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Today’s featured article…

The Beulé Gate is a fortified gate leading to the Propylaia of the Acropolis of Athens, Greece. It was constructed largely of repurposed material taken from the 4th-century BCE Choragic Monument of Nikias and integrated into the Post-Herulian Wall, a late Roman fortification built around the Acropolis in the years following the city's sack by the Germanic Heruli people in 267 or early 268 CE. Its construction marked the beginning of a new phase in the Acropolis's use, in which it came to be seen more as a defensive position than a religious sanctuary. During the medieval period, the gate was further fortified, before being built over with a bastion in Ottoman times. The monument was discovered by the French archaeologist Charles Ernest Beulé on 29 May 1852, and excavated in 1852 and 1853. Archaeologists and Greek commentators criticised the aggressive excavation – particularly the use of explosives. In modern times, the gate has served primarily as an exit for tourists from the Acropolis. (Full article...)

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On this day…

May 29: Feast day of Saint Paul VI (Catholicism)

Hawthorne Bridge

1233 – Mongol–Jin War: The Mongols entered and began looting Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin dynasty of China, after a 13-month siege.
1416 – A squadron of the Venetian navy captured many Ottoman ships at the Battle of Gallipoli, confirming Venetian naval superiority in the Aegean Sea for the next few decades.
1913 – During the premiere of the ballet The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a near-riot in the audience.
1999 – Charlotte Perrelli, representing Sweden, won the Eurovision Song Contest, the first edition not to feature an orchestra or live accompaniment.
2011 – Residents of Portland, Oregon, held a rally called Hands Across Hawthorne in response to an attack against a gay couple holding hands while crossing the Hawthorne Bridge (pictured).

Benedetto Pistrucci (b. 1783)
G. K. Chesterton (b. 1874)
Hubert Opperman (b. 1904)
Uroš Drenović (d. 1944)

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In the news…

Gitanas Nausėda

Gitanas Nausėda (pictured) is re-elected as president of Lithuania.
In cricket, the Kolkata Knight Riders defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad to win the Indian Premier League.
A landslide in Papua New Guinea's Enga Province leaves thousands of people missing and presumed dead.
The European Union passes the Artificial Intelligence Act, aiming to establish a regulatory and legal framework for AI.

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