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Today's featured article

Paul McCartney

"The Long and Winding Road" is a song by the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. A piano ballad, Paul McCartney (pictured) composed the song in 1968 at his farm in Scotland. He was driven by the Beatles' growing bitterness towards each other. Main recording was done in January 1969 as part of the Get Back album project, but for a while no album resulted. John Lennon and George Harrison later lent the Get Back recordings from January to producer Phil Spector so that he could attempt to assemble an album out of them. For the recording of "The Long and Winding Road", Spector added lavish orchestral and choral overdubs, much to McCartney's chagrin and to the frustration of many music critics, although many others came to their defence. It was released on Let It Be in May 1970, a month after McCartney announced the breakup of the Beatles, and marked the band's twentieth and final song topping the Billboard Hot 100. Retrospective reviews have been kinder to the song than some at the time. (Full article...)

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Today's featured picture

Enrico Fermi (29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian-American physicist who was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics. He created the world's first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and is one of 16 scientists who have elements named after them. One of the few physicists to excel in both theoretical and experimental work, he made significant contributions to quantum theory, statistical mechanics, and nuclear and particle physics. He helped formulate Fermi–Dirac statistics for particles that obey Wolfgang Pauli's exclusion principle, called "fermions". His theory of beta decay correctly predicted that a particle he named the "neutrino" would be emitted along with an electron, satisfying the law of conservation of energy. He left Italy in 1938 to escape the Italian racial laws that affected his Jewish wife Laura, and emigrated to the United States. He worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II, but later opposed development of the hydrogen bomb on moral and technical grounds. This photograph of Fermi was taken in the 1940s and is in the collection of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Photograph credit: United States Department of Energy; restored by Yann Forget

Did you know...

Viburnum awabuki hedge

... that the species name of Viburnum awabuki (pictured) is derived from a Japanese word for its propensity to blow bubbles when exposed to fire?
... that the opening song to the mahjong anime Pon no Michi was sung by a real-life professional mahjong player?
... that Sun Pictures released nearly 20 films between 2008 and 2010, then slowed sharply after a change of government in Tamil Nadu?
... that The Art Newspaper described the art of Heba Zagout as "steeped in Palestinian culture and folklore"?
... that, at one point during the Second Intermediate Period, ancient Egypt might have had three ruling dynasties at the same time?
... that Swiss photographer Albert Steiner was captured by Italian border guards and held for three weeks while on a military reconnaissance mission?
... that Prince performed "Purple Rain" during the Super Bowl XLI halftime show under pouring rain and purple lights?
... that Santiphab Phomvihane is the son of a former president of Laos, the brother of a former National Assembly president, and the brother of the country's foreign minister?
... that beetles were collected and killed after failing to comply with a court order?

In the news

Uzbekistan first team

The Chess Olympiad concludes with Uzbekistan (team pictured) winning the Open event and China winning the Women's event.
In Australian rules football, the Brisbane Lions win their third premiership in a row, defeating Fremantle in the AFL Grand Final.
An attack on a police complex in Kohat, Pakistan, leaves at least 31 people dead.

On this day...

September 29: Michaelmas (Western Christianity)

Coat of arms of the University of East Anglia

1726 – Johann Sebastian Bach led the first performance of Es erhub sich ein Streit, a cantata for Michaelmas.
1923 – The Mandate for Palestine came into effect, officially creating the protectorates of Mandatory Palestine under British administration and Transjordan as a separate emirate under King Abdullah I.
1963 – The University of East Anglia (coat of arms featured) was founded in Norwich, England, after talk of establishing a university in the city began as early as the 19th century.
1991 – The award-winning Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast premiered while unfinished at the New York Film Festival.
2006 – Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 collided in mid-air with an Embraer Legacy business jet near Peixoto de Azevedo, Brazil, killing 154 people and triggering a national aviation crisis.

William of Tyre (d. 1186)
Ferdinand the Holy Prince (b. 1402)
Choi Ye-na (b. 1999)
Miriam Defensor Santiago (d. 2016)

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