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From today's featured article

League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games and released in 2009. Two teams of five players battle in player-versus-player combat, with each player controlling a character with a unique play style and abilities. At launch, the game was generally well-received; later critical reappraisals, arising as a result of the game's long lifespan, have trended positively, noting the regular content updates. In 2019 the game routinely recorded 8 million concurrent players, and its popularity and longevity have led to various tie-ins, including virtual groups like K/DA, narrative collaborations with Marvel Comics, spin-off video games, and an upcoming animated series. The game is played professionally, and is frequently cited as the world's largest esport; the 2019 League of Legends World Championship had over 100 million unique viewers, peaking at a concurrent 44 million viewers, with a minimum prize pool of US$2.5 million. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Hunterdon Art Museum

... that the Hunterdon Art Museum (pictured), located in a historic stone mill, was described as the "most charming and picturesque" museum in New Jersey?
... that Madame Gavaudan, a soprano of the Opéra-Comique in Paris, created the role of Benjamin in Étienne Méhul's Joseph?
... that all three albums in the discography of the emo band American Football are eponymous, so the media and Polyvinyl Records refer to them as LP1, LP2, and LP3?
... that the cucumber seeds that botanist Elwyn Meader brought back from Korea in 1948 became the basis for all modern cucumber hybrids grown worldwide?
... that during the 2020 Zagreb flash flood, residents broke into a dam control building to drain floodwaters from the city?
... that Mississippi legislator Thelma Farr Baxter introduced a bill to keep livestock off the roads after her husband was fatally injured in a highway collision with a cow?
... that in 1984, a Spanish fishing trawler sank after being fired upon by the Irish patrol vessel Aisling?
... that despite his side winning the 1998 Football League Second Division play-off Final, Grimsby's Alan Buckley said "Anybody who says they enjoy play-offs aren't football managers"?

In the news

Mostert's Mill in 2012

In South Africa, a fire on Table Mountain, Cape Town, destroys historic monuments including Mostert's Mill (pictured) and the University of Cape Town's main library.
Guillermo Lasso is elected President of Ecuador.
At the British Academy Film Awards, Nomadland wins four awards, including Best Film.
In golf, Hideki Matsuyama wins the Masters Tournament.
In horse racing, Minella Times wins the Grand National, with Rachael Blackmore becoming the first female jockey to win in the race's 182-year history.

On this day

April 19: Feast day of Saint Ælfheah of Canterbury (Catholicism, Anglicanism); Patriots' Day in various U.S. states (2021)

Mae West

797 – Byzantine emperor Constantine VI was captured, blinded, and imprisoned by the supporters of his mother Irene.
1809 – War of the Fifth Coalition: The French won a hard-fought victory over Austria in Lower Bavaria when their opponents withdrew from the field of battle that evening.
1927 – American actress Mae West (pictured) was sentenced to ten days in jail for "corrupting the morals of youth" for her play Sex.
1971 – The first space station, Salyut 1, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR, USSR.
1984 – "Advance Australia Fair", written by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick, officially replaced "God Save the Queen" as Australia's national anthem.

George St Lo (b. 1655)
Sarah Bagley (b. 1806)
Michel Roux (b. 1941)

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From today's featured list

The logo header of Super Mario RPG

The Mario franchise has deviated into a variety of role-playing games that have been published by Nintendo and released exclusively for their video game consoles. The first game, Super Mario RPG, was developed by Square and released in 1996; the game was met with critical acclaim, and became the inspiration for the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi spinoff series, developed by Intelligent Systems and AlphaDream respectively. The Paper Mario series was well-received when it began with Paper Mario in 2000, but has since been shifted to that of an action-adventure series; beginning with Superstar Saga in 2003, numerous titles in the Mario & Luigi series were met with critical acclaim, but AlphaDream declared bankruptcy in 2019. Three other one-off titles, such as Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle in 2017, have also been released. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Jawi alphabet is an Arabic-based writing system used to write the Malay language and several other Southeast Asian languages. This photograph shows an 1803 Netherlands Indies gulden silver rupee coin, minted at the Java Mint in the Dutch East Indies, featuring Jawi script; the image of the reverse (on the right) is inverted.

Coin credit: Java Mint; photographed by Heritage Auctions

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