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From today's featured article

The Jack Pine

Tom Thomson (1877–1917) was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century. During his short career he produced roughly 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and around 50 larger pieces on canvas. His works consist almost entirely of landscapes depicting trees, skies, lakes, and rivers. He used broad brush strokes and a liberal application of paint to capture the beauty and colour of the Ontario landscape. His paintings The Jack Pine (pictured) and The West Wind have taken a prominent place in the culture of Canada and are some of the country's most iconic works. Although he died before the formal establishment of the Group of Seven, Thomson's art is typically exhibited with theirs. Nearly all of his work remains in Canada—mainly at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg and the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound. His accidental death at 39 by drowning is seen as a tragedy for Canadian art. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Malala Yousafzai

... that the 2019 book We Are Displaced by Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai (pictured) tells the stories of ten displaced girls, including herself?
... that Raymond Butt compiled a directory of "every station, halt, platform and stopping place on the British railway passenger network"?
... that the Guianan squirrel monkey has a varied diet that includes seeds, eggs, nectar, gum, insects, flowers, lizards, and occasionally bats?
... that Roma producer Gabriela Rodríguez is the first Latin American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture?
... that if Caesar had successfully carried out his planned invasions, he would, according to Plutarch, have ensured that his empire "would then be bounded on all sides by the ocean"?
... that Frant Gwo's science fiction film The Wandering Earth is the world's highest-grossing film of 2019 so far and the second highest-grossing film of all time in China?
... that the Arianna String Quartet was praised by the Chicago Tribune as making music "with the tonal warmth, fastidious balance, and heightened communication skills of groups many years its senior"?
... that Team Canada threatened to pull out of the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union unless Ove Dahlberg officiated?

In the news

Al Noor Mosque in 2006

At least 49 people are killed in shootings at the Al Noor Mosque (pictured) and the Linwood Islamic Centre, in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 with the loss of all 157 people on board, Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are grounded worldwide.
A severe tornado outbreak hits the Southeastern United States, with one tornado causing 23 deaths in Alabama.

On this day

March 16: Latvian Legion Day

Clifford's Tower, York Castle

1190 – Around 150 Jews inside York Castle (pictured) in York, England, died, with the majority committing mass suicide to avoid being killed by a mob.
1782 – American Revolutionary War: Spain captured the island of Roatán off the coast of what is now Honduras.
1935 – Conscription was re-introduced in Nazi Germany, and the German military was renamed the Wehrmacht.
1984 – William Buckley, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists.
2014 – Annexation of Crimea: The Autonomous Republic of Crimea held a controversial referendum where voters overwhelmingly chose to join Russia as a federal subject.

John Leverett (d. 1678/79) · Anna Atkins (b. 1799) · Virginia Randolph (d. 1958)

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Today's featured picture

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is a research reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory in the United States. Constructed in 1967, the ATR is the second oldest of three reactors still in operation at the site. Its primary function is the intense bombardment of materials and fuels with neutrons to replicate long-term exposure to high levels of radiation, as would be present after years in a commercial nuclear reactor. The ATR is one of only four test reactors in the world with this capability. The reactor also produces rare isotopes for use in medicine and industry.

In this picture the ATR is glowing bright blue. This is due to Cherenkov radiation, which emits photons in the blue and ultraviolet range.

Photograph: Argonne National Laboratory

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