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From today's featured article

Dylan's band in Oslo on March 30, 2007, one of hundreds of concerts at which he has performed "Watching the River Flow"

"Watching the River Flow" is a blues rock song by American singer Bob Dylan, released as a single on June 3, 1971. Produced by Leon Russell, it was written and recorded during a session in March 1971 at Blue Rock Studio in New York City. The collaboration with Russell formed in part through Dylan's desire for a new sound, after a period of immersion in country rock music. The song has been interpreted as Dylan's account of his writer's block in the early 1970s, and his wish to deliver less politically engaged material and find a new balance between public and private life. A minor hit in some countries, "Watching the River Flow" was included on the 1971 Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II and other Dylan compilation albums. The song has been covered by many artists, including a recording by five current and former Rolling Stones that was part of a tribute project for pianist Ian Stewart. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

HMS Racehorse and HMS Carcass stuck in ice

... that the ships of the 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole (pictured) got stuck in ice north of Svalbard?
... that when the sheriff in Helena, Arkansas, was asked to arrest Owen Flemming, an African-American man accused of killing a white overseer on June 8, 1927, he allegedly said "I'm busy. Just go ahead and lynch him"?
... that after being denied admission to Memphis State University because of her race, Miriam DeCosta-Willis went on to become the university's first African-American professor?
... that Acer spitzi is one of seven fossil maples first found in the Klondike Mountain Formation?
... that the Star Wars Rebels episode "Twin Suns" took inspiration from the 1954 Akira Kurosawa film Seven Samurai?
... that Robert J. Ulrich was asked to cast Glee because of his musical background?
... that a former DJ at radio station WKOP in Binghamton, New York, was convicted of arson for setting fire to the studios?
... that the former Ontario Highway 29 was split in half for nine years, from 1927 to 1936?

In the news

X-Press Pearl

The container ship X-Press Pearl (pictured) sinks near Colombo, Sri Lanka, leaking nitric acid and oil and causing a major environmental disaster.
The largest ship in the Iranian Navy, the modified Ol-class tanker IRIS Kharg catches fire and sinks in the Gulf of Oman near Jask, Iran.
In association football, the UEFA Champions League concludes with Chelsea defeating Manchester City in the final.
Unmarked graves containing the remains of 215 children are found at a former Kamloops school, part of the Canadian Indian residential school system.
In Nigeria, a boat accident on the Niger River kills at least 76 people.

On this day

June 3: Feast of Corpus Christi (Western Christianity, 2021); Martyrs Day in Uganda

Wallis Simpson

1844 – The last known pair of great auks, the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus of flightless birds, were killed on Eldey, Iceland.
1921 – At his trial for the assassination of Talat Pasha, viewed as the main orchestrator of the Armenian genocide, Soghomon Tehlirian was acquitted after arguing: "I have killed a man, but I am not a murderer."
1937 – A few months after abdicating the British throne, Edward, Duke of Windsor, married American socialite Wallis Simpson (pictured) in a private ceremony in France.
1979 – Having invaded Uganda and deposed President Idi Amin, Tanzanian forces secured Uganda's western border, ending a seven-month war.

Martha Jane Knowlton Coray (b. 1821)
Charles Lecocq (b. 1832)
Jill Biden (b. 1951)

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Today's featured picture

The double-banded plover (Charadrius bicinctus) is a species of bird in the plover family native to New Zealand. During the winter and the spring, it has a dark, greyish-brown back with a distinctive white chest, a thin band of black below the neck running across the chest, and a thicker brown band below. Outside the breeding season, the double-banding is lost; this photograph, taken in March, shows a double-banded plover in non-breeding plumage at Boat Harbour in New South Wales, Australia.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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