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On this day

February 1: Imbolc / Saint Brigid's Day in Ireland; Black History Month begins in the United States

Lunch counter from the Greensboro sit-ins

1411 – The First Peace of Thorn was signed, ending the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.
1662 – Sino-Dutch conflicts: After besieging Fort Zeelandia for nine months, Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong secured the Dutch East India Company's surrender and the end of their rule in Taiwan.
1896 – Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy, eventually becoming one of the most frequently performed operas internationally.
1960 – Civil rights movement: Four African-American students staged the first of more than five months of sit-ins at an F. W. Woolworth lunch counter (pictured) in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest the company's policy of racial segregation.
2021 – The Burmese military staged a coup d'état that deposed the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking nationwide protests and a civil war.

Madame Sul-Te-Wan (d. 1959)
Michelle Akers (b. 1966)
Wojdan Shaherkani (b. 1996)
Hildegard Knef (d. 2002)

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Today's featured article

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. Some philosophers designate it as first philosophy to suggest that it is more fundamental than other forms of philosophical inquiry. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of human understanding. Metaphysics investigates the nature of existence, the features all entities have in common, and their division into categories of being. An influential division is between particulars and universals. Modal metaphysics examines what it means for something to be possible or necessary. Metaphysicians also explore the concepts of space, time, and change, and their connection to causality and the laws of nature. Other topics include how mind and matter are related, whether everything in the world is predetermined, and whether there is free will. The roots of metaphysics lie in antiquity with speculations about the nature and origin of the universe. (Full article...)

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African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or Black Americans, are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. African Americans constitute the third largest racial or ethnic group in the U.S. after White Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans. Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved people, having West African and coastal Central African ancestry, with varying amounts of Western European and Native American ancestry. This ambrotype depicts African American Union soldier Sgt. Samuel Smith, of the 119th United States Colored Troops, with his family in c. 1863–65.

Ambrotype credit: unattributed photographer

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Did you know ...

Li Minghui

... that Li Minghui (pictured) faced accusations of lewdness at the age of 12 after challenging Chinese stage conventions?
... that the Chauburji might have been the Mughal emperor Babur's original burial place?
... that the magazine Science Fiction Chronicle changed its name to just Chronicle two decades after its launch, to avoid being confused with the San Francisco Chronicle?
... that football manager Darren Moore led Sheffield Wednesday to promotion even after they lost the first leg of their play-off semi-final 4–0?
... that some locals have criticised the flag of Kagoshima Prefecture, which is supposed to depict the prefecture's topography but omits its outlying islands?
... that Richard Davis made the earliest known continuous land-based weather recordings in New Zealand?
... that the month of July is named after Julius Caesar?
... that the first minister of the Hopewell Baptist Church is presumed to be buried under the building?
... that a 2001 book shares the history of a small Tudor community through a 54-year-long "running commentary" by "a somewhat unamiable busybody"?

In the news

Ahmed al-Sharaa

Ahmed al-Sharaa (pictured) is appointed president of the Syrian transitional government.
American Eagle Flight 5342 collides with a U.S. Army helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., United States, killing all 67 people on board both aircraft.
In sumo, Hōshōryū Tomokatsu becomes the 74th yokozuna.
In an ongoing offensive, the Rwandan-supported March 23 Movement captures Goma, the capital of North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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