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From the day before yesterday's featured article

Frontispiece and title page of The British Housewife

Martha Bradley (fl. 1740s–1755) was a British cookery book writer. Little is known about her life, except that she published the cookery book The British Housewife (pictured) in 1756 and worked as a cook for more than 30 years in the fashionable spa town of Bath, Somerset. The British Housewife was released as a 42-issue partwork between January and October 1756. It was published in a two-volume book form in 1758, and is more than a thousand pages long. It is likely that Bradley was dead before the partwork was published. The book follows the French style of nouvelle cuisine, distinguishing Bradley from other female cookery book writers at the time, who focused on a British style of food preparation. The work is carefully organised and the recipes taken from other authors are amended, suggesting she was a knowledgeable and experienced cook, able to improve on existing dishes. Because of the length of the book, it was not reprinted until 1996; as a result, few modern writers have written extensively on Bradley or her work. (Full article...)

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In the news (For today)

Friedrich Merz

In the German federal election, the CDU/CSU, led by Friedrich Merz (pictured), wins the most seats in the Bundestag.
Archaeologists announce that the empty tomb Wadi C-4 near Luxor, Egypt, was that of the pharaoh Thutmose II.
At the British Academy Film Awards, Conclave wins four awards, including Best Film.
Mahamoud Ali Youssouf is elected chairman of the African Union Commission.
President of Romania Klaus Iohannis resigns from office, and is succeeded by Ilie Bolojan in an acting capacity.

Two days ago

February 25: Soviet Occupation Day in Georgia (1921); National Day in Kuwait (1961)

USS Ranger

1843 – Royal Navy captain Lord George Paulet began a five-month occupation of the Hawaiian Islands.
1933 – USS Ranger (pictured), the United States Navy's first purpose-built aircraft carrier, was launched.
1951 – After being postponed due to World War II, the inaugural Pan American Games opened in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1994 – Israeli physician Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Palestinian Muslims praying at the mosque in Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs, killing 29 people and wounding 125 others.
2009 – At their headquarters in Pilkhana, members of the Bangladesh Rifles began a mutiny that resulted in 82 deaths.

Emma Catherine Embury (b. 1806)
Elizabeth Gertrude Britton (d. 1934)
Divya Bharti (b. 1974)
Don Bradman (d. 2001)

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The day before yesterday's featured picture

George I Rákóczi (1593–1648) was a Hungarian nobleman who served as Prince of Transylvania from 1630 until his death. Before acceding to the throne, he was a leader of the Protestant faction in Hungary and a faithful supporter of Prince Gabriel Bethlen. When Bohemian nobles requested military support in their struggles against the Habsburg monarchy, Rákóczi persuaded Bethlen to help and commanded Transylvanian forces in several battles. After Bethlen's death, there were short reigns by his wife and then his brother, but the Transylvanian parliament elected Rákóczi as Bethlen's permanent successor. His reign was notable for his role in the Thirty Years' War, with a campaign against Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, from 1644 to 1645. After Rákóczi held Upper Hungary and most of Lower Hungary at one point, the fighting was ended by the Treaty of Linz, under which seven counties of Upper Hungary were annexed by Transylvania. This etching of Rákóczi was produced in 1631 by the Dutch Golden Age artist Jan Gillisz. van Vliet, after an earlier design by Rembrandt, Van Vliet's teacher. The illustration is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Illustration credit: Jan Gillisz. van Vliet, after Rembrandt

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