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Mos Def

The Ecstatic is the fourth album by American rapper Mos Def (pictured), released by Downtown Records on June 9, 2009. Singer Georgia Anne Muldrow and rappers Slick Rick and Talib Kweli were guest vocalists. The album has been described by music journalists as a conscious and alternative hip hop record. Mos Def's raps about global politics, love, spirituality, and social conditions are informed by Black internationalism and pan-Islamic ideas. The album's loosely structured, lightly reverbed songs use unconventional time signatures and samples taken from Afrobeat, soul, Eurodance, jazz, reggae, Latin, and Middle Eastern music. The Ecstatic charted at number nine on the Billboard 200 in its first week of release and eventually sold 168,000 copies. A widespread critical success, The Ecstatic was viewed as a return to form for Mos Def and one of the year's best albums. He performed concerts to support the record in North America, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom. (Full article...)

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Kortnei Johnson

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... that in 2024, C. J. Hanson became the first player from his school to be chosen in the NFL draft since 1989?
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In the news

Boeing Starliner launch

The Boeing Starliner spacecraft conducts its first crewed flight (launch pictured), carrying two astronauts to the International Space Station.
The CNSA Chang'e 6 completes sampling and takeoff from the far side of the Moon.
Claudia Sheinbaum is elected as the president of Mexico.
In South Africa's general election, the African National Congress wins the most seats but loses its majority for the first time since the end of apartheid.

On this day

June 9

Abraham Whipple

1549 – The first Book of Common Prayer was legally mandated by Parliament, introducing a fully vernacular Protestant liturgy to the Church of England.
1772 – In an act of defiance against the Navigation Acts, American colonists led by Abraham Whipple (pictured) attacked and burned the British schooner Gaspee.
1944 – World War II: In reprisal for successful French Resistance attacks, German SS and SD troops hanged 99 men in the town of Tulle.
1954 – During hearings investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy, Army lawyer Joseph N. Welch asked McCarthy: "At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
1999 – Yugoslav Wars: The Kumanovo Agreement was signed, bringing an end to the Kosovo War the next day.

William Feiner (d. 1829)
Doveton Sturdee (b. 1859)
Wolfdietrich Schnurre (d. 1989)
Brian Williamson (d. 2004)

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Today's featured picture

Euchloe penia, commonly known as the eastern greenish black-tip, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and northern Iraq. The habitat consists of dry and warm rocky areas. Adults are a bright greenish off-yellow, with a wingspan of 32 to 36 millimetres (1.3 to 1.4 inches). There are two generations per year, with adults on the wing in April and from June to July. The larvae feed on plants of the genus Matthiola. This E. penia butterfly perching on a flower was photographed in Pletvar, North Macedonia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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