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Today's featured article

Édouard Manet's 1875 illustration for "The Raven"

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. Noted for its musicality, stylized language and supernatural atmosphere, it tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing his slow descent into madness. The lover is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. The raven, sitting on a bust of Pallas, seems to further instigate his distress with its repeated word "Nevermore". Throughout, Poe alludes to folklore and classical works. Poe explained in a follow-up essay, "The Philosophy of Composition", that his intention was to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes. The poem was inspired in part by a talking raven in Charles Dickens's 1841 novel Barnaby Rudge. The publication of "The Raven" made Poe widely popular in his day. The poem was soon heavily reprinted, parodied, and illustrated. Though some critics disagree about the value of the poem, it remains well known and popular. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

October 31: Halloween

USS Reuben James in 1939

1917 – World War I: Allied forces defeated Turkish troops in Beersheba in Southern Palestine at the Battle of Beersheba, with the battle involving one of the last successful cavalry charges.
1941 – 100 crew members of the USS Reuben James (pictured) perished when their vessel became the first U.S. Navy ship sunk by hostile action during World War II after it was torpedoed by the German submarine U-552.
1963 – A gas explosion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum in Indianapolis killed 81 people and injured about 400 others.
1973 – Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter that landed in the prison's exercise yard.
2003 – After 22 years in power, Tun Mahathir Mohamad retired as Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Cosimo III de' Medici (d. 1723)
Muriel Duckworth (b. 1908)
William Evans-Gordon (d. 1913)
Gordon Steege (b. 1917)

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In the news

Daniel Chapo

Flooding in Spain kills more than 95 people.
In the Japanese general election, the LDP-led ruling coalition loses its majority in the House of Representatives.
Georgian Dream wins the parliamentary election in Georgia amidst allegations of voting irregularities.
Daniel Chapo (pictured) is announced as the president-elect of Mozambique following protests against his party during the Mozambican general election.

Did you know...

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... that slime monsters (example pictured) have been described as both "a tool for questioning the idea of human exceptionalism" and "loyal punching bags"?
... that some Idaho mountain deathcamas are pollinated by carrion and flesh flies rather than bees?
... that What a Merry-Go-Round closed with evil clowns cavorting around a carousel?
... that the ghost of Margaret C. Waites is said to haunt an undergraduate suite at Harvard College's Cabot House, protecting her book collection?
... that trunk-or-treating was created as a safer alternative to regular trick-or-treating?
... that Vincent Darré had a Parisian apartment decorated with skulls?
... that the song "Haunted" "blends cuteness and spookiness"?
... that the Australian spider Progradungula barringtonensis has been called a "ghost of Gondwana"?
... that Brian David Gilbert released a series of monster-themed ABBA covers under the name AAAH!BBA?
... that the zombie film Get the Hell Out was shot at the currently abandoned Kaohsiung City Council Hall, which had neither water nor electricity?
... that the Devil's Doorway is found in Wisconsin?

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