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Prince Alfred (1780–1782) was the fourteenth child and the ninth and youngest son of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland and his queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Alfred was baptised by Frederick Cornwallis, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Great Council Chamber at St James's Palace on 21 October 1780. His godparents were his elder siblings George, Prince of Wales; Prince Frederick; and Charlotte, Princess Royal. Alfred was a delicate child. He suffered from "eruptions" on his face and, throughout his life, a cough. In 1782, Alfred became unwell and died after his inoculation against the smallpox virus. Although the household did not go into mourning (it was not prescribed for royal children under seven), his parents took the loss harshly. Alfred's early death, along with that of his brother Prince Octavius six months later, deeply distressed the royal family. In his later bouts of madness, King George imagined conversations with both of his youngest sons. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Kölner Domchor

... that the Kölner Domchor (pictured) from Cologne Cathedral sang Palmeri's Misa a Buenos Aires at a 2013 festival in Rome dedicated to Pope Francis, with the composer at the piano?
... that Pete Johnson was the first Republican to hold statewide office in Mississippi since the Reconstruction era?
... that Jacques-Louis David's Portrait of Count Stanislas Potocki from 1781 has been described as one of his masterpieces?
... that as a teenager in a B'nai B'rith camp in Canada, Holocaust survivor and future Canadian ambassador Fred Bild learned English from his camp counselor, future actor William Shatner?
... that the experimental film 13 Lakes, which consists of 13 ten-minute-long static shots of different lakes in the United States, was deemed to be significant by the Library of Congress?
... that Gator Rivers dribbled a basketball around chairs and under tables in a closet when trying out for the Harlem Globetrotters?
... that though Mohamed Oufkir was appointed as Minister of Defence as a result of the 1971 Moroccan coup d'état attempt, he would later organize his own coup?
... that Lonzo Anderson "grew up rather like a rabbit" while unsupervised outdoors, anticipating his work on Two Hundred Rabbits?

In the news

Devon Conway in April 2023

Devon Conway

In cricket, the Indian Premier League concludes with the Chennai Super Kings defeating the Gujarat Titans in the final (player of the match Devon Conway pictured).
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is re-elected President of Turkey in a runoff.
In auto racing, Josef Newgarden wins the Indianapolis 500.
Rock singer and actress Tina Turner dies at the age of 83.
The International Booker Prize is awarded to Time Shelter, written by Georgi Gospodinov and translated by Angela Rodel.

On this day

June 2: Festa della Repubblica in Italy (1946)

Elizabeth II on her coronation day

1805 – Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish fleet recaptured the British-held Diamond Rock, an uninhabited island at the entrance to the bay leading to Fort-de-France, Martinique.
1886 – The wedding of Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom took place in the White House, the only time a U.S. president used that building for the ceremony.
1953 – Queen Elizabeth II (pictured) was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London.
1967 – Benno Ohnesorg, a German university student, was killed in West Berlin while protesting the visit of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran; the anarchist militant 2 June Movement was later named after the incident.
1983 – After an emergency landing due to an in-flight fire, 23 passengers aboard Air Canada Flight 797 were killed when a flashover occurred as the aircraft's doors opened.

Ogata Kōrin (d. 1716)
Adelaide Casely-Hayford (b. 1868)
Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry (d. 1982)

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From today's featured list

Franz Klein's bust of Beethoven

There have been many private and public sculptures of the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, including busts, reliefs, and statues. The first, a bust (pictured) by Franz Klein, was commissioned by Johann Andreas Streicher and created in 1812, while the composer was still alive. After Beethoven's death in 1827, his hometown, Bonn, immediately began planning a monument. A design competition was eventually held, in which a submission by Ernst Julius Hähnel beat ones from Friedrich von Amerling, Gustav Bläser and Friedrich Drake. Hähnel's monument was erected in 1845. The Beethoven monuments that followed, while retaining a high pedestal, began to portray the composer in a less simplistic and increasingly heroic light. In the early 20th century, the glorified portrayals of Beethoven reached their peak, with god-like representations such as Max Klinger's monument (1902), unveiled at the Vienna Secession and Fidus's unexecuted design for a "Beethoven temple" (1903). (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The western bowerbird (Chlamydera guttata) is a species of bird in the family Ptilonorhynchidae. The species is endemic to Australia, where it has a disjunct distribution, occurring in both Central Australia and the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is 24 to 28 centimetres (9.4 to 11.0 in) in length with a mass of 120 to 150 grams (4.2 to 5.3 oz). The plumage is brown with reddish or buff spots over the throat, chest, neck, back head and wings, with a pink erectile crest on the nape. Its tail is brown, with the undersides buff. Males and females are similar in appearance, except that the tail of the female is slightly longer and it is more spotted on the throat than the male. This western bowerbird was photographed near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory in 2022.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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