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From today's featured article

The rock martin (Ptyonoprogne fuligula) is a small swallow that is resident in central and southern Africa. It breeds in the mountains, and at lower levels in rocky areas and towns. It has mainly brown plumage and white "windows" on the spread tail. Its call is a soft twitter. The sexes are similar in appearance. The martin hunts along cliff faces for flying insects. It breeds under cliff overhangs or on man-made structures using mud pellets to build a bowl or half-bowl nest with a soft lining. The bird is a solitary breeder, but small groups may nest close together in suitable locations. A typical clutch has two to three eggs, which are white with brown and grey blotches. Both adults incubate the eggs for 16–19 days and feed the chicks. Fledging takes another 22–24 days. The small martin is caught in flight by several falcons, such as hobbies. Because of its extensive range and large stable population, it is assessed as a least-concern species on the IUCN Red List. (This article is part of a featured topic: Crag martins.)

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Did you know ...

Current chancery of the Philippine embassy in Berlin

... that the Philippine embassy in Berlin (pictured) was once purportedly located above a supermarket, with frankfurters visible from the windows?
... that up to fifty starfish shrimps have been found living on a single host?
... that former Basketball Bundesliga player Dennis Tinnon worked at a slaughterhouse before he was recruited to play college basketball?
... that the Honolulu Star-Bulletin described Thelma Akana Harrison as "volatile", "brilliant", and "vivacious"?
... that the former James Bridge Copper Works has been described as the "most contaminated site in Europe"?
... that Catherine Sourbut Groves, who experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall as a student, became an archdeacon in the Church of England via Zoom?
... that Frederick Ashton's ballet Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan took inspiration from a performance by Duncan that he saw when he was 17?
... that, according to Robert Maxwell Ogilvie, the Thebaid "cannot be said to be about anything"?

In the news

Kenneth Kaunda

The first President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda (pictured), dies at the age of 97.
A new government is formed in Israel, with Naftali Bennett becoming prime minister, ending Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year tenure.
The spacecraft Juno performs a flyby of Jupiter's moon Ganymede.
Using a compromised encrypted device network, a multinational sting operation results in hundreds of arrests and the seizure of several tons of illegal drugs.

On this day

June 19: Juneteenth in the United States (1865)

Nguyễn Cao Kỳ

1800 – General Jean Victor Marie Moreau led French forces to victory at the Battle of Höchstädt, opening the Danube passageway to Vienna.
1846 – The first officially recorded baseball game in U.S. history using modern rules was played in Hoboken, New Jersey, with the "New York Nine" defeating the New York Knickerbockers 23–1.
1953 – Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed as spies who passed U.S. nuclear weapons secrets to the Soviet Union.
1965 – Nguyễn Cao Kỳ (pictured), the head of the South Vietnam Air Force, was appointed prime minister at the head of a military regime, ending two years of short-lived military juntas.
2006 – The ceremonial "first stone" of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a facility established to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds from locations worldwide in an underground cavern in Spitsbergen, Norway, was laid.

Friedrich Sertürner (b. 1783)
Evangelos Zappas (d. 1865)
Doris Sands Johnson (b. 1921)

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Today's featured picture

The Pacific reef heron (Egretta sacra) is a species of heron found throughout southern Asia and Oceania. About 60 cm (24 in) in length, this species has two distinct colour morphs, charcoal-grey (as seen here) and pure white. The bird's diet consists mainly of fish, crustaceans and molluscs. This Pacific reef heron was photographed at Boat Harbour, in New South Wales, Australia.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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