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St Melangell's Church is a Grade I listed medieval building in the former village of Pennant Melangell, in the Tanat Valley, Powys, Wales. Built over a Bronze Age burial ground, the church was founded around the 8th century to commemorate the reputed grave of Melangell, a hermit and abbess who founded a convent and sanctuary in the area. The current church was built in the 12th century and has been renovated several times, including major restoration work in the 19th and 20th centuries. Archaeological excavation in the 20th century uncovered prehistoric and early medieval activity. The church contains the reconstructed shrine to Melangell, considered the oldest surviving Romanesque shrine in northern Europe and which was a major pilgrimage site in medieval Wales. The interior of the church holds a 15th-century rood screen depicting Melangell's legend, two 14th-century effigies, paintings, and liturgical fittings. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

August 9: International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples; National Women's Day in South Africa (1956)

First Smokey Bear poster

1821 – The statue of A'a from Rurutu was presented to members of the London Missionary Society on the south Pacific island of Ra'iatea.
1934 – The Blue Lotus, the fifth volume of The Adventures of Tintin by the Belgian cartoonist Hergé and noted for its emphasis on countering negative misconceptions of Chinese people, began serialisation.
1944 – The United States Forest Service authorized the use of Smokey Bear (pictured) as its mascot to replace Bambi.
1974 – On the verge of an impeachment and removal from office amid the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first president of the United States to resign.
2014 – Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American man, was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, resulting in widespread protests and unrest.

Stephen of Anjou (d. 1354)
Ernst Haeckel (d. 1919)
Brett Hull (b. 1964)
Gay van der Meer (d. 2014)

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In the news

Muhammad Yunus

Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashes in São Paulo, Brazil, killing all 62 people on board.
Sheikh Hasina resigns as the prime minister of Bangladesh following anti-government protests, and Muhammad Yunus (pictured) is appointed leader of an interim government.
Following a mass stabbing in Southport, far-right protesters riot in England and Northern Ireland.
The United States, Russia, and their respective allies agree to a prisoner exchange of 26 people.

Did you know...

Hannibal von Degenfeld

... that Hannibal von Degenfeld (pictured) played the leading role in establishing the Bavarian Army in 1682, before leading it to the Battle of Vienna a year later?
... that a reviewer did not expect a documentary on assisted suicide to be so funny?
... that while Sunny Choi and Logan Edra represent their country at the Olympics in breakdancing, Afghan breakdancer Manizha Talash competes as a member of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team?
... that the 2025 Philippine general election is set to be the first to be held under a new voting system provider after the previous one was disqualified over bribery allegations?
... that the Piano Quintet by Dmitri Shostakovich has been called "the most expensive piece of chamber music ever composed"?
... that workers building Mercy Gilbert Medical Center plowed over alfalfa fields and chased off sheep during construction?
... that the discovery of a coffin belonging to Ahhotep I, which had been reused to bury a high priest, ignited a debate among scholars over the true number of Egyptian queens named Ahhotep?
... that Washington's participation in the 2024 Sugar Bowl marked the first appearance of any Pac-12 Conference team in the Sugar Bowl?
... that British physician John H. Bryant gave the first description of a blue scrotum caused by a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm?

Today's featured picture

Picture of the day

John C. Dancy (1857–1920) was an American politician, journalist, and educator. For many years he was the editor of African Methodist Episcopal newspapers Star of Zion and then Zion Quarterly. In 1897 he was appointed collector of customs at Wilmington, North Carolina, but was chased out of town in the Wilmington massacre of 1898, in part for his activity in the National Afro-American Council which he helped found and of which he was an officer. He then moved to Washington, D.C., where he served as recorder of deeds from 1901 to 1910. His political appointments came in part as a result of the influence of his ally, Booker T. Washington.Photograph credit: Turner; restored by Adam Cuerden

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