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Sir Frederick "Boy" Browning (1896–1965) was a British Army general who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He was also an Olympic bobsleigh competitor, and the husband of author Daphne du Maurier. Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in 1915 and served on the Western Front in the First World War. During the Second World War, Browning commanded the I Airborne Corps in Operation Market Garden in September 1944. During the planning for this operation, he was alleged to have said: "I think we might be going a bridge too far." In December 1944 he became chief of staff of Admiral Lord Mountbatten's South East Asia Command. After the war Browning was comptroller and treasurer to Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh. After she ascended to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, Browning became treasurer in the Office of the Duke of Edinburgh. (Full article...)

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State Publishing House of Ukraine symbol

... that 1920s belles-lettres books published by the State Publishing House of Ukraine (symbol pictured) sold out more rapidly than similar books published elsewhere in the Soviet Union, despite the higher average price?
... that Juan de Casas, the Spanish military governor of Venezuela, cried after the French demanded that he accept a Frenchman as king?
... that the Empire of Japan created a girl group as propaganda?
... that a bust of former Peruvian president Justiniano Borgoño was stolen from its pedestal by thieves?
... that the Republic Drug Store was formed from the consolidation of an estate and its competition?
... that a coconut tree meme drove sales of piña coladas in the Washington, D.C., area?
... that Nicole Chang-Leng has been described as a "daughter" of the Seychelles?
... that a former teacher in the Philippines became a Robin Hood–like outlaw?
... that the author of Sugar Dog Life ended up buying and raising a cactus after drawing one in the manga?

In the news

Alberto Fujimori in 1991

Former president of Peru Alberto Fujimori (pictured) dies at the age of 86.
Flooding following a dam collapse in Borno State, Nigeria, leaves at least 30 people dead.
Typhoon Yagi leaves more than 590 people dead across six Asian countries.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune is declared the winner of the Algerian presidential election amid a dispute over the election's turnout.

On this day

September 17: Mid-Autumn Festival in China (2024); Constitution Day in the United States

Emperor Norton

1382 – Following Louis I's death without a male heir, his daughter Mary was crowned with the title of King of Hungary.
1859 – Disgruntled with the legal and political structures of the United States, Joshua Norton (pictured) distributed letters to various newspapers in San Francisco proclaiming himself to be Emperor Norton.
1894 – John Hyrum Koyle, a controversial Mormon bishop, began excavating the Dream Mine, which he believed would provide financial support to members of the LDS Church.
1914 – Andrew Fisher, who in his previous term as premier oversaw a period of reform unmatched in the Commonwealth until the 1940s, became Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.

Li Jingsui (d. 958)
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans (d. 1721)
Periyar (b. 1879)
Hank Williams (b. 1923)

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Today's featured picture

Ganymede is a moon of Jupiter and the largest and most massive satellite in the Solar System. It is the largest Solar System object without a substantial atmosphere and also the only moon in the Solar System with a substantial magnetic field. Like Titan, Saturn's largest moon, it is larger than the planet Mercury but, due to its lower density, has somewhat less surface gravity than Mercury, Io, or the Moon. Ganymede is composed of silicate rock and water in approximately equal proportions. It is a fully differentiated body, with an iron-rich liquid core and an internal ocean. Ganymede orbits Jupiter in roughly seven days and is in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance with Europa and Io. This image, a composite of three photographs taken by the NASA space probe Juno during a flyby in 2021, depicts the northern hemisphere of Ganymede roughly centered around the prime meridian.

Photograph credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill

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