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Smith in 1948

Addie Viola Smith (November 14, 1893 – December 13, 1975) was an American attorney who served as the United States trade commissioner to Shanghai from 1928 to 1949, the first female Foreign Service officer in the United States Foreign Service to work under the United States Department of Commerce, and the first woman to serve as trade commissioner. Smith was born and raised in Stockton, California. In 1917, she moved to Washington, D.C. While working for the United States Department of Labor, she attended the Washington College of Law part-time, earning her bachelor of laws in 1920. In October that year she joined the Foreign Service and was assigned to Beijing as a clerk in the trade commissioner's office. Smith was promoted to assistant trade commissioner in Shanghai in 1922, and appointed trade commissioner there in 1928. She later held roles in the U.S. government, international organizations, and the United Nations. Throughout her life, Smith was also a member of several feminist organizations. Smith met her life partner, Eleanor Mary Hinder, in Shanghai in 1926. Both were memorialized by their friends with two stone seats at the E.G. Waterhouse National Camellia Gardens in Caringbah. (Full article...)

Anonymous double portrait of Qalaherriaq

Qalaherriaq (baptized Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua) was an Inughuit hunter from Cape York in northwestern Greenland. Born around 1834, he was taken aboard the British barque HMS Assistance in 1850 as an interpreter during the search for Franklin's lost expedition. He guided the ship to Wolstenholme Fjord to investigate rumors of a massacre of Franklin's crew, but found the corpses of local Inughuit and crew from an unrelated British vessel. Poor sea conditions prevented the Assistance from returning to his family, and he was instead taken to England and placed in the custody of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He was enrolled in St Augustine's College at Canterbury and studied English and Christianity. In 1855, he tasked by the Bishop of Newfoundland to join him on a mission to the Labrador Inuit. His health problems, which he had developed during his interpreter service, worsened after his arrival in Newfoundland, and he died at St. John's in 1856, at around 22 years old. (Full article...)

Falcon's Fury is a freestanding Sky Jump drop tower attraction at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay amusement park in Tampa, Florida. Manufactured by Intaride, a subsidiary of Intamin, the ride is North America's tallest freestanding drop tower, at a maximum height of 335 feet (102 m). It is also the first drop tower to use 90-degree tilting seats, facing riders straight down through five seconds of free fall. They reach a speed of 60 miles per hour (100 km/h) before rotating back into a vertical position and decelerating at about 3.5 Gs. The ride's name is meant to suggest a falcon's ability to dive steeply at high speed to capture prey. Due to the height of the attraction, approval from the Federal Aviation Administration was required. Construction was delayed until 2013, and the opening date was also delayed by mechanical and technical issues. Falcon's Fury opened to park employees in August before a soft opening on August 16, 2014, and an official opening on September 2, 2014. (Full article...)

Ken "Snakehips" Johnson was a swing band leader and leading figure in black British music of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in British Guiana, he was educated in Britain and travelled to New York to immerse himself in the Harlem jazz scene. He returned to Britain and established the Aristocrats (or Emperors) of Jazz, a mainly black swing band, with Leslie Thompson. In 1937 Johnson took control of the band through a legal loophole, causing the departure of Thompson and several musicians. Johnson filled the vacancies with Caribbean musicians, the band's popularity grew, and it changed its name to the West Indian Dance Orchestra. In 1938 the band broadcast on BBC Radio, recorded their first discs and appeared in an early television broadcast. Johnson was considered a pioneer for black musical leaders in the UK. Employed as the house band at the Café de Paris, a German bombing raid in 1941 hit the facility, killing Johnson. (Full article...)

