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From today's featured article

Mariah Carey

Music Box is the third studio album by Mariah Carey (pictured), released on August 31, 1993, by Columbia Records. She adopted a radio-friendly approach for the album to appeal to a wider audience. Carey wrote and produced most of its tracks with Walter Afanasieff, though other songwriters and producers were involved. Music Box is a pop and R&B album consisting of sentimental ballads and uptempo dance tracks. Its five singles include the US Billboard Hot 100 number-ones "Dreamlover" and "Hero", as well as "Without You"—her most successful song worldwide at the time. On release, Music Box received mixed reviews from music critics, who praised her vocals but criticized the album's mellow, formulaic, and subdued lyricism. Retrospective reviews have been more positive, underscoring its significance in Carey's career. The album topped the charts in 15 countries and became Carey's bestseller and one of the best-selling albums in history, with over 30 million copies sold worldwide. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Chauncey's Yale degree diploma

... that Nathaniel Chauncey was the first person to receive a degree from Yale (diploma pictured)?
... that a fire weather–fueled pyrocumulonimbus thunderstorm can produce lightning, hail, and tornadoes, but almost never significant rain?
... that, according to one account, a woman rebuked King Olua of Benin after the cow leg he gave her was so heavy that it knocked her down?
... that the music video for Alan Walker's song "Faded" is the first EDM song to reach 3 billion views on YouTube?
... that Chhatrapati Rajaram Maharaj had an airport named after him almost eighty years after his death?
... that two Polish linguists founded a school of linguistics in Central Russia?
... that a critic initially mistook a life-size sculpture in Africa Explores for a real guard?
... that Choi Soon-hwa received the Best Dressed award at Miss Universe Korea at the age of 81?
... that, when the Wanli Emperor objected to naming his eldest son as heir because his mother had been a former palace servant, the Emperor's mother reminded him that she had been a palace servant too?

In the news

Harald V in May 2026

King Harald V of Norway (pictured) dies at the age of 89 and is succeeded by Haakon VIII.
Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama dies at the age of 97.
Bosnian Serb military officer and convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić dies in prison at the age of 84.
More than 800 people are killed with thousands injured and missing after flash flooding in the Rasuwa and Nuwakot Districts of Nepal and along the China–Nepal border.

On this day

August 31: Independence Day in Malaysia (1957); Romanian Language Day

Interior view of Kinetoscope with peephole viewer

1218 – Al-Kamil became the fourth sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt.
1814 – War of 1812: American militia forces repelled a British force at the Battle of Caulk's Field, killing 41 people including Captain Peter Parker of the Royal Navy.
1886 – The 7.0 M_w Charleston earthquake struck southeastern South Carolina with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 60 people and causing damage worth an estimated $5–6 million.
1897 – Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the Kinetoscope (pictured), a precursor to the modern movie projector.
2019 – A sightseeing helicopter crashed in the mountains of Skoddevarre in Alta, Norway, killing all six people on board.

Jahangir (b. 1569)
Charles Baudelaire (d. 1867)
Dogsomyn Bodoo (d. 1922)
Feng Tianwei (b. 1986)

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From today's featured list

Dafne Schippers, seven-time Dutch Athlete of the Year

The Dutch Athlete of the Year is an annual award given to the most distinguished competitor in the sport of athletics from the Netherlands by the Royal Dutch Athletics Federation (KNAU). A shortlist is drawn up by a group of federation officials and sports journalists and then goes to a vote by the public. The award is presented at the KNAU's annual end-of-year gala. The award was inaugurated in 1936 as the Sauer Cup, and was renamed the KNAU Cup in 1947. Initially a mixed-gender award, the best Dutch male and female athletes were recognised separately from 1959 onwards. The men's award was called the Herman van Leeuwen Cup during this period, while the women's award continued as the KNAU Cup. Since 2005, the awards have been known as the Dutch Athlete of the Year, and since 2018 it has again been a mixed-gender award. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife is a 1634 etching by the Dutch artist Rembrandt. Described as "unprecedented in its erotic candor", it depicts an episode from the Book of Genesis in which the wife of the Egyptian officer Potiphar attempts to seduce Joseph, who rejects her advances and flees as she grabs his garment. She later uses the garment to falsely accuse him of assaulting her, leading to his imprisonment. Rembrandt shows Joseph recoiling and averting his eyes as Potiphar's partially nude wife reaches towards him from her bed, and the artist may have intended moral implications in the contrast of light and shadow between the two subjects. Multiple layers of hatching create the darker areas of the print. The etching is now in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Etching credit: Rembrandt

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