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From today's featured article

Title page of The Path to Rome

The Path to Rome is a 1902 travelogue by the French-English writer Hilaire Belloc in which he recounts his pilgrimage to Rome from Toul in northeastern France. The book contains Belloc's account of events in short vignettes, his thoughts on his travels, and asides about the history and geography of places he visits. Drawings, maps, and musical notation are also included throughout. The book is mostly written in a stream-of-consciousness style, including conversations between Belloc and an imagined reader, and its use of complex literary techniques have been described as foreshadowing postmodern literature. The Path to Rome was Belloc's most financially successful work, established him as a serious author, and influenced several writers at the time. Contemporary reviews were positive, focusing on his authenticity, shrewd observations, and sense of humour. Retrospectives have similarly praised the book. Belloc himself later recounted that it was "the only book I ever wrote for love". (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Recreated Gutenberg printing press

... that around 1473 a Dominican friar denounced the printing press (example pictured) as a "whore" set against the "virgin" pen?
... that an Australian newspaper is mainly written by people who are or have been in prison?
... that an endowed scholarship was established at Thomas Jefferson University in memory of transgender activist and fashion designer Dominique "Rem'mie" Fells, who was murdered at the age of 27?
... that Notharctus, one of the first fossil primates discovered in the Americas, was originally classified as a pachyderm?
... that many people attributed Andrew Tate's removal from social media to a diatribe by Daz Black?
... that around 850,000 ethnic Turks were forcibly renamed by the People's Republic of Bulgaria in the 1980s?
... that Patricio Fontanet, Eduardo Vázquez, and other neighbourhood friends gave their first show as Callejeros in front of a barbershop?
... that Rudolph Valentino was rumored to have used Roman Gardens for secret romances, even though he died before the building was completed?
... that Steve Baumgartner had more than 1,200 beer cans lining the walls of a spare bedroom in his house?

In the news

Alan Greenspan

Two earthquakes strike Venezuela, leaving more than 1,450 people dead and tens of thousands of others missing.
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.

On this day

June 29: Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (Western Christianity)

Location of Turtle Gut Inlet on map, 1777

1776 – The first privateer battle of the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet, was fought near Cape May, New Jersey (map of location, pictured).
1832 – Black Hawk War: Three men working in a cornfield were attacked by Sauk Native Americans, resulting in two deaths.
1950 – The United States defeated England during the FIFA World Cup in one of the greatest upsets in the competition's history.
1971 – The Soyuz 11 spacecraft experienced uncontrolled decompression during preparations for reentry, killing Soviet cosmonauts Vladislav Volkov, Georgy Dobrovolsky and Viktor Patsayev—the only human deaths to have occurred in space.
2020 – Reddit banned r/The_Donald, a pro-Trump subreddit, for rule violations and antagonizing the company.

Pietro Paolo Troisi (b. 1686)
Fred Grandy (b. 1948)
Elizabeth Cooper (d. 1960)
Nicole Scherzinger (b. 1978)

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From today's featured list

Clytus arietis, a wasp-mimicking beetle

There are fifty-nine species of longhorn beetle native to Great Britain. Longhorn beetles (family Cerambycidae) are found on every continent in the world except Antarctica, and are among the most diverse and important beetle families. Around 35,000 species are known. A few of the British species are known from accidental introductions, while a handful are now believed to be extirpated from the island. Longhorn beetles are found in the vast majority of Britain, excepting some remote parts of Scotland, but enjoy their greatest diversity in southern England, especially in some of the Home Counties, in Hampshire, and in Cambridgeshire. In Scotland, they are more diverse and more frequently recorded in the Highlands than in the Lowlands. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The parti-coloured bat (Vespertilio murinus), also known as the rearmouse, is a species in the vesper bat family, Vespertilionidae. It is found across temperate Eurasia, from western and southern Europe through the Caucasus, Iran, Mongolia, northern China, Korea, Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. It measures 4.8–6.4 cm (1.9–2.5 in) in body length, weighs 11–24 grams (0.39–0.85 oz), and has a 26–33 cm (10–13 in) wingspan. Much of the parti-coloured bat's behaviour remains poorly understood because the species is relatively rare. It hunts insects such as mosquitoes, caddis flies and moths using ultrasonic calls, often over water and forests and around street lights. Females form maternity roosts and usually bear twins, while the species migrates long distances and hibernates alone through winter. Its distinctive twittering call is especially noticeable during the autumn mating season. This parti-coloured bat was photographed in Rochovce, Slovakia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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