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The red panda is a mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, and a ringed tail. It has a head-to-body length of 51–63.5 cm (20–25 in) and a 28–48.5 cm (11–19 in) tail, and it weighs between 3.2 and 15 kg (7 and 33 lb). It is genetically close to raccoons, weasels and skunks. Solitary, largely arboreal and well adapted to climbing, it inhabits coniferous, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, favouring steep slopes with dense bamboo cover close to water sources. It uses elongated wrist bones ("false thumbs") to grasp bamboo. It feeds mainly on bamboo shoots and leaves. Red pandas mate in early spring, giving birth to up to four cubs in summer. On the IUCN Red List as endangered since 2015, the species is threatened by poaching and deforestation-based habitat destruction and fragmentation. It is featured in animated movies, video games and comic books, and is also the namesake of companies and music bands. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that Ecuadorian politician Paola Cabezas (pictured) realized that she needed to stop straightening her hair when her niece described her own unstraightened hair as "ugly"?
- ... that the Supreme Court has been cited as a vector of democratic backsliding in the United States?
- ... that Takayama, Gifu, distributed 10,000 maps featuring the real-life locations of the anime TV series Hyouka?
- ... that singer Patsy Torres was referred to as the "princess of Tejano music"?
- ... that an exhibition match of Australian rules football was contested in London on 28 October 1916 between two teams of elite footballers also serving in the First AIF?
- ... that when her boss told her to quit her unpaid television commenting role, Katie Phang quit her paid job instead?
- ... that "Öffnet eure Tore" is a 1810 hymn in German written by Christoph Bernhard Verspoell for the Feast of the Ascension, based on Psalm 24?
- ... that "on a good day", a Minnesota radio station could reach St. Peter?
In the news
- In ice hockey, the Colorado Avalanche defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Stanley Cup Finals (Conn Smythe Trophy winner Cale Makar pictured).
- At least twenty-one people are found dead in a nightclub in East London, South Africa.
- A mass shooting during LGBT pride celebrations in Oslo, Norway, leaves two people dead and twenty-one others injured.
- The United States Supreme Court determines that abortion is not a protected constitutional right, overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
On this day
![Anna Pavlova as Giselle](http://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20220628160810im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/AnnaPavlovaAsGiselle.jpg/119px-AnnaPavlovaAsGiselle.jpg)
- 572 – Alboin, the king of the Lombards, was assassinated in Verona in a coup d'état instigated by the Byzantines.
- 1841 – Giselle (title role pictured), a ballet by the French composer Adolphe Adam, was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris.
- 1904 – In the worst maritime disaster involving a Danish merchant ship, SS Norge ran aground on Hasselwood Rock and sank in the North Atlantic, resulting in more than 635 deaths.
- 1942 – World War II: The Wehrmacht launched Case Blue, a strategic German offensive to capture oil fields in the south of the Soviet Union.
- 1978 – In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the U.S. Supreme Court barred quota systems in college admissions but held that affirmative-action programs advantaging minorities were constitutional.
- James Tuchet, 7th Baron Audley (d. 1497)
- William Hooper (b. 1742)
- Franz Stangl (d. 1971)
Today's featured picture
Silver certificates are a type of representative money issued between 1878 and 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Coinage Act of 1873, which had effectively placed the United States on a gold standard. Since 1968 they have been redeemable only in Federal Reserve Notes and are thus obsolete, but they remain legal tender at their face value and hence are still an accepted form of currency. This is a complete set of the 1891 series of large-size silver certificates, designed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and comprising eight denominations from $1 to $1000. Each banknote bears the signatures of James Fount Tillman (Register of the Treasury) and Daniel N. Morgan (Treasurer of the United States), and a portrait of a different individual, identified above. Banknote design credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; photographed by Andrew Shiva
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