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From today's featured article

Paperback cover of Jaws

Jaws is an American thriller film that was released on June 20, 1975, directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on Peter Benchley's 1974 novel Jaws (paperback cover shown; for the film poster, see today's Picture of the Day). It stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, who, with the help of a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter (Robert Shaw), hunts a man-eating great white shark that has attacked beachgoers at his summer resort town. The film was distributed by Universal Pictures to more than 450 screens, a wide release for the time. It was extensively marketed and followed by three sequels. Regarded as a watershed in motion picture history, Jaws was the prototypical summer blockbuster and the highest-grossing film of all time until Star Wars two years later; both films were pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model. Jaws was in 2001 selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Welsh presbytery meeting, 1940

... that the term "middle judicatory", which many denominations use for their mid-tier organizations, originated in Presbyterian courts (example pictured) for church discipline?
... that texting someone a poop emoji in Japan is a way to wish them good luck?
... that American football player Dominic Vairo went from being forced off the freshman team at Notre Dame to becoming captain of the varsity team?
... that an anime programming block that originally aired on the American television channel TechTV was the inspiration for the co-founder of a Japanese animation studio?
... that ratline organizer Ivo Omrčanin once beat a suspected informant with an umbrella?
... that a leak from a natural-gas storage field led to the destruction of or damage to almost 30 buildings in Hutchinson, Kansas?
... that Lorenzo Pace performed a candlelit flute concerto at the outset of his dissertation defense?
... that Queen Afua inspired New York City mayor Eric Adams to become vegan?
... that the Fuck Tree has been described as a "physical embodiment of desire"?

In the news

Aleksander Barkov

In ice hockey, the Florida Panthers (captain Aleksander Barkov pictured) defeat the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup.
In motorsport, Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Phil Hanson of AF Corse win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In the US state of Minnesota, state representative Melissa Hortman is assassinated and state senator John Hoffman is injured.
Former president of Nicaragua and first elected female president in the Americas Violeta Chamorro dies at the age of 95.

On this day

June 20: World Refugee Day; Eid al-Mubahalah (Shia Islam, 2025)

Queen Victoria

1837 – Queen Victoria (pictured) acceded to the British throne, beginning a 63-year reign.
1921 – British Army officer Thomas Stanton Lambert was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army near Moydrum, Ireland.
1959 – The extratropical remnants of an Atlantic hurricane reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, causing 22 fishing boats to capsize and killing 35 people.
1979 – Bill Stewart, an American journalist, was executed by Nicaraguan Guardia forces.
1982 – The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide, the first major conference in genocide studies, opened despite Turkish attempts to cancel it due to the inclusion of presentations on the Armenian genocide.

John of Lancaster (b. 1389)
Fritz Koenig (b. 1924)
Edith Windsor (b. 1929)
Ulf Merbold (b. 1941)

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From today's featured list

Boris Johnson's 56th birthday party

Events of the UK's Partygate scandal began on 23 March 2020, when, in an effort to limit deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new rules prohibiting gatherings of people who were not in the same household. Despite these regulations, regular social gatherings continued to take place in Downing Street and Whitehall, including a surprise party for Johnson's 56th birthday on 19 June (pictured). News articles about these events began to appear in late 2021, with the majority of them published by the journalists Pippa Crerar and Paul Brand. Johnson denied any wrongdoing, and stated that the rules were followed at all times. In January 2022, a criminal investigation into the scandal was launched by the Metropolitan Police. As a result, 126 fixed penalty notices were issued, including one to Johnson for attending his surprise birthday party, making him the first serving prime minister to be found to have broken the law. Johnson subsequently resigned as prime minister on 7 July, and as a member of parliament the following year. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

This famous design, by Roger Kastel, of a shark with a mouth filled with jagged teeth, rising towards an unsuspecting female swimmer, was completed in 1974. Its first appearance was as a book cover (illustrated as the image accompanying Today's Featured Article) with publication of the paperback edition of the novel by Peter Benchley, on January 1, 1975. Later that year, it formed the basis for one of the most iconic film posters in history (shown here) with the release of the movie on June 20, 1975. In 2014, the Review Board of the United States Copyright Office upheld the denial of a copyright for the artwork as there was no proper notice of copyright, since the only copyright notice in the paperback was that of Benchley's 1974 copyright of the text.

Illustration credit: Roger Kastel; courtesy of the Everett Collection; retouched by Crisco 1492

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