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The Royal Artillery Memorial is a First World War memorial located on Hyde Park Corner in London; it was unveiled on 18 October 1925. Designed by Charles Sargeant Jagger, with architectural work by Lionel Pearson, the memorial commemorates the 49,076 soldiers from the Royal Artillery killed in the First World War. The Royal Artillery War Commemoration Fund, formed in 1918, approached several eminent architects but its insistence on a visual representation of artillery meant that none was able to produce a satisfactory design. They approached Jagger, himself an ex-soldier who had been wounded in the war, and he produced a design that was accepted in 1922. The memorial comprises a cruciform base in Portland stone supporting a sculpture of a howitzer. At the end of each arm of the cross is a sculpture of a soldier—an officer at the front (south side), a shell carrier on the east side, a driver on the west side, and a dead soldier at the rear (north side). The design was controversial when unveiled. (Full article...)

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In the news

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American molecular biologist James Watson (pictured), co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, dies at the age of 97.
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On this day

November 9

Flag of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

1822 – USS Alligator engaged three pirate schooners off the coast of Cuba in one of the West Indies anti-piracy operations of the United States.
1913 – A severe blizzard reached its maximum intensity in the Great Lakes Basin of North America, destroying 19 ships and 68,300 tons of cargo, and killing more than 250 people.
1918 – The government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic adopted a tricolour national flag (pictured) which remains in use today, with slight modifications, by the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan.
1985 – At age 22, Garry Kasparov became the youngest-ever undisputed World Chess Champion by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov.
2019 – The Alabama Crimson Tide and LSU Tigers football teams, both with undefeated records thus far that season, played in a "Game of the Century".

Johannes Narssius (b. 1580)
Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (d. 1854)
Bob Gibson (b. 1935)
Charles de Gaulle (d. 1970)

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Today's featured picture

Kumaon is a revenue and administrative division in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Historically known as Manaskhand and Kurmanchal, the Kumaon region has been ruled by several dynasties over the course of its history, most notably the Katyuri and the Chand. In 1790, the Kingdom of Kumaon was invaded and annexed by the Gorkhas, from whom it was conquered by the British East India Company in 1815, following which it became part of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces (which later became the United Provinces). After Indian independence in 1947, it remained part of the state of Uttar Pradesh until 2000, when the state of Uttarakhand was created as a result of the Uttarakhand movement. The people of Kumaon are known as Kumaonis and speak the Kumaoni language. This picture shows a panoramic view of the Kumaon Himalayas as seen from the hill station and town of Ranikhet, with mountains such as Trisul (7,120 m, 23,360 ft), Nanda Devi (7,817 m, 25,646 ft), Nanda Kot (6,861 m, 22,510 ft), Panchachuli (6,904 m, 22,651 ft), and other peaks prominently visible.

Photograph credit: Harshit Rautela; edited by UnpetitproleX

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