Tropical Storm Hanna in the Gulf of Mexico on September 13, 2002

Tropical Storm Hanna was the ninth tropical cyclone and eighth named storm of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season. Hanna formed through the complex interaction of a surface trough, a tropical wave, and an upper-level low pressure system. Initially designated a tropical depression, it attained tropical storm status and a peak intensity of 1,001 mbar (29.6 inHg), with winds of 60 miles per hour (100 km/h). Hanna crossed southeastern Louisiana, and made a second landfall along the Alabama–Mississippi border. On Dauphin Island, Alabama, the storm caused coastal flooding which closed roads and forced the evacuation of residents. Florida received high wind gusts, heavy rainfall, and strong surf that resulted in the deaths of three swimmers. 20,000 homes in the state lost electricity. In Georgia, significant flooding occurred. Crop damage was extensive, and about 335 structures were damaged by the flooding. The storm caused a total of about $20 million USD in damage. (Full article...)

An attempted coup took place on September 13, 1964, in South Vietnam against the ruling military junta, led by Nguyễn Khánh (pictured). In the proceeding month, Khánh tried to improve his leadership by declaring a state of emergency, provoking protests and riots. He made concessions to the protesters and removed military officials linked to former President Ngo Dinh Diem, including Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức. They responded with a coup, broadcasting their promise to revive Diem's policies. Khánh evaded capture and rallied allies while the U.S. continued their support for his rule. Khánh forced Phát and Đức to capitulate the next morning and various coup leaders appeared at a media conference where they denied that a coup had taken place. To maintain power, Khánh tried to court support from Buddhist activists, who supported negotiations to end the Vietnam War. As the Americans were strongly opposed to such policies, relations with Khánh became strained. (Full article...)

Gold dinar minted with al-Musta'li's name

al-Mustaʿlī biʾllāh was the ninth Fatimid caliph and the nineteenth imam of Musta'li Ismailism. He became caliph through the machinations of his brother-in-law al-Afdal Shahanshah. In response, his oldest brother, Nizar, revolted in Alexandria; his defeat and execution split the Isma'ili movement. al-Musta'li remained subordinate to al-Afdal, who was the de facto ruler of the Fatimid Caliphate. The Caliphate's territory in Egypt experienced a period of good government and prosperity, but the Fatimids suffered setbacks in Syria, where they faced the advance of the Seljuk Turks. Al-Afdal recovered the port city of Tyre and recaptured Jerusalem in the turmoil caused by the arrival of the First Crusade. Despite Fatimid attempts to make common cause with the Crusaders against the Seljuks, the latter advanced south and captured Jerusalem in July 1099 and defeated the Fatimid army at the Battle of Ascalon. Al-Musta'li died in 1101 and was succeeded by his son al-Amir. (Full article...)

SMS Helgoland

SMS Helgoland (pictured) was a dreadnought battleship of the German Imperial Navy. Her design improved from the Nassau class, including an increase in the bore diameter of the main guns. Her keel was laid down at the Howaldtswerke shipyards in Kiel, launched on 25 September 1909, and commissioned on 23 August 1911. During World War I the ship participated in several sweeps into the North Sea as the covering force for the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group. She saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy, including serving as part of a support force during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. Helgoland was present at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, though she was located in the center of the German line of battle and not as heavily engaged as the ships in the lead. She was ceded to Great Britain after the war and broken up for scrap in the early 1920s. Her coat of arms is preserved in the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden. (Full article...)

Tourists take photographs of the painting

The Founding Ceremony of the Nation is a 1953 oil painting by Chinese artist Dong Xiwen. It depicts Mao Zedong and other Communist officials inaugurating the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949. A prominent example of socialist realism, it is one of the most celebrated works of official Chinese art. After the Communists took control of China, they sought to memorialize their achievements through artworks. Dong was commissioned, and completed the oil painting in three months in a folk art style, drawing on historical Chinese art. The success of the painting was assured when Mao viewed it and liked it, and it was reproduced in large numbers for display in homes. Dong was ordered to remove Gao Gang from the painting in 1954 and Liu Shaoqi in 1967, after government purges. In 1972 a reproduction was painted by other artists to accommodate another deletion. After the purged officials were rehabilitated, the replica was modified in 1979 to include them. Both canvases are in the National Museum of China in Beijing. (Full article...)