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The band Cream, with Eric Clapton (right)

"Cross Road Blues" is a song written by the American blues artist Robert Johnson. He sang it as a solo piece with acoustic slide guitar in the Delta blues style. The lyrics describe Johnson's grief at being unable to catch a ride at an intersection before the sun sets. Some have attached a supernatural significance to the song. One of Johnson's two recorded performances was released in 1937 as a single, heard mainly in the Mississippi Delta area. The second, which reached a wider audience, was included on King of the Delta Blues Singers, a compilation album of some of Johnson's songs released in 1961 during the American folk music revival. Elmore James recorded a version of the song in 1954, and another in either 1960 or 1961. In the late 1960s, guitarist Eric Clapton and his bandmates in the British rock group Cream (pictured) popularized it as "Crossroads". Their blues rock interpretation became one of their best-known songs, inspiring many cover versions. (Full article...)

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Francis of Delirium

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... that home repair and maintenance educator Mercury Stardust and her friend Jory Vizcaino have raised more than $4 million for transgender healthcare through their TikTok-A-Thon for Trans Healthcare?
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... that zombie-like obedience has been attributed to Jesuits, the military, and followers of totalitarian regimes?

In the news

Ariel Henry

Acting prime minister of Haiti Ariel Henry (pictured) resigns, and is replaced by Michel Patrick Boisvert while the Transitional Presidential Council is sworn in.
The Ownership, Unity and Responsibility Party, led by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, wins the most seats in the Solomon Islands general election but falls short of a majority.
NASA announces that the Voyager 1 space probe is sending readable data for the first time in five months.
The HDZ-led coalition wins the most seats in the Croatian parliamentary election but falls short of a majority.
Ichthyotitan, the largest known marine reptile, is formally described.

On this day

April 28: Workers' Memorial Day

Mounted police maintaining order at the 1923 FA Cup final

1253 – The Japanese monk Nichiren declared the mantra Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, now a central part of Nichiren Buddhism.
1789 – Fletcher Christian, the acting lieutenant on board the Royal Navy ship Bounty, led a mutiny against the commander William Bligh in the South Pacific.
1923 – The FA Cup final (crowd and police pictured) between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United was held on the opening day of the Empire Stadium in London.
1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini, the deposed fascist dictator of Italy, was executed by partisans in Giulino.
1983 – The West German news magazine Stern published excerpts from the purported diaries of Adolf Hitler, later revealed to be forgeries.

Bajirao I (d. 1740)
Jane Cobden (b. 1851)
Regina Martínez Pérez (d. 2012)

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Today's featured picture

Libellula depressa, commonly known as the broad-bodied chaser or broad-bodied darter, is a dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. One of the most common dragonflies in Europe and central Asia, its range extends to England, central Asia and the Middle East, with a few limited populations in Scotland. It is not found in Ireland or North Africa, however. This insect is around 39 to 48 millimetres (1.5 to 1.9 inches) in length, with both the male and the female having a broad, flattened abdomen which is brown with yellow patches down the sides. In the male, the abdomen develops a blue pruinescence that covers the brown colour. Both fore and hind wings have a dark patch at the base. This male L. depressa dragonfly was photographed at Wolvercote Lakes in Oxfordshire, England.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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