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Nadezhda Stasova (1822–1895) was an educator and one of the earliest leaders of the Russian women's movement. She was born into a noble and wealthy family; Tsar Alexander I of Russia was her godfather, and she received extensive private tutoring as a child. In adulthood, she dedicated herself to women's empowerment. Along with Anna Filosofova and Maria Trubnikova, she founded and led several organizations designed to promote women's cultural and economic independence, including a publishing cooperative. In a decades-long effort, they successfully pushed government officials to allow higher education for women, although continual opposition sometimes limited or even reversed their successes. Stasova eventually became the lead organizer of the Bestuzhev Courses for women in 1878, but a decade later was forced to resign under political pressure. She continued her work on women's issues right up until her death in 1895, mentoring and inspiring younger feminists. (Full article...)

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In the news

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In cycling, Katarzyna Niewiadoma (pictured) wins the Tour de France Femmes.
Doctors strike and protests occur across India after the rape and murder of a female physician in Kolkata.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Prime Minister of Thailand after Srettha Thavisin is dismissed by the Constitutional Court.
The World Health Organization declares the mpox epidemic to be a global health emergency.

On this day

August 27: Independence Day in Moldova (1991)

Destroyed buildings after the attack in the Anglo-Zanzibar War

410 – The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ended after three days.
1896 – In the shortest recorded war in history (pictured), the Sultanate of Zanzibar surrendered to the United Kingdom after less than an hour of conflict.
1955 – The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records was published.
1964 – South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Khánh entered into a triumvirate power-sharing arrangement with rival generals Trần Thiện Khiêm and Dương Văn Minh, both of whom had been involved in plots to unseat Khánh.
2009 – The Myanmar military junta and ethnic armies began three days of violent clashes in the region of Kokang.

Henry Edwards (b. 1827)
Rufus Wilmot Griswold (d. 1857)
Don Bradman (b. 1908)
Ieva Simonaitytė (d. 1978)

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Today's featured picture

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland, located on the Vistula in the east-central part of the country. It has an estimated population of 1.86 million, within a larger metropolitan area of 3.27 million residents, and it is a major cultural, political and economic hub. Warsaw originated as a small fishing town in Masovia, rising to prominence in the late 16th century when Sigismund III moved the Polish capital and his royal court from Kraków. It was the de facto capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795 and then the seat of Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. The 19th century and its Industrial Revolution brought a demographic boom. Warsaw was bombed and besieged at the start of World War II in 1939, and its infrastructure and population suffered during the systematic razing which followed the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The modern city features many historic monuments, including the reconstructed Old Town, designated a World Heritage Site. This 2022 photograph shows an elevated view of Warsaw's Constitution Square, looking northwards down Marszałkowska Street.

Photograph credit: Emptywords

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