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From today's featured article

Ottomans with Christian slaves, 1639 drawing.

Slavery in the Ottoman Empire was a legal and significant part of the Ottoman Empire's economy and society. The main sources of slaves were war captives and organized enslavement expeditions in North and East Africa, Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Circassia in the Caucasus. It has been reported that the selling price of slaves fell after large military operations. Enslavement of Caucasians was banned in the early 19th century, while slaves from other groups were allowed. In Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), the administrative and political center of the Empire, about a fifth of the population consisted of slaves in 1609.

Even after several measures to ban slavery in the late 19th century, the practice continued largely unabated into the early 20th century. As late as 1908, female slaves were still sold in the Ottoman Empire. Sexual slavery was a central part of the Ottoman slave system throughout the history of the institution. (Full article...)

Did you know...

• ... that the name Zoroaster possibly means "he who manages camels"?
• ... that the Battle of Hampton Roads was perhaps the most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies?
• ... that some people think approximately 300 years of phantom time were added to the Western calendar in the Early Middle Ages
• ... that Istanbul was formerly known as Constantinople and before 324AD was known as Byzantium?
• ... that the United States Navy has ten Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in service?
• ... that Buzzfeed printed fake news about President Trump?
• ... that the President of the US, the Supreme Court and Congress are three significant branches of the US Government?

In the news (from Infogalactic News)

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• Aaron Rodgers: "If Science Can't Be Questioned, It's Not Science Anymore"
  "It's Propoganda"
  

• Jake Tapper's Producer Resigns From CNN
  Amid Pedo Scandal
• Israel Orders 100 Million Eggs Due To Bird Flu Outbreak
  Eggs And Hens Must Be Destroyed To Contain The Outbreak
• Twitter Suspends mRNA Tech Inventor Dr. Robert Malone
  Ran Counter To Covid Narrative
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On this day...

April 22

• 0238 – Year of the Six Emperors: The Roman Senate outlaws emperor Maximinus Thrax for his bloodthirsty proscriptions in Rome and nominates two of its members, Pupienus and Balbinus, to the throne.
• 1519 – Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés establishes a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico.
• 1876 – The first game in the history of the National League was played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. This game is often pointed to as the beginning of the MLB.
• 1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker and states that suicide is his only recourse.
• 1951 – Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army begin assaulting positions defended by the Royal Australian Regiment and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry at the Battle of Kapyong. In fiction, it's also the date that Corporal Maxwell Q Klinger in M*A*S*H says he started wearing dresses.
• 1992 – In a series of explosions in Guadalajara, Mexico, 206 people are killed, nearly 500 injured and 15,000 left homeless.
• 2013 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrest and charge two men with plotting to disrupt a Toronto area train service in a plot claimed to be backed by Al-Qaeda elements.

• More anniversaries:
  • April 21
  • April 22
  • April 23

April 23

• 1348 – The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III is announced on St. George's Day.
• 1635 – The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston.
• 1815 – The Second Serbian Uprising: A second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, erupts shortly after the annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire.
• 1935 – The Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted.
• 1940 – The Rhythm Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, kills 198 people.
• 1942 – World War II: Baedeker Blitz – German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.
• 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army and Razakars massacre approximately 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

• More anniversaries:
  • April 22
  • April 23
  • April 24

• 1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy.
• 1904 – The Lithuanian press ban is lifted after almost 40 years.
• 1914 – The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.
• 1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
• 1955 – The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
• 1968 – Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations.
• 1970 – The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as the first President.

• More anniversaries:
  • April 23
  • April 24
  • April 25

Today's featured picture

The Mona Lisa (/ˌmoʊnə ˈliːsə/; Italian: Monna Lisacode: it is deprecated [ˈmɔnna ˈliːza] or La Gioconda [la dʒoˈkonda], French: La Joconde [la ʒɔkɔ̃d]) is a half-length portrait of a woman by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, which has been acclaimed as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world". (Full article...)

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