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From tomorrow's featured article

Meghan Trainor

"Mother" is a song by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor (pictured) from the deluxe edition of her fifth major-label studio album, Takin' It Back (2022). She wrote the song with Sean Douglas, and its producers, Gian Stone, and her brother Justin. Epic Records released it as the lead single on March 27, 2023. A pop song with doo-wop influences, "Mother" interpolates "Mr. Sandman". Inspired by men who said Trainor's pregnancy would end her career, the song is about women's empowerment; she asks the male subject to stop mansplaining and to listen to her. Critics were complimentary about the composition but criticized the use of the term "mother". The song reached the top 30 in Belgium, Ireland, Suriname, and the United Kingdom. Charm La'Donna directed the music video, which stars Kris Jenner; critics praised the fashion choices and described it as glamorous. Trainor performed the song on Today, Capital's Summertime Ball, and the Timeless Tour (2024). (This article is part of a featured topic: Takin' It Back.)

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Did you know ...

Statue of the Rani of Jhansi in Solapur

... that the Rani of Jhansi (statue pictured) has been described as "the greatest heroine of Indian history"?
... that American-born Freddie Lish called playing for the Thai national basketball team, "my dream ever since I found out my mom was born in Thailand"?
... that Pakistani prime minister Mohammad Ali Bogra opposed the 1955 election to protect his political position?
... that nine days after his heart transplant, J. C. Walter Jr. merged his company Houston Oil & Minerals with Tenneco, then retired to his ranch and shortly after founded Walter Oil & Gas?
... that during his final known voyage, Lope Martín overthrew two captains before being marooned on Ujelang Atoll?
... that a Japanese governor wore a pregnancy simulation suit to encourage men to help out their wives at home?
... that the shooting of Eileen Quinn was referenced in the poetry of W. B. Yeats?
... that Victor L. King employed only black people from the South in 1917 at his new chemical plant in New Jersey to "prevent the entrance into the organization of any enemy aliens" during World War I?
... that Cory Booker delivered the longest recorded individual speech in United States Senate history while protesting the second presidency of Donald Trump?

In the news (For today)

Pope Leo XIV

Robert Francis Prevost is elected as Pope Leo XIV (pictured), becoming the first Catholic pope born in the United States.
Friedrich Merz is elected Chancellor of Germany and sworn in alongside his coalition government.
Zhao Xintong defeats Mark Williams to win the World Snooker Championship.
In the Singaporean general election, the People's Action Party retains a supermajority of seats.

On the next day

May 11

Shireen wearing press vest

868 – A copy of the Diamond Sutra was printed in Tang-dynasty China, making it the world's oldest dated printed book.
1889 – Bandits attacked a U.S. Army paymaster's escort in the Arizona Territory, stealing more than $28,000.
1970 – Lubbock, Texas, was struck by a tornado that left 26 people dead.
2010 – Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party after failing to strike a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats.
2022 – Shireen Abu Akleh (pictured) was killed by Israel Defense Forces in Jenin refugee camp.
2022 – Myanmar civil war: Government troops killed 37 unarmed civilians in Mondaingbin.

Richard Feynman (b. 1918)
Judy Ann Santos (b. 1978)
Zenna Henderson (d. 1983)

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Tomorrow's featured picture

Ottmar Mergenthaler (11 May 1854 – 28 October 1899) was the inventor of the linotype machine, the first device that could easily and quickly set complete lines of type for use in printing presses. Mergenthaler was born into a German family in Hachtel in the Kingdom of Württemberg. He was apprenticed to a watchmaker in Bietigheim before emigrating to the United States in 1872 to work in Washington, D.C., with his cousin August Hahl. In 1876, Mergenthaler was approached by James O. Clephane and his associate Charles T. Moore, who sought a quicker way of publishing legal briefs. By 1884, he conceived the idea of assembling metallic letter molds, called matrices, and casting molten metal into them, all within a single machine. In July 1886, the Mergenthaler Linotype Company installed the first commercially used Linotype in the printing office of the New-York Tribune. This photograph shows Mergenthaler at approximately 45 years of age in 1899; he died that year in Baltimore of tuberculosis.

Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden

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