involving illegally stored mining detonators in Petlawad, India, killed 104 people and injured more than 150 others.

Andronikos I Komnenos (d. 1185)
Mary Bosanquet Fletcher (b. 1739)
Tarana Burke (b. 1973)

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Philip Francis Thomas (12 September 1810 – 2 October 1890) was an American lawyer and politician. He served in the Maryland House of Delegates and was the 28th governor of Maryland from 1848 to 1851. In 1860, he was appointed as the 23rd United States secretary of the treasury, in President James Buchanan's administration. He held the post for only one month, resigning after he failed to obtain a loan to pay the interest on the bonded public debt. After unsuccessfully standing for election to the United States Senate in 1878, he returned to the Maryland House of Delegates and later resumed the practice of law.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva

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