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The Supermarine S.4 was a 1920s British single-engined monoplane built by Supermarine to race in the 1925 Schneider Trophy contest. To reduce drag forces and thereby increase speed, the company's chief designer, R. J. Mitchell, produced a floatplane of revolutionary design. Built of wood, and with an unbraced cantilever wing, it was powered by a Napier Lion engine developed to produce 700 horsepower (520 kW) over a short racing period. Less than a month after its maiden flight on 24 August 1925, it raised the world's seaplane speed record to 226.752 miles per hour (364.922 km/h). On 23 October, during navigation trials prior to the contest, the aircraft was performing well when, for reasons that have not been fully explained, it went out of control and was destroyed when it dived into the sea from 100 feet (30 m), injuring the pilot. Mitchell used the practical experience gained from his work on the S.4 when designing its immediate successor, the Supermarine S.5. (Full article...)

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Antimonumento +72

... that the sculpture Antimonumento +72 (pictured), which commemorates a massacre that took place thirteen years ago today, was also the site of a memorial for a March 2023 migrant center fire?
... that to gain weight to increase his chance of being a college football offensive lineman, John Ojukwu went on a diet that included consuming a gallon of milk a day and sometimes whole pizzas?
... that when Oakdale Golf & Country Club was founded, the Toronto Star ran a story with the headline "Hebrews buy farm; build golf course"?
... that Joseph O'Callaghan died at sea while carrying papers appointing him provincial superior?
... that the current Salvation Army Headquarters replaced an earlier Manhattan building that resembled a "medieval citadel"?
... that in early 2023 Angela Ferrell-Zabala became the first executive director for the US gun control advocacy organization Moms Demand Action?
... that a commercial for HeadOn drew comparisons to Maoist posters, North Korean propaganda, and Hillary Clinton?
... that William Maldon learned to read, which resulted in him almost being killed by his father?

In the news

Hun Manet

Hun Manet (pictured) is sworn in as Prime Minister of Cambodia, succeeding his father Hun Sen's 38-year term.
In the United Kingdom, former nurse Lucy Letby receives a whole-life order for the murders of seven infants and an attempted six more.
Bernardo Arévalo is elected as president of Guatemala.
In association football, the FIFA Women's World Cup concludes with Spain defeating England in the final.

On this day

August 22: Qixi Festival in China (2023); Madras Day in Chennai, India

Photograph of famine in Calcutta published in The Statesman

1639 – The Vijayanagara Empire leased a small strip of land in present-day Chennai, the capital of the present-day Indian state of Tamil Nadu, to the East India Company.
1642 – King Charles I raised the royal standard at Nottingham, marking the beginning of the First English Civil War.
1914 – First World War: A squadron of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards attacked a German scout party, the first engagement of British forces on the Western Front.
1943 – Ian Stephens, editor of The Statesman, defied British censorship to publish pictures of death and misery (example pictured) on Calcutta's streets, informing the world of the Bengal famine of 1943.
1984 – The constitution of Singapore was amended to apportion seats to defeated opposition candidates in Parliament, which had hitherto entirely comprised members of the People's Action Party.

Claude Debussy (b. 1862)
George Herriman (b. 1880)
Alexandros Kontoulis (d. 1933)
Birger Nerman (d. 1971)

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Today's featured picture

The Presidio of San Francisco is a park and former United States Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in the city of San Francisco, California, forming part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The presidio was established as a fortified location in 1776, when New Spain founded it to gain a foothold in Alta California and the San Francisco Bay. It passed to Mexico in 1820, and in turn to the United States in 1848. As part of a military reduction program under the Base Realignment and Closure process from 1988, the United States Congress voted to end the presidio's status as an active military installation. In 1994, it was transferred to the National Park Service, ending 219 years of military use and beginning its next phase of mixed commercial and public use. This lithograph, published in 1822, shows the Presidio of San Francisco and its surroundings during the Spanish era, with the Golden Gate visible in the background to the right of the image.

Lithograph credit: Victor Adam, after Louis Choris; restored by Adam Cuerden

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