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Cover of a translation of Arthur C. Clarke's The Sands of Mars

In fiction, the planet Mars, fourth from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in at least 5,000 works, portrayed differently as planetary science has advanced. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s as it became clear there is no life on the Moon. Mars then was a setting for utopian fiction. The War of the Worlds (1897), H. G. Wells's novel about an invasion of Earth by sinister Martians, had a major influence on science fiction. After 1900, life on Mars was often depicted as decadent, as in Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom series. Exotic life appeared in stories like Stanley G. Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey". Later in the 20th century, Mars colonization became a popular theme, as it became clear Mars is lifeless, though some works, like Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, feature native life. Terraforming Mars became a major theme in works like Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, and some works depict an initial expedition to the planet. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Grant's Tomb

... that no one is buried in Grant's Tomb (pictured)?
... that King Seonjo considered necromancy for Crown Princess Gonghoe's funeral because her remains were lost during the 1592 Japanese invasion of Korea?
... that in 2019, Chinese electronics company Xiaomi posted a video of their third-quarterly financial report featuring a parody of the anime song "Renai Circulation"?
... that Xochitl Gomez was aged 13 when she first auditioned for the 18-year-old America Chavez in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?
... that Forbes named German chancellor Angela Merkel the world's most powerful woman fourteen times?
... that future Loud LDN member Parthenope left her 200-year-old violin on a train?
... that MrBeast's Squid Game re-enactment was described as "perverse" and a misunderstanding of the original?
... that Project Carryall proposed the detonation of 23 nuclear devices in California to build a road?

In the news

Ali Bongo Ondimba

In Gabon, President Ali Bongo Ondimba (pictured) is deposed by a military coup shortly after his re-election.
A business jet crashes in Tver Oblast, Russia, killing Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine others.
Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 lands near the lunar south pole, carrying the Pragyan rover.
Thailand's parliament elects Srettha Thavisin as prime minister following general elections in May.

On this day

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

Cartoon depicting Jack the Ripper as a phantom stalking Whitechapel

1218 – Al-Kamil became the fourth sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt.
1888 – The body of Mary Ann Nichols, the alleged first victim of an unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper (depicted), was found in Buck's Row, London.
1942 – The Matagorda hurricane, the most intense and costliest tropical cyclone of the 1942 Atlantic hurricane season, dissipated after causing $26.5 million in damages and eight deaths.
1969 – On the final day of the Isle of Wight Festival 1969, an event attended by approximately 150,000 people over three days, Bob Dylan appeared in his first gig in three years.
2019 – A sightseeing helicopter crashed in the mountains of Skoddevarre in Alta, Norway, killing all six people on board.

Aidan of Lindisfarne (d. 651)
Alma Mahler (b. 1879)
Feng Tianwei (b. 1986)
William McAloney (d. 1995)

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Today's featured picture

The Architect's Dream is an 1840 oil-on-canvas painting created by Thomas Cole for the New York architect Ithiel Town. Cole incorporated pieces of architecture from Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Gothic styles in various parts of the painting, having himself done some architecture work previously. Cole finished the painting in only five weeks and displayed it in the National Academy of Design's annual exhibition that year. Town refused to accept the painting, claiming that it was "exclusively architectural". The Architect's Dream is now in the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio.

Painting credit: Thomas Cole

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