The World Before the Flood is an oil-on-canvas painting by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1828. It depicts a scene from John Milton's Paradise Lost in which Adam sees a vision of the world immediately before the Great Flood. The painting illustrates the stages of courtship as described by Milton: a group of men select wives from a group of dancing women, take their chosen woman from the group, and settle down to married life. Behind them looms an oncoming storm, a symbol of the destruction which the dancers and lovers are about to bring upon themselves. When first exhibited at the 1828 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the painting attracted large crowds. Many critics praised it, but others condemned it as crude, tasteless and poorly executed. The painting, currently in the Southampton City Art Gallery, and a preliminary oil sketch for it, now in the York Art Gallery, were exhibited together in a major retrospective of Etty's work in 2011 and 2012. (Full article...)

Coyote en Ayuno

• ... that the first ray of sunlight on 23 April passes through the eye of the Coyote en Ayuno (pictured), which was built to commemorate the founding of Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico?
• ... that José Ramón Balaguer fought as a soldier-medic for Fidel Castro's rebel army before becoming Cuba's minister of public health?
• ... that the 6th Louisiana Infantry Regiment began with 916 men and ended with 52?
• ... that Shanti Devi was awarded the Padma Shri Award for her social work, including eradicating the yaws disease in a village in Odisha?
• ... that "Kommt her, ihr Kreaturen all", a Catholic hymn first published in 1687, is still commonly used for Corpus Christi processions?
• ... that Syrian novelist Hani al-Rahib had a deaf-mute father and an illiterate mother?
• ... that 100-year-old logs, perfectly preserved and good enough to mill, have been retrieved from the bottom of Lake Brunner?
• ... that Sir Thomas Peel Dunhill used to milk the goats at St Vincent's Hospital?

Ayman al-Zawahiri

• Ayman al-Zawahiri (pictured), the leader of al-Qaeda, is killed by a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan.
• In association football,
  the final
  .
• In cycling, Annemiek van Vleuten wins the Tour de France Femmes.
• Flooding in the U.S. state of Kentucky
  kills at least 37 people and leaves at least 30 others missing.

August 4

Capture of Gibraltar

• 1265 – Second Barons' War: Royal troops led by Prince Edward defeated baronial forces under Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in Worcestershire, England.
• 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: A combined Anglo-Dutch fleet under the command of George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles captured Gibraltar (pictured) from Spain.
• 1830 – American surveyor James Thompson produced the first plat of Chicago for the Illinois and Michigan Canal Commissioners.
• 2020 – A large explosion of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon killed 218 people and caused US$15 billion in damage.