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The 139th Boat Race took place on 27 March 1993. Held annually, the Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge along the River Thames. Cambridge, using "cleaver blades" for the first time in the history of the race, won by three-and-a-half lengths in a victory that was described in The Times as "crushingly conclusive". The winning time of 17 minutes exactly was the fourth fastest time in the event. Cambridge's victory prevented what would have been Oxford's seventeenth win out of the last eighteen races, which would have levelled the overall score for the first time since the 1929 race. Oxford's crew featured two Olympic gold medallists and saw changes in their rowers and cox in the lead-up to the event. The race was umpired by the former Oxford Blue Mark Evans, who controversially instigated changes to the start procedure of the race. In the reserve race, Cambridge's Goldie defeated Oxford's Isis, while Cambridge won the Women's Boat Race. (Full article...)

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On this day...

March 28: Teachers' Day in the Czech Republic; Serfs Emancipation Day in Tibet

Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers

From today's featured list

Gaga during her ArtRave: The Artpop Ball tour in 2014
Gaga during her ArtRave: The Artpop Ball tour in 2014

American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga has recorded material for four studio albums and three extended plays (EP), and has been featured on songs on other artists' respective albums. After signing with Interscope, Gaga began working on her debut album, The Fame, which was released in 2008. The album has influences of the 1980s pop music and discusses Gaga's love of fame while also dealing with subjects, such as love, sexuality, money and drugs. Initially intended to be a re-release of her first album, an EP titled The Fame Monster (2009) included eight newly recorded tracks. The EP explores the darker side of fame, describing the differences between them with the yin and yang concept. Gaga's second full-length album, Born This Way, was released in 2011. Themes include sexuality, religion, freedom, feminism and individualism. Primarily influenced by synthpop and dance-pop, it incorporates musical genres which had not been previously explored by Gaga, such as electronic rock and techno. Gaga's third album, Artpop, released in 2013. Described as "a celebration and a poetic musical journey", the album revolves around her personal views of fame, love, sex, feminism, self-empowerment, overcoming addiction, and reactions to media scrutiny. It also contains references to Greek and Roman mythology. In 2014, Gaga and Tony Bennett released a collaborative album titled Cheek to Cheek, which consists of jazz standards. (Full list...)

Today's featured picture

Treaty of Waitangi

One of nine extant copies (all damaged by water and rodents while in storage) of the Waitangi sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi, first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand. Consequently, Lieutenant Governor William Hobson declared British sovereignty over New Zealand in May 1840. The treaty also established a British Governor of New Zealand; recognised Māori ownership of their lands, forests, and other properties; and gave the Māori the rights of British subjects. In return the Māori people ceded New Zealand to Queen Victoria, giving her government the sole right to purchase land. Owing to significant difference in the English and Māori versions, there was no consensus regarding governance. The courts long ignored the treaty, but in 1975 the Waitangi Tribunal was established as a permanent commission of inquiry tasked with researching British breaches of it, and suggesting means of redress.

Document: William Hobson, James Freeman, and James Busby (English version); Henry Williams and Edward Williams (Māori translation)

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