Memorial to the First Homosexual Emancipation Movement in Berlin

From the late 19th century until 1933, the first homosexual movement unsuccessfully sought the repeal of Paragraph 175, a German law criminalizing sex between men. In 1897, Magnus Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee—the world's first LGBT organization—to achieve this goal through science. The movement greatly expanded after World War I and the German revolution, when the first mass-market periodicals for gay people were published. The German Friendship Society and the League for Human Rights, founded after the war, emphasized human rights and the politics of respectability. In 1929, the German parliament considered but ultimately did not vote on a proposal to decriminalize homosexuality. The movement waned after failing to achieve its objectives, and was shut down after the Nazi takeover in early 1933 led to an increase in the persecution of homosexual men. The first homosexual movement has inspired and influenced later LGBT movements. (Full article...)

Rosalie Edge

• ... that American environmentalist Rosalie Edge (pictured) was called "the only honest, unselfish, indomitable hellcat in the history of conservation"?
• ... that the dominant species in the Iron-grass Natural Temperate Grassland of South Australia are often not grasses at all?
• ... that a pink skin for Mercy in the video game Overwatch helped raise more than $12 million for breast cancer research?
• ... that in 2005, the Philippine embassy in Paris regularly had a flooded basement due to a lack of funds?
• ... that medievalist Edward Rand rang the doorbell of Harvard president Charles William Eliot and asked him: "I would like to go to Harvard; do you have any money?"
• ... that academic Kohei Saito describes the Sustainable Development Goals as the "new opium of the masses" in his 2020 Marxist book, Capital in the Anthropocene?
• ... that Nick Kerbawy did not receive his college tennis championship trophy until 14 years after winning it?
• ... that the dining room at Ardress House has no internal doors and can only be reached using an external entrance?

Svante Pääbo

• At least 37 people, mostly children, are killed in a mass murder at a nursery in Nong Bua Lamphu province, Thailand.
• Svante Pääbo (pictured) is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on human evolutionary genetics.
• Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualaw and Kenyan Amos Kipruto win the London Marathon women's and men's races.
• In motorsport, Kalle Rovanperä wins the World Rally Championship, becoming its youngest champion at 22 years old.

Current and former prime ministers (left to right): English, Key, Palmer, Ardern, Clark, and Bolger

The prime minister of New Zealand is the country's head of government and the leader of the Cabinet, whose powers and responsibilities are defined by convention. Officially, the prime minister is appointed by the governor-general, but by convention, the prime minister must have the confidence of the House of Representatives. Originally, prime ministers headed loose coalitions of independents, which were often unstable; since the advent of political parties, the prime minister is usually the leader of the largest political party in the House. Some historians regard James FitzGerald as New Zealand's first prime minister, although a more conventional view is that neither he nor his successor (Thomas Forsaith) should properly be given that title, as New Zealand did not yet have responsible government when they served. Most commonly, Henry Sewell, who served during 1856, is regarded as New Zealand's first premier. Beginning with Sewell, forty individuals have so far held the premiership. The incumbent prime minister is Jacinda Ardern, who assumed office on 26 October 2017. (Full list...)