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The Carpet from Bagdad is a 1915 American silent adventure film directed by Colin Campbell, based on Harold MacGrath's 1911 novel of the same name. In the story, Horace Wadsworth (played by Guy Oliver), one of a gang of criminals planning a bank robbery in New York, steals a prayer rug from a Baghdad mosque. He sells the carpet to antique dealer George Jones (Wheeler Oakman) to fund the robbery scheme. The carpet's guardian kidnaps both men and Fortune Chedsoye (Kathlyn Williams), the innocent daughter of another conspirator, but they escape. Marketing for the film included a media tour of part of the set and an invitation-only screening sponsored by the publisher of MacGrath's book. The Carpet from Bagdad was released on 3 May 1915 to mostly positive reviews. Many praised the tinted desert scenes and realistic Middle East imagery, although some felt the scenery overshadowed the characters. The film is now lost, except for one badly damaged reel salvaged from the RMS Lusitania in 1982. Images from several feet of the reel were recovered by the British Film Institute's National Archive. (Full article...)

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Trevor Story

... that Trevor Story (pictured) is the first rookie in Major League Baseball to hit home runs in each of his first four games?
... that construction in Euonymeia uncovered one of the largest known Bronze Age industrial complexes of the Mycenaean civilization?
... that Hans-Dieter Bader performed the title role of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's opera Sly, recorded live at the Staatsoper Hannover, "as written", while Plácido Domingo had to cut and change the part?
... that the Welsh Church (Amendment) Act 1938 was passed to give Swansea University the same rights to the Church in Wales' endowments as the University of Wales?
... that Sir Frederick Ballantyne, a cardiologist and the Governor-General of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, was the first in his family to attend high school?
... that a memorial was not erected for the 674 bodies at the Hurricane of 1928 African American Mass Burial Site until the 75th anniversary of the hurricane?
... that the poets Sajida and Zahida Zaidi, professors at the Aligarh Muslim University, were known as the "Zaidi Sisters" in the literary community?
... that the Ram Rath Yatra was a political-religious march led by BJP leader L. K. Advani in an air-conditioned Toyota designed to resemble a chariot?

In the news

Mark Selby

In association football, 5000-to-1 outsiders Leicester City win the Premier League for the first time.
Mark Selby (pictured) defeats Ding Junhui to win the World Snooker Championship.
The Kenyan government burns the largest ever pile of ivory to combat illegal ivory trade.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is re-elected as President of Equatorial Guinea.
An EC225LP Super Puma crashes near Bergen, Norway, killing all 13 onboard.
The National Museum of Natural History, in New Delhi, India, and its entire collection, are destroyed by fire.
In the UK, following a second inquest, the jury reaches a verdict of unlawful killing in respect of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.

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On this day...

May 3: World Press Freedom Day

João I of Kongo

1491 – Nkuwu Nzinga of the Kingdom of Kongo was baptised as João I (pictured) by Portuguese missionaries.
1791 – The Polish–Lithuanian Constitution of May 3, the oldest codified national constitution in Europe, was adopted by the Great Sejm.
1921 – The island of Ireland was divided into two distinct territories: Northern and Southern Ireland.
1960 – The Off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks made its premiere, eventually becoming the world's longest-running musical.
2007 – Four-year-old Madeleine McCann was abducted while on holiday with her family in Portugal, sparking "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history."

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Today's featured picture

Sadko is a character in the Russian medieval epic Bylina. An adventurer, merchant and gusli musician from Novgorod, Sadko becomes wealthy with the help of the Sea Tsar, but is thrown in the sea when he fails to pay the Sea Tsar his due respects. This story was widely adapted in the 19th century, including in a poem by Alexei Tolstoy and an opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Shown here is Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom, an 1876 painting by Ilya Repin. It depicts Sadko meeting the Sea Tsar under the sea.

Painting: Ilya Repin

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