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Grand Theft Auto V is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 17 September 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in November 2014 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, in April 2015 for Windows, and in March 2022 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, it is set within the fictional state of San Andreas (based on Southern California) and its city of Los Santos (based on Los Angeles). The single-player story follows three protagonists and their heist attempts. Grand Theft Auto Online, the game's online multiplayer mode, offers a number of different cooperative and competitive game modes. The game received critical acclaim, with praise directed at its multiple protagonist design, open world, presentation, and gameplay. It is considered among the best video games ever made and is the second-best-selling video game ever, with more than 180 million copies sold. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Evdokia Kozhevnikova

... that the fieldwork of Soviet ethnologist Evdokia Kozhevnikova (pictured) for her unfinished dissertation provides a valuable record of the culture and the language of the Georgian province of Svaneti?
... that the Kingstree jail fire killed 22 freedmen amidst the "unsettled" labor conditions of Reconstruction in South Carolina?
... that Ivan Beshoff, the last survivor of the mutiny on the Potemkin, emigrated to Ireland where he established a fish and chip shop that is still run by his descendants?
... that The Cormac McCarthy Journal is one of the few academic journals about a specific author from the United States founded while its subject was alive?
... that according to family tradition, admiral and painter Jacob Hägg decided to become a naval officer after seeing a Franco-British naval force during the Crimean War?
... that a complaint signed by 52 people resulted in curriculum standards at New York State's private schools being subject to structured regulatory oversight for the very first time?
... that Imagining Mars: A Literary History "presents a compelling case that 'Mars matters'"?
... that a 1903 New York Times editorial predicted it would take one to ten million years to develop an operating flying machine?

In the news

Evika Siliņa

Evika Siliņa (pictured) takes office as Prime Minister of Latvia.
In Hanoi, Vietnam, a fire at an apartment building kills at least 56 people.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup concludes with Germany defeating Serbia in the final.
Storm Daniel causes flooding around the central Mediterranean and the collapse of two dams in Libya, leaving thousands of people dead.

On this day

September 17: Constitution Day in the United States (1787)

Emperor Norton

1176 – Byzantine–Seljuk wars: Seljuq Turks prevented Byzantine forces from taking the interior of Anatolia at the Battle of Myriokephalon in Phrygia.
1382 – Following the death of Louis I without a male heir, his daughter Mary was crowned with the title of King of Hungary.
1859 – Disgruntled with the legal and political structures of the United States, Joshua Norton (pictured) distributed letters to various newspapers in San Francisco proclaiming himself to be Emperor Norton.
1894 – The controversial Mormon bishop and prophetic dreamer John Hyrum Koyle began excavating the Dream Mine, which he believed would provide financial support to members of the LDS Church.
1914 – Andrew Fisher, whose previous term as Prime Minister of Australia oversaw a period of reform unmatched in the Commonwealth until the 1940s, became prime minister for the third time.

Li Jingsui (d. 958)
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans (d. 1721)
Periyar (b. 1879)
Hank Williams (b. 1923)

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Today's featured picture

The hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is a species of hawk moth found across temperate regions of Eurasia, from Portugal to Japan. Its long proboscis (25–28 mm; 0.98–1.10 in) and its hovering behavior, accompanied by an audible humming noise, give it a resemblance to the hummingbird. Like hummingbirds, it feeds on flowers which have tube-shaped corollae; this is an example of convergent evolution. The hummingbird hawk-moth flies during the day, especially in bright sunshine, but also at dusk, dawn, and even in the rain, which is unusual for even diurnal hawk moths. It engages in free hovering flight, which allows more maneuverability and control than fixed-wing flight, despite high energetic cost. This hummingbird hawk-moth in flight was photographed near Yastrebets in Rila, a mountain range in Bulgaria.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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