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Augustus (63 BC – AD 14) was the founder of the Roman Empire and the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death. In his youth, his great-uncle Julius Caesar named him as his primary heir, and after Caesar's assassination in 44 BC he inherited his estate and took his name. He seized power by marching on Rome in 43 BC, and he, Mark Antony and Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate. Competing ambitions tore the alliance apart, and Augustus was triumphant, taking imperial power. Augustus enlarged the Empire, but suffered a major setback in Germania. He protected Rome with a buffer of client states and secured peace with the Parthian Empire and the Kingdom of Kush. He developed Roman roads, with an official courier system; established a standing professional army, the Praetorian Guard, as well as official police and fire-fighting services for Rome; and renovated much of the city during his reign. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult and an era of imperial peace. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

... that many dams (example pictured) built on international rivers have led to political conflicts over water sharing, exacerbated by population increases, impacts of climate change, and water scarcity?
... that recording sessions for his album Taste left singer Haechan temporarily voiceless?
... that Francis Méano won both the French Division 1 and the Latin Cup only a month before he died in a car accident?
... that 7,000 policemen and soldiers were deployed to secure the repeated 2018 Sampang regency election?
... that death in video games is often presented as meaningful and tragic, even when reversible?
... that George McLean Harper invented the term "conversation poems" to describe some of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's work?
... that Inuit peoples made thread out of baleen connected with fisherman's knots?
... that Johann Sigismund Weiss played the lute before the Holy Roman emperor and the assembled German princes at the 1711 imperial election?
... that in 1836, a group of schoolboys discovered a hidden cache of tiny coffins, the purpose of which is still unknown?

In the news

Alan Greenspan

Two earthquakes strike Venezuela, leaving more than 160 people dead.
Former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan (pictured) dies at the age of 100.
Keir Starmer announces his intention to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
An attack by Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin at the Diori Hamani International Airport in Niger kills 35 people, including 22 gunmen.
In motorsport, Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway of Toyota Racing win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

On this day

June 25

CIA diagram of Area 51

1658 – Anglo-Spanish War: The largest battle ever fought on Jamaica, the three-day Battle of Rio Nuevo, began.
1940 – Second World War: Operation Aerial, an evacuation of nearly 200,000 Allied soldiers from French ports, was completed.
1950 – The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 82 condemning the North Korean invasion of South Korea.
2013 – In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the CIA acknowledged the existence of Area 51 (diagram pictured), a secretive U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada and a subject of various UFO, and other, conspiracy theories.
2022 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russian forces captured the city of Sievierodonetsk, Ukraine, after six weeks of fighting.

B. J. Habibie (b. 1936)
Sonia Sotomayor (b. 1954)
Michael Jackson (d. 2009)
David Goldblatt (d. 2018)

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Paro Taktsang is a Buddhist monastery located in the upper Paro valley of Bhutan. Also known as the Taktsang Palphug Monastery and the Tiger's Nest, it is located in the cliffside of a mountain, around a cave where Guru Padmasambhava is believed to have meditated and practiced Vajrayana Buddhism in the early 9th century. The monastery was built in 1692 by 4th Druk Desi Tenzin Rabgey.

Photograph credit: Nina R; edited by UnpetitproleX

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