From today's featured article
The Wild Australia Show was a troupe of Indigenous Australian performers that toured Australia during 1892 and 1893. The performers were recruited by Archibald Meston and his business partner with the aim of embarking on a world tour concluding at Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition. The performers' motivations for joining the tour are unknown; scholars have suggested that some may have been kidnapped or coerced, while others may have sought an escape from the violent Queensland frontier. Inspired by the ethnological expositions and Wild West shows popular during the era, the troupe's performances included dances, corroborees, and scenes inspired by the Australian frontier wars. The troupe ultimately performed in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, but ran out of funds and was abandoned by Meston before leaving the country. The performers were photographed during their tour by several of the country's leading photographers, with many of these photographs eventually becoming widely reproduced. ( Full article... )
Did you know ...
- ... that the designer of the Baranof totem pole (pictured) did not mean to depict a naked Russian man?
- ... that Ángeles Romero Frizzi aimed for an Indigenous perspective in a history book about her own state , according to a reviewer?
- ... that the Native American Student and Community Center in Portland, Oregon, is designed to resemble a tipi?
- ... that Sweden's Truth Commission for the Sámi People leaves "reconciliation" out of its name, unlike similar inquiries in Norway and Finland?
- ... that speakers of the Jorá language were massacred, rounded up in villages, and sold into slavery during the 1940s?
- ... that the tomb of the Okinawan king Shishō is now on the grounds of an air force base?
- ... that the Dominican folktale of the ciguapa was propagandized by the Rafael Trujillo regime to promote race mixing?
- ... that Te Whare Tīwekaweka is the first album entirely in Māori to reach number one on the New Zealand album charts?
- ... that the first Inuktitut Bible translated by native speakers was produced by a cathedral dean , a former heavy-equipment operator , a future mayor , a future member of the Order of Canada , and a former oilfield worker ?
In the news
- Shootings at a residence and a Debsirin School branch in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, leave at least nine people dead.
- An avalanche on Broad Peak (pictured) in Pakistan kills ten climbers.
- About 80,000 migrants cross the Morocco–Spain border at Ceuta, leading to at least 111 deaths.
- A magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, leaving at least 39 people dead.
On this day
August 9 : International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples ; National Women's Day in South Africa (1956)
- 1821 – A statue of the Polynesian god A'a was presented to members of the London Missionary Society on the south Pacific island of Ra'iatea.
- 1902 – In a ceremony at Westminster Abbey, Edward VII and Alexandra were crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor and Empress of India.
- 1960 – Led by Albert Kalonji, South Kasai declared its unilateral secession from the Republic of the Congo.
- 2018 – A civilian school bus in Dahyan, Yemen, was bombed by Saudi forces , killing at least 40 children.
- 2023 – Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated in Quito , eleven days before the general election.
- Irene of Athens (d. 803)
- Bang Si-hyuk (b. 1972)
- Buffy Chen (b. 2000)
- Zhu Liang (d. 2025)
Today's featured picture
 | Willa Beatrice Player (August 9, 1909 – August 29, 2003) was an American educator, college administrator, college president, civil-rights activist, and federal appointee. Player was the first African-American woman to become president of a four-year, fully accredited liberal arts college when she took the position at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. From 1955 to 1966, Player served as president of the historically black college during a period of heightened civil-rights activism in the South. She supported Bennett students who took part in the lengthy sit-ins started by the Greensboro Four to achieve integration of lunch counters in downtown stores. After leaving the Bennett presidency, Player was appointed in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson as the first female director of the Division of College Support in the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, serving in that role until 1986. This 1930 photograph of Player is from the archives of The Crisis . Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: |