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Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–1798) was a German pastor and naturalist. After studying theology at the University of Halle, Forster was hired in 1765 by Russia to inspect its colonies on the Volga; his report was critical and he left for England unpaid. Forster succeeded Joseph Priestley at Warrington Academy, and published a mineralogy textbook and translations of foreign works. After Joseph Banks withdrew from James Cook's second voyage, Forster became the naturalist on Cook's ship. On the journey, they made the first recorded crossing of the Antarctic Circle and observations and discoveries in New Zealand and Polynesia. Amid disputes with Cook over who should publish accounts of the journey, Forster published his scientific Observations Made During a Voyage Round the World. Having alienated many powerful men in England, Forster returned to Germany, becoming a professor at Halle; he died in 1798. He is commemorated in the names of species, including the genera Forstera and Forsterygion. (Full article...)

Linognathus setosus

• ... that sucking lice (pictured) perforate their victims' skin with a pair of stabbers?
• ... that Davy Russell won a 2025 Scottish election despite being dubbed the "invisible man" by an opponent?
• ... that one historian considered the anachronisms of the historical novel The Rival Chiefs to be unproblematic because readers wanted "not accuracy but thrill"?
• ... that the developers of Ducks Ahoy! deliberately omitted violence from the game?
• ... that when being visited by an NFL scout, college football player Boyd Jones was acting as a coach since the normal coach was absent?
• ... that when a fan asked the developers of Door Kickers 2: Task Force North to "release the damn game", they did?
• ... that Indonesian legislator Alifuddin pushed for the passage of an anti-LGBT "Family Resilience" law in response to the publicization of an incest-fantasy Facebook group?
• ... that Racing Mount Pleasant sometimes asks concert audiences to sit instead of stand?
• ... that the roar of the Yeti from Doctor Who was made by slowing down the sound of a flushing toilet?

Aleksander Barkov

• In ice hockey, the Florida Panthers (captain Aleksander Barkov pictured) defeat the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup.
• In motorsport, Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Phil Hanson of AF Corse win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
• In the US state of Minnesota, state representative Melissa Hortman is assassinated and state senator John Hoffman is injured.
• Former president of Nicaragua and first elected female president in the Americas Violeta Chamorro dies at the age of 95.

June 21: Fête de la Musique; International Day of Yoga; National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada; Xiazhi in China (2025)

Replica of the Manchester Baby

• 217 BC – Second Punic War: The Carthaginians under Hannibal ambushed a Roman army at the Battle of Lake Trasimene, capturing or killing 25,000 men.
• 1848 – In the Wallachian Revolution, Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Christian Tell proclaimed a new republican government in present-day Romania.
• 1898 – In a bloodless event during the Spanish–American War, the United States captured Guam from Spain.
• 1919 – During a general strike in Winnipeg, Canada, members of the Royal North-West Mounted Police attacked a crowd of strikers, armed with clubs and revolvers.
• 1948 – The Manchester Baby (replica pictured), the world's first stored-program computer, ran its first program.