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Annie Dove Denmark (1887–1974) was an American music educator and academic administrator who was the fifth president of Anderson College (now Anderson University) in Anderson, South Carolina, from 1928 to 1953. A talented musician in her youth, Denmark attended what is now Meredith College and graduated with an artist's diploma in piano in 1908. She began teaching piano at Anderson in 1917. She is commonly, though incorrectly, cited as the first woman president of a college or university in South Carolina. She oversaw Anderson's transition from a four-year college to a two-year junior college, making it the first junior college in the state. The school's debt was paid off by the South Carolina Baptist Convention in May 1938, and attendance increased for several years after World War II when the school enrolled more men than it ever had since becoming co-educational in 1931. She left office in May 1953, concluding a 25-year presidency that remains the longest in Anderson's history. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Crim Dell bridge on William & Mary's campus

... that lovers on the campus of the College of William & Mary are encouraged to cross the Crim Dell bridge (pictured) together?
... that after Shawn Christopher's "Another Sleepless Night" was rereleased with Mike "Hitman" Wilson's name removed, it charted 24 places higher on the UK Singles Chart?
... it has been suggested that Crassispira incrassata may be a southern variation of Crassispira bottae and not its own species?
... that Maria Olovennikova was the only woman present at the founding conference of Narodnaya Volya?
... that the naturally connected Pipe Lake and Lake Lucerne are the only hydrilla-infested lakes in the state of Washington?
... that sales from Dieux du Stade, a nude calendar produced by the French professional rugby union club Stade Français featuring photos of its players, helped to finance the club for many years?
... that Carmen Scheibenbogen was awarded the German Cross of Merit for her work on ME/CFS at the suggestion of patients and relatives?
... that despite various proposals, a statue of a renowned Dunedin clergyman was not moved from its location adjacent to a brothel and two parking lots?

In the news

Alexander Stubb

Alexander Stubb (pictured) is elected President of Finland.
In American football, the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers to win the Super Bowl.
In association football, the Africa Cup of Nations concludes with Ivory Coast defeating Nigeria in the final.
Marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum dies in a car crash at the age of 24.
Irakli Kobakhidze succeeds Irakli Garibashvili as Prime Minister of Georgia.

On this day

February 14: Valentine's Day; Ash Wednesday (Western Christianity, 2024)

Pale Blue Dot

1655 – Arauco War: A series of coordinated Mapuche attacks took place against Spanish settlements and forts in colonial Chile, beginning a ten-year period of warfare.
1779 – Native Hawaiians killed the English explorer Captain James Cook after he attempted to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the ruling chief of the island of Hawaii.
1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company was renamed as International Business Machines (IBM), later growing into one of the world's largest companies by market capitalization.
1990 – NASA's Voyager 1 space probe took the iconic Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth (pictured) from a record distance of 40.5 au (6.06 billion km; 3.76 billion mi).
2007 – The first of several bombings in Zahedan, Iran, killed 18 members of the Revolutionary Guards.

Valentin Friedland (b. 1490)
Eleanora Atherton (b. 1782)
Nadezhda Krupskaya (b. 1869)
Vito Genovese (d. 1969)

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Today's featured picture

Chromolithography is a method of printmaking using multiple colours, stemming from the process of lithography. It became the most successful of several methods of colour printing developed by the 19th century. This image is a chromolithograph of Love or Duty by Gabriele Castagnola, printed by Hangard-Mangué of Paris. The blocks on the lower right-hand side show the nineteen colours of ink used. The image depicts, like many of Castagnola's works, Lucrezia Buti and Filippo Lippi. Lippi, a painter, was in 1458 working in the city of Prato, Italy, where he set about painting a picture for the monastery chapel of Saint Margherita in that city. There he met Lucrezia, a beautiful novice of the order. Lippi asked that she model for the figure of the Virgin Mary, or perhaps Margaret the Virgin. The two began a sexual relationship, and Buti moved into Lippi's home. This relationship resulted in a son, Filippino Lippi, who became a famous painter, and a daughter, Alessandra.

Illustration credit: Gabriele Castagnola; chromolithography by Jehenné; restored by Adam Cuerden

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