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Olympic flag

The modern Olympic Games are leading international multi-sport events in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in various competitions. The Summer and Winter Games are each held in a different city every four years, offset from each other by two. Inspired by the ancient Greek Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in 1896. The abuse of amateur rules by the Eastern Bloc in the late 20th century prompted the IOC to begin allowing participation by professional athletes. The growth of the Games has created challenges and controversies, including political boycotts, doping, and commercialisation. Olympic symbols and rituals include the Olympic flag (pictured) and torch, the opening and closing ceremonies, and medals given to the top three finishers in each event. The contemporary Olympic movement includes related events, such as the Paralympic Games for athletes with physical disabilities. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Narrow end of the pie house

... that the pie house (pictured) gained media attention from a viral TikTok that received more than one million views?
... that Henry E. Sigerist felt "depressed" after reading A History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy in the 16th and 17th Centuries?
... that pioneering Daily News camerawoman Evelyn Straus had her clothes custom-made to carry her film and flashbulbs?
... that a London shipbuilder founded Wellington Square Baptist Church in Hastings out of gratitude for his daughter's health improving while staying in the seaside town?
... that Sky Alps is the first airline to operate scheduled flights from Bolzano Airport since 2015?
... that siren kings use music by Celine Dion in loudspeaker battles?
... that in Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Oregon, decided 110 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the initiative process?
... that when American-born skier Katie Vesterstein chose to compete for Estonia, she had only visited the country once, and did not speak the language?

In the news

Mudslide in Petrópolis, Brazil

At least 152 people are killed due to mudslides and floods (aftermath pictured) in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In American football, the Los Angeles Rams defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl.
Cyclone Batsirai makes landfall in Madagascar, displacing at least 112,000 people and leaving more than 100 others dead.
In association football, the Africa Cup of Nations concludes with Senegal defeating Egypt in the final.

On this day

February 20

Metropolitan Museum of Art

1816 – Italian composer Gioachino Rossini's opera buffa The Barber of Seville premiered at the Teatro Argentina in Rome to jeers from the audience.
1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art (pictured), today the largest art museum in the United States with a collection of more than two million works, opened in New York.
1931 – Paraguayan anarchists briefly seized the city of Encarnación as part of a larger plan to initiate a social revolution in the country.
1992 – Appearing on the talk show Larry King Live, U.S. industrialist Ross Perot announced that he would begin a presidential campaign if "ordinary people" wanted him to run for office.

Johann Christian Reil (b. 1759)
Ansel Adams (b. 1902)
Maria Goeppert Mayer (d. 1972)

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Today's featured picture

The Indus River is a 3,180-kilometre (1,980 mi) transboundary and trans-Himalayan river that rises in western Tibet before flowing northwest through the regions of Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan in Kashmir. The river then bends sharply to the left after the Nanga Parbat massif, flows generally southwest through Pakistan, and empties into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi. The Indus has a total drainage-basin area exceeding 1,165,000 km² (450,000 sq mi). Its estimated annual flow is around 243 km³ (58 cu mi), making it one of the fifty largest rivers in the world by discharge. This photograph shows the Indus valley near the city of Leh, a capital of Ladakh in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Photograph credit: KennyOMG

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