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From today's featured article

The Spy Who Loved Me is the ninth novel and tenth book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. First published on 16 April 1962, it is the shortest and most sexually explicit of Fleming's novels, as well as the only Bond novel told in the first person. Its narrator is a young Canadian woman, Viv Michel. Bond does not appear until two-thirds of the way through the book, arriving at precisely the right moment to save Viv from being raped and murdered. Fleming wrote a prologue to the novel giving the character Viv credit as a co-author. The story uses a recurring motif of Saint George against the dragon, and contains themes of power and the moral ambiguity between those acting with good and evil intent. The reviews were largely negative, with some expressing a desire for a return to the structure and form of the previous Bond novels. Fleming attempted to suppress elements of the book: he blocked a paperback edition and permitted Eon Productions to use only the book's title but not its plot. (This article is part of a featured topic: Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and short stories.)

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Did you know ...

University of Wisconsin–Platteville Richland campus

... that the closure of five University of Wisconsin branch campuses (one pictured) has called into question the future of the Wisconsin Idea?
... that Apurbalal Majumdar was elected from two different constituencies in the 1967 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election?
... that the soundtrack to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz was not commercially available until 1956?
... that tea-garden labour leader Prem Oraon lost his right leg in 1970 during a protest against a factory closure?
... that when the Brighton Town Commissioners wanted to build Queen's Road through a slum district, they invited all the residents to a festival and demolished their houses while they were away?
... that Green Bay Packer Wally Ladrow worked as a packer?
... that the outbreak of the Java War, which lasted five years and killed more than 200,000 people, was triggered by a government road project?
... that Herzog Wine Cellars produces approximately 250,000 cases of kosher wine annually?
... that a car accident may have wrecked Richard Petty's chances of being elected North Carolina's secretary of state?

In the news

Decorative strap junction from the Melsonby Hoard

Archaeologists announce the discovery of the Melsonby Hoard, a collection of Iron Age artefacts (example pictured), in a field in North Yorkshire, England.
Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry is elected as the first female president of the International Olympic Committee and the first from an African country.
Anti-government protests break out across Turkey following the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu by the national police.
Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud survives an attack on his convoy by al-Shabaab that kills at least 10 people.

On this day

March 27: Day of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania (1918)

Ball-and-stick model of sildenafil

1884 – Outraged by a jury's decision to convict a man of manslaughter instead of murder, a mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, began three days of rioting.
1899 – Philippine–American War: American forces defeated troops commanded by Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo at the Battle of Marilao River.
1998 – The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug sildenafil (chemical structure pictured), better known by the trade name Viagra, as the first treatment approved in the United States for erectile dysfunction.
1999 – NATO bombing of Yugoslavia: A U.S. Air Force F-117 stealth aircraft was shot down by a Yugoslav Army unit.
2020 – North Macedonia became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Jonathan Jennings (b. 1784)
Doug Wilkerson (b. 1947)
Elisheva Bikhovski (d. 1949)
T. Sailo (d. 2015)

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Today's featured picture

The Mauritius ornate day gecko (Phelsuma ornata) is a diurnal species of gecko in the family Gekkonidae, the common geckos. It occurs in Mauritius, on the main island up to an elevation of 300 metres (980 feet) and on most of the surrounding islands. The species feeds on insects and nectar from flowering plants. It has a typical length of 10 to 13 centimetres (3.9 to 5.1 inches), and can be bluish green, with a back covered with red coloured dots and a head with a T-shaped pattern. This Mauritius ornate day gecko was photographed on the Île aux Aigrettes, an islet of the southeastern coast of the main island.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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