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Today's featured content

Today's featured list: The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets less than 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has sixty-two moons with confirmed orbits, fifty-three of which have names, and only thirteen of which have diameters larger than 50 kilometers (31 mi). Saturn has seven moons that are large enough to become spherical, and dense rings with complex orbital motions of their own.

Today's featured topic: The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of one titular award. Several new awards have been introduced, and as of 2008^[update], eight awards are presented, including the Team of the Year, Overseas Personality, Lifetime Achievement Award, Helen Rollason Award, the Coach Award, and the Newcomer Award.

Listen to
Spring, from The Four Seasons

Today's featured sound: The Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723,The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. Performed by John Harrison and the Wichita State University Chamber Players.

Did you know...

Painting of an empty chair by Kefah Ali Deeb

... that Syrian artist Kefah Ali Deeb painted an empty chair (pictured) as her vision of victims and refugees?
... that three of the four Richmond Theatres were destroyed by fire, of which the 1811 fire was described as "early America's first great disaster"?
... that Claude Hamilton Verity, a grandson of Doncaster mayor Charles Verity, was an early pioneer of the synchronisation of sound with silent films?
... that one of the "plushest" nightclubs in northern Florida turned into studios for a TV station in Jacksonville?
... that Left Socialist-Revolutionary leader Maria Spiridonova addressed her party's fourth congress in October 1918 by letter as she was in jail?
... that KT Leveston, the 254th pick in the 2024 NFL draft, is from U.S. area code 254?
... that many people with heart failure, diabetes, or ME/CFS cannot raise their heart rates sufficiently during exercise?
... that within years of Aza Arnold inventing a device to improve cotton roving, it was plagiarized across the United States and Europe?
... that Aurora Gaming's roster for Apex Legends is made up of Fire Beavers?

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. Ongoing: Israel–Hamas war timeline Russian invasion of Ukraine timeline Sudanese civil war timeline Recent deaths: John Burnside Alexander Lang Carl Cain Rob Burrow Drew Gordon Lionel Dyck Nominate an article
On this day...
June 7 Monument of Branimir 879 – Pope John VIII officially recognised Croatia as an independent state, and Branimir (monument pictured) as its duke. 1628 – The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document that set out specific liberties of individuals, received royal assent from King Charles I. 1917 – First World War: The British Army detonated 19 ammonal mines under German lines, killing perhaps 10,000 in the deadliest non-nuclear man-made explosion in history during the Battle of Messines. 1948 – Anti-Jewish riots broke out in the French protectorate in Morocco, during which 44 people were killed and 150 injured. 1969 – In their only UK concert, the rock supergroup Blind Faith, featuring Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and Ginger Baker, debuted in London's Hyde Park in front of 100,000 fans. Roderigo Lopes (d. 1594) Paul Gauguin (b. 1848) Louise Erdrich (b. 1954) Mike Pence (b. 1959) More anniversaries: June 6 June 7 June 8 Archive By email List of days of the year

Today's featured picture

Dimitri is an 1876 French-language grand opera in five acts by Victorin de Joncières. Set to a libretto by Henri de Bornier and Paul Armand Silvestre after Friedrich Schiller's incomplete play Demetrius, itself a story based on the life of the Russian pretender False Dmitry I (reigned 1605–1606), the opera was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre National Lyrique. Antonín Dvořák's 1881 opera Dimitrij was also based on Schiller's play. This picture shows the set design for Act V of Dimitri's première.

Art credit: Philippe Chaperon; restored by Adam Cuerden

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