Jules Massenet (12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas. The two most frequently staged are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892). After winning the country's top prize in music, the Prix de Rome, in 1863, he composed prolifically in many genres. He wrote more than 40 stage works in a wide variety of styles, from opéra-comique to grand-scale depictions of classical myths, romantic comedies, and lyric dramas. He also composed oratorios, ballets, cantatas, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, and songs. Massenet had a good sense of the theatre and of what would succeed with the Parisian public, and he became the most popular composer of opera in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although critics do not rank him among operatic geniuses such as Mozart, Verdi and Wagner, his operas are now widely accepted as well-crafted and intelligent products of the Belle Époque. (Full article...)

Redoshi (left) with her husband

• ... that Redoshi (pictured), a West African woman who lived in Alabama and died in 1937, was the last known survivor of the transatlantic slave trade?


• ... that the Canadian ice hockey show Coach's Corner has been described by one of its hosts as "six minutes of psychotherapy for athletes"?


• ... that POW/MIA activist Ted Sampley, who died 10 years ago today, discovered that the Vietnam War Unknown Soldier was in fact Michael Blassie?


• ... that the 13 km (8.1 mi) Mazeno Ridge route to the summit of Nanga Parbat was first completed in 2012?


• ... that Oriana Wilson discovered a new species of bat, which was then named after her?


• ... that although KGTO-TV in Fayetteville, Arkansas, signed on as an NBC affiliate, it received no network compensation for carrying its programs?


• ... that forest ranger Nels Bruseth turned down an offer to become mayor of Darrington, Washington, due to his ineligibility as a federal employee?


• ... that in a 2016 portrait, Queen Elizabeth II is depicted with someone else's bust?

Judd Trump

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  Judd Trump (pictured) wins the World Snooker Championship, defeating John Higgins in the final.


• The United Nations reports that, due to human activity, the Earth's biodiversity has suffered a catastrophic decline unprecedented in human history.


• At least 29 people are killed in clashes at the Gaza–Israel border.


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  Aeroflot Flight 1492 crash-lands and bursts into flames at Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, killing 41 of the 78 people on board.

May 12

Z3 computer (replica)

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  1510 – Zhu Zhifan, the Prince of Anhua (in modern Shaanxi, China), began an unsuccessful rebellion against the reign of the Zhengde Emperor.


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  1863 – American Civil War: The Confederates were routed in the Battle of Raymond, a small battle that had an inordinately large impact on the Vicksburg Campaign.


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  1941 – German engineer Konrad Zuse presented the Z3 (replica pictured), the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, to an audience of scientists in Berlin.


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  1967 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the critically acclaimed and widely influential debut album Are You Experienced.


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  2006 – A cartoon that allegedly compared Iranian Azeris to cockroaches was published in a magazine, sparking riots throughout the country.

Æthelhard (d. 805) · Justus von Liebig (b. 1803) · Maryam Mirzakhani (b. 1977)