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On this day
- 1597 – Imjin War: About twelve Korean ships commanded by Admiral Yi Sun-sin defeated a large Japanese invasion fleet of at least 300 at the Battle of Myeongnyang in the Myeongnyang Strait. against waves of Japanese attackers during the Battle of Shanghai.
- 2001 – U.S. President George W. Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act into law, significantly expanding the authority of U.S. law enforcement agencies in fighting terrorism in the United States and abroad.
- 2002 – Approximately 40 Chechen rebels and 130 hostages died when Russian forces stormed a theater building in Moscow to end a four-day hostage siege.
In the news
- Severe flooding in Yemen caused by Deep Depression ARB 02 (pictured) kills 58 and displaces 20,000.
- A bomb attack in Zagreb, Croatia kills Ivo Pukanić, the owner of the newspaper Nacional.
- The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches Chandrayaan-1, an unmanned lunar exploration mission.
- Several additional amino acids are found in vials from the 1953 Miller–Urey experiment that probed the origin of life.
- The United Nations General Assembly elects Turkey, Austria, Japan, Uganda, and Mexico to two-year terms on the Security Council.
Did you know...?
- ... that AMiBA (pictured) is a radio telescope located on Mauna Loa in Hawaii that is being used to observe the Cosmic Microwave Background and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in clusters of galaxies?
- ...that although the official government death toll of the 1997 Ardabil earthquake was given as 965 deaths, rescue workers at the scene claimed it was as much as three times higher?
- ... that Tang Dynasty general Li Na was, at one point, reduced to tears when he was under siege by another general, Liu Qia?
- ... that four of the candidates for either Governor or Lt. Governor in the 2008 American Samoa gubernatorial elections have ancestral ties to the Manu'a Islands?
Today's featured picture
Cirsium palustre, the marsh thistle, is a herbaceous biennial (or often perennial) flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to Europe, where it is particularly common on damp ground such as marshes, wet fields, moorland and beside streams. In Canada and the northern United States it is an introduced species that has become invasive. It grows in dense thickets that can crowd out slower growing native plants. Cirsium palustre can reach up to 2 metres (7 ft) in height and features strong stems with few branches which are covered in small spines. In its first year the plant grows as a dense rosette and in subsequent years a candelabra of dark purple or occasionally white flowers, 10–20 millimetres (0.4–0.8 in) with purple-tipped bracts. In the northern hemisphere these are produced from June to September. The plant provides an important source of nectar for pollinators. This C. palustre flower was photographed in Niitvälja, Estonia.
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