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Anning, depicted with her dog

Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an English fossil collector and palaeontologist. She made discoveries of Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis, which changed the scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth. Her discoveries included the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton, the first two nearly complete plesiosaur skeletons, and the first pterosaur skeleton outside Germany. Her observations helped prove that coprolites were fossilised faeces and that belemnite fossils contained ink sacs. As a woman, Anning could not join the Geological Society of London and struggled to receive credit for her contributions. Henry De la Beche painted Duria Antiquior based on fossils Anning had found and sold its prints for her benefit. After her death, an article about her life was published in Charles Dickens's literary magazine All the Year Round. A statue of Anning was erected in 2022, and she has been depicted in film and in manga. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

2nd-century BC fortified gate at Horvat 'Eqed

... that excavations at Horvat 'Eqed (pictured) uncovered coinage and hiding complexes dating from the Bar Kokhba revolt, as well as arrowheads, armor scales, slingshots, and ballistae?
... that Spider began making alternative music because she felt that not enough Black women were doing so?
... that the trowel and gavel used at the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the Southern Railway Building were previously used by George Washington for the U.S. Capitol?
... that Gherardo Gambelli, the incoming archbishop of Florence, served as a prison chaplain in Chad for over a decade?
... that the Centurion C-RAM can fire 4500 rounds per minute?
... that Indonesian politician Rahmad Mas'ud received his master's degree simultaneously with four of his siblings?
... that all Atlantic hurricane activity in 1993 ceased two full months before the season officially ended?
... that Chuck Eisenmann went from professionally pitching in baseball to owning and training the dogs that starred on the Canadian television series The Littlest Hobo?
... that Richard Garwin proposed using a bed of nails to protect the Minuteman missile silos from attack?

In the news

Ebrahim Raisi

A helicopter crash near Varzaqan, Iran, kills eight people, including President Ebrahim Raisi (pictured) and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
In boxing, Oleksandr Usyk defeats Tyson Fury to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion in twenty-four years.
Protests over voting rights changes break out in the French territory of New Caledonia.
Lee Hsien Loong steps down after nearly twenty years as Prime Minister of Singapore, and is succeeded by Lawrence Wong.

On this day

May 21: World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development

Richard Loeb (left) and Nathan Leopold (right)

1138 – The Crusades: The siege of Shaizar ended, and the Emir of Shaizar became a vassal of the Byzantine Empire.
1864 – American Civil War: The inconclusive Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia ended with combined Union and Confederate casualties totaling around 31,000.
1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal, linking Manchester in North West England to the Irish Sea, officially opened, becoming the world's largest navigation canal at the time.
1924 – University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb (both pictured) murdered a 14-year-old boy in a thrill killing out of a desire to commit a "perfect crime".
2014 – A Taiwanese man carried out a stabbing spree on a Taipei Metro train, killing four people and injuring 24 others.

Feng Dao (d. 954)
Tommaso Campanella (d. 1639)
Armand Hammer (b. 1898)
Linda Laubenstein (b. 1947)

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Today's featured picture

Viviparus georgianus, commonly known as the banded mystery snail, is a species of large freshwater snail in the family Viviparidae, the river snails. It is native to North America, generally found from the northeastern United States to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and thrives in eutrophic lentic environments such as lakes, ponds and some low-flow streams. The snail has has two distinct sexes and reproduces more than once in a lifetime, with females laying eggs singly in albumen-filled capsules. It feeds on diatom clusters found on silt and mud substrates, but it may also require the ingestion of some grit to be able to break down algae. This image shows five views of a 2.1 cm high (0.83 in) V. georgianus shell, originally collected in the U.S. state of Georgia and now in the collection of the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe in Germany.

Photograph credit: H. Zell

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