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The Battle of Río Salado

Yusuf I (29 June 1318 – 19 October 1354) was the seventh Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada on the Iberian Peninsula, from 1333 until his death. He allied with the North African Marinids against Alfonso XI of Castile. After a naval victory in April 1340, the Marinid–Granadan alliance was decisively defeated in the Battle of Río Salado (depicted). In 1342–1344, Alfonso besieged and captured the port of Algeciras. A ten-year peace treaty followed, but Alfonso broke it and besieged Gibraltar in 1349. The siege ended when Alfonso died of the Black Death in March 1350. Yusuf signed a treaty with Alfonso's son and successor Peter I. Yusuf was assassinated by a madman while praying in the Great Mosque of Granada. During his reign, the emirate flourished in the fields of literature, medicine, and law. Yusuf was responsible for many new buildings, and major cultural figures served in his court. Modern historians consider his reign and that of his son Muhammad V as the golden era of the Emirate. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Doyle spiral illustrating plant growth in a 1911 Popular Science article

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... that Shaun Aguano's interview to join the Arizona State football coaching staff consisted only of being asked, "you want the job?"

In the news

Ulf Kristersson

Ulf Kristersson (pictured) is elected Prime Minister of Sweden following a four-party agreement.
Hurricane Julia leaves more than 80 people dead across South and Central America.
After an explosion damages the Crimean Bridge, Russia attacks many Ukrainian cities with missiles.
In motor racing, Max Verstappen wins the Formula One World Championship.

On this day

October 19

Artist's impression of ʻOumuamua

1596 – The Spanish ship San Felipe was shipwrecked on the Japanese island of Shikoku, and its cargo confiscated by the local daimyō.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces led by Lord Cornwallis officially surrendered to Franco-American forces under George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau, ending the Siege of Yorktown.
1944 – The Guatemalan Revolution began with a small group of army officers led by Francisco Javier Arana and Jacobo Árbenz launching a coup against dictator Jorge Ubico.
1965 – A group of ethnic Hutu military officers failed in their attempt to overthrow the Burundian government.
2017 – Canadian astronomer Robert Weryk discovered ʻOumuamua (depicted), the first known interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System.

Yusuf I of Granada (d. 1354)
Eleanor Norcross (d. 1923)
Yoko Shimomura (b. 1967)

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Today's featured picture

The red-billed gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae scopulinus), also known as the tarāpung, is a member of the gull family, Laridae. Endemic to New Zealand, it is found throughout the country and on outlying islands including the Chatham Islands and the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands. Formerly considered a separate species, it is now usually treated as a subspecies of the silver gull. It regularly feeds on small fish, shellfish and worms, and sometimes berries, lizards and insects; it scavenges among urban waste in coastal towns. This red-billed gull was photographed in Christchurch.

Photograph credit: Michal Klajban

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