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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 Jupiter is considered a Substellar object?
• ... that some people believe that the moon landings were fake?
• ... that Lord Minginish is the first Gaelic-speaking Chairman of the Scottish Land Court?
• ... that there are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac?
• ... 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 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 type fossil of the damselfly Electropodagrion consists only of a thorax, leg, and wing portions?

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
• Life Expectancy In 2020 Fell 2.3% To 77 Years
  Does This Justify The Covid Panic?
  

On this day...

August 29

• 1498 – Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to Kingdom of Portugal.
• 1842 – Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.
• 1861 – American Civil War: United States Navy squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
• 1903 – The Slava, the last of the five Borodino-class battleships, is launched.
• 1991 – Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
• 1991 – Libero Grassi, an Italian businessman from Palermo is killed by the Mafia after taking a solitary stand against their extortion demands.
• 2003 – Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.

• More anniversaries:
  • August 28
  • August 29
  • August 30

August 30

• 1574 – Guru Ram Das becomes the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith rout Union forces under General Horatio Wright.
• 1896 – Philippine Revolution: After Spanish victory in the Battle of San Juan del Monte, eight provinces in the Philippines are declared under martial law by the Spanish Governor-General Ramón Blanco y Erenas.
• 1914 – World War I: Germans defeat the Russians in the Battle of Tannenberg
• 1945 – The August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty.
• 1963 – The Moscow–Washington hotline between the leaders of the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.
• 1981 – President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar of Iran are assassinated in a bombing committed by the People's Mujahedin of Iran.

• More anniversaries:
  • August 29
  • August 30
  • August 31

• 1218 – Al-Kamil becomes Sultan of Egypt, Syria and northern Mesopotamia on the death of his father Al-Adil I.
• 1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: Irish rebels, with French assistance, establish the short-lived Republic of Connacht.
• 1864 – During the American Civil War, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta.
• 1965 – The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy aircraft makes its first flight.
• 1987 – Thai Airways Flight 365 crashes into the ocean near Ko Phuket, Thailand, killing all 83 aboard.
• 1998 – North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, its first satellite.
• 2006 – Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream, stolen on August 22, 2004, is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.

• More anniversaries:
  • August 30
  • August 31
  • September 1

Today's featured picture

Christ Carrying the Cross on his way to his crucifixion is an episode included in all four Gospels, and a very common subject in art, especially in the fourteen Stations of the Cross, sets of which are now found in almost all Catholic churches. However the subject occurs in many other contexts, including single works and cycles of the Life of Christ or the Passion of Christ. Alternative names include the Procession to Calvary, Road to Calvary and Way to Calvary, Calvary or Golgotha being the site of the crucifixion outside Jerusalem. The actual route taken is defined by tradition as the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, although the specific path of this route has varied over the centuries and continues to be the subject of debate. (Full article...)

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