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From today's featured article

Statue of Nynetjer

Nynetjer was the third pharaoh of the Second Dynasty of Egypt. Egyptologists have proposed that his reign happened between the late 29th and early 27th century BC and probably lasted around 40 years. Archaeologically, Nynetjer is the best-attested king of the early Second Dynasty. Most events recorded for his reign on the Palermo Stone are religious festivals and censuses. The probable locations for these events indicate that royal activity was largely confined to the capital Memphis and its vicinity in Lower Egypt. The administrative partition of Egypt into nomes happened during his reign. Nynetjer had a large gallery tomb dug for himself in Saqqara comprising more than 150 rooms, some arranged to model a royal palace. When excavated, the tomb housed funerary equipment and stone tools, some of which were used in a ritual feast for Nynetjer's burial. The subterranean tomb was probably built with associated superstructures, but these were levelled and overbuilt by subsequent pharaohs. (Full article...)

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In the news

Romuald Wadagni

Romuald Wadagni (pictured) wins the Beninese presidential election.
In golf, Rory McIlroy wins the Masters Tournament.
The Tisza Party, led by Péter Magyar, wins the Hungarian parliamentary election, ending sixteen years of rule by Viktor Orbán's Fidesz.
Ismaïl Omar Guelleh is re-elected for a sixth consecutive term in the Djiboutian presidential election.

On this day

April 16

Harriet Quimby

69 – After defeat by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum, Roman emperor Otho killed himself.
556 – Emperor Justinian I approved and consecrated Pope Pelagius I.
1912 – American pilot Harriet Quimby (pictured) became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.
1917 – World War I: Several French army corps began a massive assault against the German-occupied Chemin des Dames ridge, south of Laon, France.
2001 – India and Bangladesh began a six-day conflict over their disputed border, which ended in a stalemate.
2013 – Boko Haram militants clashed with government forces, beginning the Baga massacre.

Aphra Behn (d. 1689)
Johnnie Lewis and R. Carlos Nakai (b. 1946)
Johnny Peirson (d. 2021)

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Today's featured picture

Shearing the Rams is an 1890 oil painting on canvas by the Australian artist Tom Roberts. It depicts sheep shearers plying their trade in a timber shearing shed. Roberts modelled the painting on a shearing shed at what is now called Killeneen, an outstation of the 24,000-hectare (59,000-acre) Brocklesby sheep station, near Corowa in the Riverina region of New South Wales. One of Australia's best-known paintings, this and other Australian Impressionist works gave visual expression to an emerging sense of national identity. The painting is currently in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.

Painting credit: Tom Roberts

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