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From today's featured article
The serpent labret with articulated tongue is a gold-alloy body ornament from the Aztec culture of the mid-second millennium. Designed to be inserted into a piercing below the lower lip, it depicts a fanged serpent poised to strike, with a bifurcated tongue hanging from its mouth. The tongue, which is moveable and retractable (animation pictured), would have swung from side to side with its wearer's movements. Art historians have described it as among the finest of the fewer than 400 Aztec gold objects known to survive. The labret is 6.7 cm (2.6 in) high, 6.7 cm (2.6 in) long, and weighs 51 grams (1.81 oz). Consisting of a gold, copper, and silver alloy, it was made by lost-wax casting. Labrets, or lip plugs, were associated with eloquence and nobility in Aztec culture, while gold was a hallmark of divinity. The serpent may represent Xiuhcōātl, the fire serpent wielded as a weapon by the sun god Huītzilōpōchtli. The labret was purchased in 2016 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that the designs on a doppa (example pictured) symbolize details about its wearer?
- ... that the first leader of the Haitian Communist Party was arrested for requesting "matériel", which the authorities interpreted to mean explosives but which turned out to be literature?
- ... that Wylly Folk St. John based most of the characters in her books on her relatives?
- ... that Yamato Kochi appeared in character at New York City Subway stations to promote a Japanese film's North American debut?
- ... that the crew of HSwMS Västervik were ordered to leave their possessions behind when the ship was decommissioned?
- ... that U.S. congressman Joseph Humphrey Sloss shot his future son-in-law with a shotgun?
- ... that the restaurant Cosme occupies a former strip club in New York City?
- ... that Smith Island in Hudson Bay has several significant archaeological sites dating from the Thule and Paleo-Eskimo periods?
- ... that Harry Leons had "no chance" of ever becoming his football team's starting quarterback, only to later serve for multiple seasons?
In the news
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- Pope Leo XIV (pictured) issues his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, which expresses concerns about artificial intelligence.
- The Democratic Rally, led by Annita Demetriou, wins the most seats in the Cypriot legislative election.
- American jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins dies at the age of 95.
- In auto racing, Felix Rosenqvist wins the Indianapolis 500.
- A suicide bombing targeting a shuttle train in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan, kills at least 47 people.
On this day
May 30: Feast day of Saint Joan of Arc (Catholicism, Anglicanism); Statehood Day in Croatia (1990); Kaamatan in Sabah, Malaysia; Lod Massacre Remembrance Day in Puerto Rico (1972)
- 1536 – Jane Seymour, a former lady-in-waiting, married King Henry VIII, becoming the queen consort of England.
- 1806 – In one of several violent incidents involving future U.S. president Andrew Jackson, Charles Dickinson was killed in a duel; Jackson was wounded and carried the bullet for the rest of his life.
- 1866 – Bedřich Smetana's comic opera The Bartered Bride (cover of score pictured) premiered in Prague.
- 1959 – The Auckland Harbour Bridge officially opened, connecting the suburbs of Saint Marys Bay and Northcote in Auckland, New Zealand, across Waitematā Harbour.
- 2005 – American student Natalee Holloway disappeared on a high-school graduation trip to Aruba.
- Antonina Houbraken (b. 1686)
- Voltaire (d. 1778)
- Fernando Lugo (b. 1951)
- Eddie Nketiah (b. 1999)
Today's featured picture
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Saviour Square is an urban square and roundabout in the centre of Warsaw, Poland, located at the junction of Marszałkowska Street, Mokotowska Street, Nowowiejska Street, and Wyzwolenia Avenue. Developed around 1768 as part of the series of streets and squares created under King Stanisław August Poniatowski, Saviour Square was designed by Johann Christian Schuch. It includes the Church of the Holiest Saviour, postwar buildings of the Marshal Residential District, and surviving historic tenements. During the Warsaw Uprising, the square saw heavy fighting and destruction. In the 2010s, it gained attention for Rainbow, an art installation made of artificial flowers, and became a popular social and cultural gathering place. This photograph, taken in 2022, shows an aerial view of Saviour Square from the west, with a Warsaw tram passing through the central roundabout and the Church of the Holiest Saviour on the right. Photograph credit: Emptywords
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