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From today's featured article St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery (Ukrainian: Михайлівський золотоверхий монастир, Mykhaylivs’kyi zolotoverkhyi monastyr) is a functioning monastery in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The monastery is located on the right bank of the Dnieper River on the edge of a bluff northeast of the Saint Sophia Cathedral. The site is located in the historic administrative Uppertown and overlooks the city's historical commercial and merchant quarter, the Podil neighbourhood. Originally built in the Middle Ages by Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych, the monastery comprises the Cathedral itself, the Refectory of St. John the Divine, built in 1713, the Economic Gates, constructed in 1760 and the monastery's bell tower, which was added c. 1716–1719. The exterior of the structure was rebuilt in the Ukrainian Baroque style in the 18th century (Full article...) Did you know... ... that Istanbul was formerly known as Constantinople and before 324AD was known as Byzantium? ... that Barack Obama schemes behind the scenes against President Trump? ... that there were 31 ancient Egyptian dynasties? ... that Lord Minginish is the first Gaelic-speaking Chairman of the Scottish Land Court? ... that Jupiter is considered a Substellar object? ... that the type fossil of the damselfly Electropodagrion consists only of a thorax, leg, and wing portions? ... that there are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac?

In the news (from Infogalactic News) Hope Hicks to be New White House Comms Director Actress, Model, Trusted Long Time Aide to Trump. Philippine Police Kills 32 in Drugs War's Bloodiest Day Unrelenting War On Drugs By President Rodrigo Duterte Pakistan: Roadside Bomb Kills Eight Soldiers Suicide Bomber Rammed Motorcycle Into Army Truck Nigeria: Suicide Bombers Kill 27, Wound 83 "Religion Of Peace" Claims More Lives Army Helicopter Crashes Off Hawaii 5 Missing 10,000 Gallons Of Tainted Alcohol Seized From Mexican Resorts Alcohol Was At Tourist Attractions In Cancun And Playa Del Carmen Navy Commander Pleads Guilty In Massive Corruption Scandal 18th Person To Plead Guilty In Decade Long Scam On this day... August 16 963 – Nikephoros II Phokas is crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian in Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed. 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909. 1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution. 1923 – The United Kingdom gives the name "Ross Dependency" to part of its claimed Antarctic territory and makes the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand its administrator. 1930 – The first British Empire Games were opened in Hamilton, Ontario by the Governor General of Canada, the Viscount Willingdon. 1944 – First flight of the Junkers Ju 287. More anniversaries: August 15 August 16 August 17 August 17 309/310 – Pope Eusebius is banished by the Emperor Maxentius to Sicily, where he dies, perhaps from a hunger strike. 1386 – Karl Topia, the ruler of Princedom of Albania forges an alliance with the Republic of Venice, committing to participate in all wars of the Republic and receiving coastal protection against the Ottomans in return. 1498 – Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, becomes the first person in history to resign the cardinalate. On the same day, King Louis XII of France names him Duke of Valentinois. 1807 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York, New York, for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world. 1941 – World War II: Soviet Army left Nikolaev and Krivoi Rog. 1959 – Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana. 2005 – The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, starts. More anniversaries: August 16 August 17 August 18 1304 – The Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle is fought to a draw between the French army and the Flemish militias. 1634 – Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France. 1783 – A huge fireball meteor is seen across Great Britain as it passes over the east coast. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Gravelotte is fought. 1940 – World War II: The Hardest Day air battle, part of the Battle of Britain. At that point, the largest aerial engagement in history with heavy losses sustained on both sides. 1958 – Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States. 2008 – President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf resigns under threat of impeachment. More anniversaries: August 17 August 18 August 19

Today's featured picture

Oscar-Claude Monet (/moʊˈneɪ/; French: [klod mɔnɛ]; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.

Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883 Monet lived in Giverny, where he purchased a house and property, and began a vast landscaping project which included lily ponds that would become the subjects of his best-known works. In 1899 he began painting the water lilies, first in vertical views with a Japanese bridge as a central feature, and later in the series of large-scale paintings that was to occupy him continuously for the next 20 years of his life. (Full article...)

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