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From today's featured article

Academy Awards and appeared on the Motion Picture Herald exhibitors poll of top ten film personalities every year from 1936 to 1958. His screen persona embodied the American folk hero. (Full article...

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Recently featured: The Sinking of the Lusitania – 2002 Pacific typhoon season – Kosta Pećanac

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that Jean Metzinger painted Soldier at a Game of Chess (pictured) 100 years ago while mobilized in World War I?
... that Ray Barra danced Romeo in John Cranko's first narrative ballet for the Stuttgart Ballet, Romeo and Juliet?
... that the Brooklyn Free School is run by democratic meeting and a "noncoercive" philosophy that includes no grades, tests, homework, or compulsory classes?
... that against medical advice, consultant physician Richard Bayliss went skiing within three weeks of his heart attack?
... that Luciano Berio based Quattro versioni originali della "Ritirata notturna di Madrid" on Boccherini's night street music of Madrid?
... that Monte Alén National Park prohibits the hunting of the Goliath frog, the biggest frog in the world?
... that the European Sea Ports Organisation represents over 98 percent of the seaports of the European Union?
... that the
BBC1 game show Decimate
has been praised for upholding the true meaning of the word "decimate"?

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In the news

In snooker, Stuart Bingham (pictured) wins the World Championship.
In association football, Chelsea win the Premier League.
seek a third term
.

In
defeats Manny Pacquiao to unify the WBA, WBC, WBO and The Ring welterweight
titles.

In horse racing, American Pharoah, ridden by Victor Espinoza, wins the Kentucky Derby.
Following
death of Freddie Gray
.

Ongoing:

Yemeni Civil War

Recent deaths: Ruth Rendell – Maya Plisetskaya

On this day...

May 8: Victory in Europe Day; World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day; Miguel Hidalgo's Birthday in Mexico; Parents' Day in South Korea

1794 – The Reign of Terror: Branded a traitor, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, a former royal tax collector with the Ferme générale, was tried, convicted, and guillotined on the same day.
John Pemberton first sold his carbonated beverage Coca-Cola as a patent medicine
, claiming that it cured a number of diseases.

Francois Coli aboard L'Oiseau Blanc biplane, attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York
, disappeared after takeoff.

World War II in Europe (Wilhelm Keitel
pictured).

Vesākha, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis
.

More anniversaries: May 7 – May 8 – May 9

List of historical anniversaries

It is now May 8, 2015 (UTC) – Reload this page

From today's featured list

There are over 400

Cenotaph in Whitehall. So great is the number of memorials in the borough that Westminster City Council has deemed an area stretching from Whitehall to St James's to be a "monument saturation zone", where the addition of new memorials is generally discouraged. (Full list...

)

Recently featured:
Cutaneous conditions – Morgan Freeman on screen and stage – Places of worship in Adur

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Today's featured picture

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) was an English historian who published The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. Born in Putney, Surrey, he became a voracious reader while being raised by his aunt, and was sent to study at Magdalen College, Oxford, and in Switzerland. Returning to England, in 1761 Gibbon published his first book, Essai sur l'Étude de la Littérature. This was well received, but Gibbon's next book was a failure. In the early 1770s Gibbon began writing his history of the Roman Empire, which was received with great praise.

Painting: Henry Walton

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