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W. Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer. He achieved national celebrity as a playwright; by 1908 he had four plays running simultaneously in London's West End. After 1933 he concentrated on novels and short stories. His popularity provoked adverse reactions from highbrow critics, and many belittled him as merely competent. More recent assessments generally rank Of Human Bondage as a masterpiece, and his short stories are held in high critical regard. Maugham's plain prose became known for its lucidity, but his reliance on clichés attracted adverse critical commentary. During World War I Maugham worked for the British Secret Service, later drawing on his experiences for stories published in the 1920s. He married Syrie Wellcome in 1917, and they had a daughter, Liza. However, his principal partner was Gerald Haxton; after Haxton's death, Alan Searle became Maugham's secretary and companion. Maugham gave up writing novels after World War II and died in 1965. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Interior of St. Martin, Oestrich

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... that Jake Kaufman composed most of the soundtrack for Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment while streaming on Twitch?
... that Thomas Ragle, the president of Marlboro College from 1958 to 1981, described his position as like a "19th-century college president"?
... that after being waived by the San Diego Chargers, Frank Duncan began packing before being re-signed the next day and eventually becoming a starter?
... that "Shalom chaverim" ('Peace, friends'), a Hebrew traditional folk song, has been sung at events commemorating the Holocaust and victims of anti-Semitic violence?
... that a future U.S. president and a future British king both visited the Van Cortlandt House during the American Revolution?
... that one academic described the introduction of femboys to Myanmar as a tactic to achieve an "ideological revolution"?

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Azali Assoumani is re-elected President of the Comoros.

On this day

January 25: Feast day of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (Eastern Christianity) and Dwynwen

Protester during the 2011 Egyptian revolution

1792 – Thomas Hardy founded the London Corresponding Society to seek a "radical reform of parliament", later influencing the reform movements of early-19th-century England.
1944 – Representatives of the Chetnik movement began a four-day congress to organise political opposition to the Allied support of the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans in Yugoslavia.
1971 – Idi Amin seized power from Ugandan president Milton Obote in a coup d'état, beginning eight years of military rule.
1993 – Pakistani national Mir Aimal Kansi shot five people outside the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia, killing two.
2011 – The Egyptian revolution began with protests (protester pictured) on the "Day of Anger", eventually leading to the removal of President Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years of rule.

J. Marion Sims (b. 1813)
Ernst Alexanderson (b. 1878)
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (b. 1978)
Adele Astaire (d. 1981)

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Lahaul and Spiti is a district of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Located in the Himalayas, it was formed by the merger of the districts of Lahaul and Spiti in 1960. At the 2011 census of India, it was the least densely populated district of India. This photograph shows the valley of the Bhaga River in Lahaul, with the villages of Kardang (left) and Biling (right) visible on opposite sides of the river, near the district headquarters of Kyelang.

Photograph credit: Timothy A. Gonsalves

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