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From today's featured article Deoxyribonucleic acid (i/diˌɒksiˌraɪboʊ.njuːˌkleɪ.ᵻk ˈæsɪd/; DNA) is a molecule that carries most of the genetic instructions used in the development, functioning and reproduction of all known living organisms and many viruses. DNA is a nucleic acid; alongside proteins and carbohydrates, nucleic acids compose the three major macromolecules essential for all known forms of life. Most DNA molecules consist of two biopolymer strands coiled around each other to form a double helix. The two DNA strands are known as polynucleotides since they are composed of simpler units called nucleotides. Each nucleotide is composed of a nitrogen-containing nucleobase—either cytosine (C), guanine (G), adenine (A), or thymine (T)—as well as a monosaccharide sugar called deoxyribose and a phosphate group. The nucleotides are joined to one another in a chain by covalent bonds between the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate of the next, resulting in an alternating sugar-phosphate backbone. According to base pairing rules (A with T, and C with G), hydrogen bonds bind the nitrogenous bases of the two separate polynucleotide strands (Full article...) Did you know... ... that the Sacred Heart Church in Exeter, England is the earliest surviving architectural work of Leonard Stokes? ... that the Drudge Report had ten billion visits in the past year? ... that Arii Matamoe (pictured), an 1892 painting of a Pacific Islander's severed head, may have been inspired by the death of Pōmare V shortly after Paul Gauguin's arrival in Tahiti? ... that Lord Minginish is the first Gaelic-speaking Chairman of the Scottish Land Court? ... that the President of the US, the Supreme Court and Congress are three significant branches of the US Government? ... that there are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac? ... that NuScale Power has designed a line of small, modular nuclear reactors?

In the news (from Infogalactic News) Sean Spicer Resigns Melissa McCarthy Hardest Hit. Disagrees With Trump Appointment of Scaramucci Senator John McCain Diagnosed With Brain Tumor Most People Only Survive 12-15 Months After Diagnosis Mother Asked For Forgiveness Before Stabbing Daughter Murders Husband And Four Children Linkin Park lead Vocalist hangs himself Tragic end to a troubled life Blast in China's Hangzhou city kills two, injures 55 Issue Being Investigated O.J. Simpson Receives Parole Release In October Teenager Distraught By Possible Fake Donation Maddie Collins Needs A Kidney Transplant On this day... July 21 285 – Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar and co-ruler. 1403 – Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England. 1865 – In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown. 1877 – After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stage a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia. 1918 – U-156 shells Nauset Beach, in Orleans, Massachusetts. 1954 – First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. 1976 – Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, is assassinated by the Provisional IRA. More anniversaries: July 20 July 21 July 22 July 22 1099 – First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem. 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition: Battle of Cape Finisterre: An inconclusive naval action is fought between a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve of Spain and a British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder. 1894 – The first ever motor race is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The fastest finisher was the Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, but the 'official' victory was awarded to Albert Lemaître driving his 3 hp petrol engined Peugeot. 1992 – Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradition to the United States. 1993 – Great Flood of 1993: Levees near Kaskaskia, Illinois rupture, forcing the entire town to evacuate by barges operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. 2003 – Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay's 14-year-old son, and a bodyguard. 2015 – Three people die and 17 are injured in a collision between a Pendolino train and a lorry that occurred near Studénka, north Moravia, in the Czech Republic More anniversaries: July 21 July 22 July 23 1319 – A Knights Hospitaller fleet scores a crushing victory over an Aydinid fleet off Chios. 1862 – American Civil War: Henry Halleck takes command of the Union Army. 1874 – Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos is appointed the Archbishop of the Portuguese colonial enclave of Goa, India. 1942 – World War II: The German offensives Operation Edelweiss and Operation Braunschweig begin. 1945 – The post-war legal processes against Philippe Pétain begin. 1972 – The United States launches Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite. 1997 – Digital Equipment Corporation files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel. More anniversaries: July 22 July 23 July 24

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Shortly before his death in 1534 Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint a fresco of The Last Judgement on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. His successor, Paul III was instrumental in seeing that Michelangelo began and completed the project. Michelangelo labored on the project from 1534 to October 1541. The fresco depicts the Second Coming of Christ and his Judgement of the souls. Michelangelo ignored the usual artistic conventions in portraying Jesus, and showed him a massive, muscular figure, youthful, beardless and naked. He is surrounded by saints, among which Saint Bartholomew holds a drooping flayed skin, bearing the likeness of Michelangelo. The dead rise from their graves, to be consigned either to Heaven or to Hell. (Full article...)

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