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From today's featured article

14th-century depiction of Edgar

Edgar (c. 944 – 8 July 975) was King of the English from 959 until his death. He mainly followed the political policies of his predecessors but made major changes in the religious sphere, with the English Benedictine Reform becoming a dominant religious and social force. His major administrative reform was the introduction of a standardised coinage, and he issued legislative codes concentrated on improving the enforcement of the law. After his death, the throne was disputed between the supporters of his two surviving sons; Edward the Martyr was chosen with the support of Dunstan, the archbishop of Canterbury. Chroniclers presented Edgar's reign as a golden age when England was free from external attacks and internal disorder. Modern historians see Edgar's reign as the pinnacle of Anglo-Saxon culture but disagree about his political legacy, and some see the disorders following his death as a natural reaction to his overbearing control. (Full article...)

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In the news

Flooding near Hunt, Texas

Flooding in central Texas (pictured), United States, leaves more than 100 people dead.
Astronomers announce the discovery of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object passing through the Solar System.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile releases the first light images from its new 8.4-metre (28 ft) telescope.
In basketball, the Oklahoma City Thunder defeat the Indiana Pacers to win the NBA Finals.

On this day

July 8

Players during the Agony of Mineirão

1758 – French and Indian War: French forces defeated the British at Fort Carillon on the shore of Lake Champlain in the British colony of New York.
1950 – Korean War: American troops withdrew from Cheonan, in modern-day South Korea, after suffering heavy casualties from a North Korean attack.
1962 – Following student protests at Rangoon University, Burmese general Ne Win ordered the demolition of the historic students' union building.
1965 – Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21 was destroyed by a bomb near 100 Mile House, Canada, killing 52.
2014 – In the 2014 FIFA World Cup semi-finals, Germany defeated Brazil 7-1 in the Agony of Mineirão (players pictured), breaking several tournament records.

Qatr al-Nada (d. 900)
Peter Sainthill (b. 1593)
Christiaan Huygens (d. 1685)
Beck (b. 1970)

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Today's featured picture

The Gross Clinic is an 1875 oil-on-canvas painting by the American artist Thomas Eakins. It measures 8 ft by 6.5 ft (240 cm by 200 cm). The painting depicts Samuel D. Gross (July 8, 1805 – May 6, 1884), a seventy-year-old American medical professor, dressed in a black frock coat and lecturing a group of Jefferson Medical College students in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The painting is based on a surgery, witnessed by Eakins, in which Gross treated a young man for an infected femur. Gross is pictured here performing a conservative operation, as opposed to the amputation normally carried out at the time. Eakins included a self-portrait in the form of a student with a white cuffed sleeve sketching or writing, at the right-hand edge of the painting, next to the tunnel railing. The Gross Clinic has been restored three times, most recently in 2010, and is currently in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Painting credit: Thomas Eakins

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