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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 some people believe that the moon landings were fake?
• ... that Barack Obama schemes behind the scenes against President Trump?
• ... 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 the Sacred Heart Church in Exeter, England is the earliest surviving architectural work of Leonard Stokes?
• ... that Lord Minginish is the first Gaelic-speaking Chairman of the Scottish Land Court?
• ... that the name Zoroaster possibly means "he who manages camels"?
• ... that the United States Navy has ten Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in service?

In the news (from Infogalactic News)

• Julian Assange Is Arrested
  Asylum Revoked
  

• Regime Change In Sudan
  Who Knew Africa Wasn't Stable?
• No Brexit Until Halloween
  Remainers Keep Trying
  

• How To Properly Beat A Wife
  Qatari Sociologist Explains How
• National Enquirer For Sale
  Men In Black Scramble
• Bolton Blames Obama
  Forgets About Bush
• Federal Charges Against Avenatti
  He Is Having A Bad Month
  

On this day...

April 12

• 1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Sumter. The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
• 1862 – American Civil War: The Andrews Raid (the Great Locomotive Chase) occurs, starting from Big Shanty, Georgia (now Kennesaw).
• 1865 – American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army.
• 1877 – The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.
• 1927 – Rocksprings, Texas was hit by an F5 tornado that destroyed 235 of the 247 buildings in the town and killed 72 townspeople and injured 205; third deadliest tornado in Texas history.
• 2009 – Zimbabwe officially abandons the Zimbabwean dollar as its official currency.
• 2017 – Zuma Must Fall protests resume in South Africa, with Julius Malema addressing large crowds in Pretoria.

• More anniversaries:
  • April 11
  • April 12
  • April 13

April 13

• 1909 – The Turkish military reverses the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 to force the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
• 1919 – Eugene V. Debs is imprisoned at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, for speaking out against the draft during World War I.
• 1943 – World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London from the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.
• 1945 – World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces capture Vienna, Austria.
• 1972 – Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc begins.
• 1974 – Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.
• 2014 – A bus traveling from Villahermosa to Mexico City crashes into a tractor-trailer and catches fire, killing at least 36 people.

• More anniversaries:
  • April 12
  • April 13
  • April 14

• 1775 – The first abolition society in North America is established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage is organized in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.
• 1881 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight is fought in El Paso, Texas.
• 1906 – The Azusa Street Revival opens and will launch Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
• 1931 – First edition of The Highway Code published in Great Britain.
• 1945 – Osijek, Croatia, is liberated from fascist occupation.
• 1958 – The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. This was the first spacecraft to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. The female dog likely lived only a few hours.
• 2014 – Two hundred seventy-six schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Northeastern Nigeria.

• More anniversaries:
  • April 13
  • April 14
  • April 15

Today's featured picture

The Birth of Venus (Italian: Nascita di Venere [ˈnaʃʃita di ˈvɛːnere]) is a painting by Sandro Botticelli generally thought to have been painted in the mid 1480s. It has long been suggested that Botticelli was commissioned to paint the work by the Medici family of Florence, specifically Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici under the influence of his cousin Lorenzo de' Medici, close patron to Botticelli. However, there are no documents associated with the painting, and its first identification with the Medici family only comes in the 1550 edition of Vasari's Lives. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as an adult woman, arriving at the shore (which is related to the Venus Anadyomene motif). The painting is on display at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. (Full article...)

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