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From today's featured article

Tessera bearing a possible depiction of Odaenathus

Portraits of Odaenathus, the king of Palmyra from 260 to 267 CE, include sculptures, seal impressions, and mosaic pieces. As a client king for Rome, Odaenathus came to dominate the Roman East after defeating Shapur I of Persia in 260 and assuming the title King of Kings. Several limestone head portraits from Palmyra were identified by twentieth-century scholars as depicting Odaenathus, based on criteria such as the size and the presence of a wreath, but more recent research indicates that these pieces were probably funerary objects depicting private citizens. Two marble heads, both reflecting a high level of individuality, depicting Eastern royal attributes such as the tiara and diadem, are more likely to be portraits of the king. Also, two Palmyrene tesserae (example pictured) bear a probable depiction of the king, bearded and wearing a diadem and an earring. In addition, Odaenathus is likely the subject of two mosaic panels glorifying his victories. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Programme cover for the Vril-Ya Bazaar and Fete

... that the Royal Albert Hall has called the 1891 Vril-Ya Bazaar and Fete (programme cover pictured) the world's first science fiction convention?
... that Mary L. Smith became the first female president of Kentucky State University in 1991 despite having been passed over for the same job a year earlier?
... that the Bach-Chor Bonn, a choir founded to sing Bach's works, such as the St John Passion in 1950, grew to a concert choir with a broad repertoire and a long tradition of tours in Europe?
... that Leonidas Zervas was a Greek organic chemist who discovered the carboxybenzyl protecting group, and also served as Minister of Industry of Greece and President of the Academy of Athens?
... that the Women's London Championship was viewed as a response to the introduction of women's franchise cricket in England?
... that Cuban ballerinas and sisters Lorena and Lorna Feijóo both moved to the U.S., and once split the roles of Black and White Swans in Swan Lake, which are usually danced by the same person?
... that a suspicious neighbor of FuncoLand founder David Pomije called the police to investigate the large number of teenagers and young adults visiting his house?
... that in 1805, Jean Maxwell was sentenced to be imprisoned for a year at Kirkcudbright Tolbooth for pretending to be a witch?

In the news

Idriss Déby

Former police officer Derek Chauvin is found guilty of the murder of George Floyd in the U.S. city of Minneapolis.
President of Chad Idriss Déby (pictured) is killed during a rebel offensive.
Miguel Díaz-Canel is elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, succeeding Raúl Castro.
On Mars, NASA's helicopter Ingenuity makes the first powered flight on another planet.
In South Africa, a fire on Table Mountain, Cape Town, destroys historic monuments including Mostert's Mill and the University of Cape Town's special collections library.

On this day

April 20: First day of Ridván (Baháʼí Faith, 2021); 420 (cannabis culture)

Fernando Lugo

1537 – Bacatá, the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation in present-day Colombia, was conquered by Spanish conquistadors led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
1818 – Four days after the Court of King's Bench upheld an English murder suspect's right to a trial by battle in Ashford v Thornton, the plaintiff declined to fight, allowing the defendant to go free.
1914 – A fire and a gun battle between the Colorado National Guard and striking coal miners led to 17 deaths in the Ludlow Massacre.
1978 – Korean Air Lines Flight 902 was shot down after violating Soviet airspace, forcing it to make an emergency landing.
2008 – Fernando Lugo (pictured) became the first non–Colorado Party candidate to be elected President of Paraguay in 61 years.

William Bedloe (b. 1650)
David Brainerd (b. 1718)
Vjekoslav Luburić (d. 1969)

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Today's featured picture

Ignace-Gaston Pardies (1636–1673) was a French Catholic priest and scientist. His celestial atlas, entitled Globi coelestis in tabulas planas redacti descriptio, comprising six charts of the sky, was first published in 1674. The atlas uses a gnomonic projection so that the plates make up a cube of the celestial sphere, and served as a model for William Rutter Dawes's 1844 star charts. This is the first plate from a 1693 edition of Pardies's atlas, centred on the north celestial pole and depicting part of the northern sky.

Map credit: Ignace-Gaston Pardies

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