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Robert Baden-Powell

A boys' camping event at the site of the Brownsea Island Scout camp from 1 to 8 August 1907 is regarded as the origin of the worldwide Scouting movement. Held on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, southern England, it was organised by Robert Baden-Powell (pictured) to test his ideas for the book Scouting for Boys. Boys from different social backgrounds participated in activities themed around camping, observation, woodcraft, chivalry, lifesaving and patriotism. Up to the early 1930s, camping by Boy Scouts continued on Brownsea Island. In 1962, the island became a nature conservation area owned by the National Trust. The following year, Olave Baden-Powell reopened the island to the public, and in 1964 a formal 50-acre (200,000 m²) Scout campsite was established there. In 1973, a Jamboree was held on the island for 600 Scouts from seven nations. The worldwide centenary of Scouting was celebrated at the camp on 1 August 2007, the 100th anniversary of the start of the first encampment. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Enamelled-glass jar from Thutmose III's tomb

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... that Kanye West premiered his song "Wash Us in the Blood", which discusses mass incarceration, slavery, genocide, and drug-dealing, at a Christian opera?
... that Ugandan rebels did not recognize Ali Fadhul as the enemy commander when he drove past them during an invasion of Uganda in 1972?
... that Theo Akkermann, whose first major work was a war memorial, created a sculpture for his family's grave?
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... that during construction of the Valle Gómez and Misterios metro stations, workers uncovered part of a road that connected Tenochtitlan with the Tepeyac Hill, dating from the Mesoamerican Postclassic period?
... that educator Agnes Samuelson was posthumously inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame and had a Des Moines elementary school named after her?
... that in the Brazilian state of Bahia, cerrado mice are often caught by barn owls, but seldom by researchers?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Najib Razak

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak (pictured) is found guilty on all seven charges in the first trial related to the 1MDB scandal.
A series of attacks over disputed farmland in Darfur, Sudan, leaves more than eighty people dead and several villages destroyed.
A security breach in the administration system of Twitter results in many prominent accounts promoting a bitcoin scam.

On this day

August 1: Lughnasadh and Imbolc in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively

Cars on the I-35W bridge after the collapse

527 – Upon the death of Justin I, his nephew and adopted son Justinian I became the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
1714 – George Louis, Elector of Hanover, became King George I of Great Britain, marking the beginning of the Georgian era of British history.
1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of the Nile, between a British fleet commanded by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson and a French fleet under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, began at Aboukir Bay off the Egyptian coast.
1984 – Commercial peat cutters discovered the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, North West England.
2007 – Bridge 9340, carrying Interstate 35W across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, suffered a catastrophic failure and collapsed (aftermath pictured), killing 13 people and injuring 145 others.

Adhemar of Le Puy (d. 1098)
John Lester (b. 1871)
Frances Farmer (d. 1970)

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Today's featured picture

Theatrical scenery is used to provide a setting for a theatrical production. The main features are usually flats, two-dimensional canvas-covered panels painted to resemble three-dimensional surfaces or vistas. Other scenery types include curtains, platforms and scenery wagons. They all need to be light and portable, as well as durable. Construction of theatrical scenery is frequently one of the most time-consuming tasks when preparing for a show.

This photograph shows a model of the set designed for the first act of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello for a performance in Paris in 1895.

Set design credit: Marcel Jambon; photographed by the Bibliothèque nationale de France

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