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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 there are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac?
• ... that some people think approximately 300 years of phantom time were added to the Western calendar in the Early Middle Ages
• ... that Buzzfeed printed fake news about President Trump?
• ... that the type fossil of the damselfly Electropodagrion consists only of a thorax, leg, and wing portions?
• ... 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 Istanbul was formerly known as Constantinople and before 324AD was known as Byzantium?
• ... that Donald Trump was elected the 45th US President and defeated Hillary Clinton?

In the news (from Infogalactic News)

• Trump To Sign Order On Family Separations At U.S. Border
  They Can All Go back Together?
• Former NYC Mayor Bloomberg To Spend $80 Million To Flip House To Democrats
  New York Values
• Two Former Tory Mayors Found Guilty Of Child-Sex Offenses
  They Couldn't Play The Islamic Card
  

• White House To Propose Merger Of Education, Labor Depts
  Part Of Pledge To Streamline Government
• Germany Presses U.S. On Potential Eurofighter Nuclear Role
  To Replace Aging Nuclear Capable Tornado Fleet
  French Police Arrest Knife-Wielding Man Shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’
  Known To Police For Previous Violent Acts
• Canada Senate approves recreational use of marijuana
  More Drugs, Less Security!
  

On this day...

June 22

• 1593 – Battle of Sisak: Allied Christian troops defeat the Ottomans.
• 1783 – A poisonous cloud caused by the eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland reaches Le Havre in France.
• 1825 – The British Parliament abolishes feudalism and the seigneurial system in British North America.
• 1839 – Cherokee leaders Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot are assassinated for signing the Treaty of New Echota, which had resulted in the Trail of Tears.
• 1893 – The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rams the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria which sinks taking 358 crew with her, including the fleet's commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
• 1944 – Opening day of the Soviet Union's Operation Bagration against the Army Group Centre.
• 2002 – An earthquake measuring 6.5 M_w strikes a region of northwestern Iran killing at least 261 people and injuring 1,300 others and eventually causing widespread public anger due to the slow official response.

• More anniversaries:
  • June 21
  • June 22
  • June 23

June 23

• 1305 – A peace treaty between the Flemish and the French is signed at Athis-sur-Orge.
• 1683 – William Penn signs a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.
• 1860 – The United States Congress establishes the Government Printing Office.
• 1894 – The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
• 1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane.
• 1942 – World War II: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz take place on a train full of Jews from Paris.
• 2012 – Ashton Eaton breaks the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials.

• More anniversaries:
  • June 22
  • June 23
  • June 24

• 637 – The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dál Riata. It is claimed to be the largest battle in the history of Ireland.
• 1230 – The Siege of Jaén started in the context of the Spanish Reconquista.
• 1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
• 1535 – The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded.
• 1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London.
• 2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history.
• 2010 – John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon, in the longest match in professional tennis history.

• More anniversaries:
  • June 23
  • June 24
  • June 25

Today's featured picture

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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