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Edward Jones (7 April 1824 – c. 1895), also known as "the boy Jones", became notorious for breaking into Buckingham Palace in London several times between 1838 and 1841. He was first caught doing so when he was 14; although he was found with items he had stolen, he escaped a prison sentence. He broke into the palace again in December 1840, and was caught and sentenced to three months' hard labour. He was released in March 1841 and returned to the palace two weeks later, was arrested and served another three months. He was coerced into the Royal Navy by the Thames Police and served between 1842 and 1847. He was caught burgling houses in August 1849 and was transported to an Australian penal colony. He returned to England, was arrested for burglary in 1856 and served six months of hard labour. He probably died in Australia, either in Bairnsdale, Victoria, on Boxing Day 1893 or in Perth in 1896. (Full article...)

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... that a local newspaper hosted a beauty pageant to celebrate the opening of New York City's Queensboro Bridge?
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In the news

Damage in Hualien City

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes near Hualien City, Taiwan (damage pictured).
In Syria, an Israeli airstrike kills 16 people at the Iranian consulate in Damascus, including brigadier general Mohammad Reza Zahedi.
A bus falls from a bridge in Limpopo, South Africa, killing 45 people.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in the U.S. city of Baltimore collapses after being hit by a container ship.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye is elected President of Senegal.

On this day

April 7: National Beer Day in the United States

Artist's conception of the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft

1862 – American Civil War: Union forces defeated Confederate troops at the Battle of Shiloh, the bloodiest battle in U.S. history at the time, in Hardin County, Tennessee.
1949 – The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, based on Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener, opened on Broadway.
1964 – Reverend Bruce W. Klunder was killed by a bulldozer while he was protesting the construction of a segregated school in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
1994 – Rwandan Civil War: The Rwandan genocide began a few hours after the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana, with hundreds of thousands killed in the following 100 days.
2001 – NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey (artist's conception pictured), the longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth, launched from Cape Canaveral.

Berengar I of Italy (d. 924)
Martha Ray (d. 1779)
Joseph Lyons (d. 1939)
Dave Arneson (d. 2009)

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Today's featured picture

The bell miner (Manorina melanophrys), also known as the bellbird, is a colonial honeyeater species endemic to southeastern Australia. The name miner is derived from an old alternative spelling of myna, and is shared with other members of the genus Manorina. The birds feed almost exclusively on the dome-like coverings, referred to as "bell lerps", of certain psyllid bugs that feed on eucalyptus sap from the leaves. The psyllids make these bell lerps from their own honeydew secretions in order to protect themselves from predators and the environment. This bell miner was photographed on the Nepean River in Penrith, New South Wales.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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