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Katy Perry (born October 25, 1984) is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She released her debut album in 2001, then signed to Capitol Records in 2007. Perry rose to fame in 2008 with the release of the single "I Kissed a Girl". She has released seven studio albums, most recently 143 in September 2024. Perry has the second-most US diamond certified singles for any female artist (six). She has received various accolades, including a Billboard Spotlight Award, four Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award, and a Juno Award. Perry is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 143 million units worldwide. She made her film debut voicing Smurfette in The Smurfs in 2011, released a documentary film in 2012, and launched her own shoe line, Katy Perry Collections, in 2017. Perry served as a judge on American Idol between 2018 and 2024. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Wigwam

... that Wigwam (pictured) formed four days before their first concert?
... that a 1920s reviewer considered Hammond's Hard Lines "dangerously experimental ground for boys' fiction"?
... that Eddie Canales set up nearly 200 water stations along an area of the US–Mexico border to save the lives of undocumented immigrants?
... that before his victory at the 1128 Battle of Axspoele, William Clito ordered his knights to cut their hair and remove opulent clothing as a sign of penance?
... that Canadian punk rock musician Talli Osborne had only briefly spoken to the frontman of NOFX before the band wrote a song about her?
... that a red light in the corner bay window of the Ansorge Hotel told rumrunners of revenue men in town?
... that some delegates elected in the Qing dynasty's first provincial elections were secretly affiliated with republican revolutionaries?
... that neurocysticercosis has been referred to as the "great imitator" because it can mimic many other neurological disorders?
... that the only two Venezuelans ever to make the NFL, Pat Ragusa and Alan Pringle, played a combined total of four games?

In the news

Attack perpetrators

An attack by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (perpetrators pictured) on the Turkish Aerospace Industries headquarters in Ankara leaves seven people dead.
Moldova votes to amend its constitution to include the aim of becoming a European Union member state.
Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, is killed in a firefight with Israeli forces in Gaza.
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson for their comparative studies of prosperity between nations.

On this day

October 26

Ida B. Wells

1341 – The Byzantine army proclaimed chief minister John VI Kantakouzenos as emperor, triggering a civil war between his supporters and those of John V Palaiologos, the heir to the throne.
1871 – Liberian president Edward James Roye was overthrown in modern Africa's first coup d'état.
1892 – Ida B. Wells (pictured) began publishing her research on lynching in the United States, for which she was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2020.
1955 – Ngô Đình Diệm proclaimed himself president of the newly created Republic of Vietnam after defeating former emperor Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum supervised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu.
2004 – Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, considered one of the best video games ever made, in North America.

Cuthbert of Canterbury (d. 760)
Gómez González (d. 1111)
Carlo Collodi (d. 1890)
Yamashita Yoshitsugu (d. 1935)

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Today's featured picture

The greater white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons) is a species of goose in the family Anatidae. It is closely related to the lesser white-fronted goose, which is smaller. The greater white-fronted goose is migratory, breeding in northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia, and winters farther south in North America, Europe and Asia. The greater white-fronted goose has a length of 64 to 81 cm (25 to 32 in), a wingspan of 130 to 165 cm (51 to 65 in), and a mass of 1.93 to 3.31 kg (4 lb 4 oz to 7 lb 5 oz). Males are typically larger in size, and both sexes are similar in appearance – greyish brown with light grey breasts dappled with dark brown to black blotches and bars. Both males and females also have a pinkish bill, and orange legs and feet. This greater white-fronted goose was photographed in flight in the Central Valley of the US state of California.

Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg

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