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Today's featured article

San Lorenzo Colossal Head 1

The Olmec colossal heads are at least 17 monumental stone representations of human heads sculpted from large basalt boulders. The heads date from at least before 900 BC and are a distinctive feature of the Olmec civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. All portray mature men with fleshy cheeks, flat noses and slightly crossed eyes; their physical characteristics correspond to a type that is still common among the inhabitants of Tabasco and Veracruz. The boulders were brought from the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, a mountain range in Veracruz. It is thought that the finished monuments represent portraits of powerful individual Olmec rulers. Each is given a distinctive headdress. The heads were variously arranged in lines or groups at major Olmec centres. Dating the monuments remains difficult due to the movement of many from their original context prior to archaeological investigation. Most have been dated to the Early Preclassic period (1500–1000 BC) with some to the Middle Preclassic period (1000–400 BC). (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

October 4: Cinnamon Roll Day in Sweden and Finland

Seal of Otto IV

1209 – Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor (seal pictured), was crowned.
1918 – An ammunition plant in Sayreville, New Jersey, U.S., exploded, killing around 100 people and destroying more than 300 buildings.
1957 – The Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
2003 – A suicide bomber killed 21 people, including a two-month-old baby, and injured 60 others inside a restaurant in Haifa, Israel.

Charles Pearson (b. 1793)
Maurice Wilder-Neligan (b. 1882)
Henrietta Lacks (d. 1951)
Gunpei Yokoi (d. 1997)

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In the news

Shigeru Ishiba

Shigeru Ishiba (pictured) becomes Prime Minister of Japan after winning the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election.
Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Israel invades Lebanon, and Iran launches missiles against Israel.
Flooding in Nepal leaves more than 250 people dead, including 37 in the nation's capital, Kathmandu.
In Australian rules football, the Brisbane Lions defeat the Sydney Swans to win the AFL Grand Final.
Hurricane Helene leaves more than 200 people dead across the southeastern United States.

Did you know...

Battle of Lodi, part of the Italian Campaign

... that the Italian Campaign of 1796–1797 (battle pictured) demonstrated that Napoleon was a "great strategist"?
... that Muhammad Khaznadar's museum was said to have "surpassed every other museum in the world" in Phoenician and Carthaginian antiquities?
... that William, Prince of Wales, inspired the character of Prince Wheeliam in Cars 2?
... that Hurry Up Tomorrow is planned to be the Weeknd's final album under his stage name?
... that Columbus Airport saw commercial air service before being certified for public use by the Civil Aeronautics Authority?
... that Lisa Blatt, the first woman to argue 50 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, "elicits laughs and the occasional sharp response from the justices" for her witty delivery?
... that Oxford is the first city in the United Kingdom to adopt a zero emission zone?
... that although Pachyballus ornatus is named for its bright pattern, the female is dark and plain while young?
... that retired model Leticia Sardá had no idea that she was the subject of a four-year global search?

Today's featured picture

Picture of the day

Hübnerite is a mineral consisting of manganese tungsten oxide, with a chemical formula MnWO₄. It typically occurs in association with high-temperature hydrothermal vein deposits and altered granites and in alluvial deposits. Hübnerite is the manganese endmember of the wolframite solid solution series, with ferberite (FeWO₄) the opposite iron endmember. Color differences between members of the wolframite family are clear and marked, with the color of hübnerite varying from yellowish brown to reddish brown. It was first described in 1865 for an occurrence in the US state of Nevada and was named after the German mining engineer and metallurgist Adolf Hübner. This stacked image, composed of 38 individual photographs, shows red hübnerite crystals with quartz extracted from the Pasto Bueno mine in Pallasca Province, Peru.Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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