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Albert Stanley, 1st Baron Ashfield (8 August 1874 – 4 November 1948), was the managing director and chairman of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) from 1910 to 1933, and the chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) from 1933 to 1947. At a young age, he held senior positions in the tramway systems of Detroit and New Jersey. In 1907 he was recruited by the UERL, where he integrated the company's management and used advertising and public relations to improve profits. As managing director of the UERL from 1910, he led the take-over of competing companies and operations to form Combine, an integrated transport operation. He was Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne from 1916 to 1920 and President of the Board of Trade between 1916 and 1919. He returned to the UERL and then chaired it and its successor the LPTB during the organisation's greatest period of expansion between the two world wars, making it an exemplar of the best form of public administration. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Uniform of Capital Bicycle Club

... that residents reported the first cycling club in Washington, D.C., (uniform pictured) to the police over concerns that bicycles posed a danger to pedestrians?
... that Olympic taekwondo practitioner Emmanuella Atora described her career as "I hit people for a living"?
... that an American citizen was sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to overthrow the government of Cambodia?
... that Sarah Gibson, who formed a piano duo with Thomas Kotcheff, composed warp & weft inspired by the art of Miriam Schapiro, to be played today by the BBC Philharmonic at The Proms?
... that eight cardboard white elephants were put up as a form of public protest to lobby for the opening of Buangkok MRT station in Singapore?
... that "Lucki" Allen's prediction of the Tet Offensive was ignored, but she was later inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame?
... that the idea for Clustertruck came from a developer wanting to escape traffic?
... that American Olympic rugby player Sarah Levy is the great-granddaughter of a Springbok?
... that David Tennant filmed a Doctor Who mini-episode on his birthday?

In the news

Sheikh Hasina

Sheikh Hasina (pictured) resigns as the prime minister of Bangladesh and flees to India following anti-government protests.
Following a mass stabbing in Southport, far-right protesters riot in England and Northern Ireland.
The United States, Russia, and their respective allies agree to a prisoner exchange of 26 people.
Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, is assassinated in Tehran, Iran.

On this day

August 8

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin

1264 – Reconquista: In the early stages of the Mudéjar revolt, Muslim rebels captured the Alcázar of Jerez de la Frontera in present-day Spain, holding it for about two months.
1919 – The Third Anglo-Afghan War ended with the United Kingdom signing a treaty to recognise the independence of the Emirate of Afghanistan.
1929 – The German airship Graf Zeppelin (pictured) departed Lakehurst, New Jersey, on a flight to circumnavigate the world.
2009 – Nine people died when a tour helicopter and a small private airplane collided over the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey.
2014 – The World Health Organization declared the Western African Ebola epidemic, which began in December 2013, to be a public health emergency of international concern.

Christoph Ludwig Agricola (d. 1724)
Esther Hobart Morris (b. 1814)
Ernest Lawrence (b. 1901)
Elisabeth Abegg (d. 1974)

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Today's featured picture

Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, swallowtails inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includes the largest butterflies in the world, the birdwing butterflies of the genus Ornithoptera. This Zerynthia rumina butterfly, also known as the Spanish festoon, was photographed in Extremadura, Spain.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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