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From the day after tomorrow's featured article

American Cemetery, where the film's opening and closing scenes are set

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in France during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), on their mission to locate Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who is to be brought home after his three brothers are killed in action. Inspired by the books of Stephen E. Ambrose and accounts of the deaths of members of a single family such as the Niland brothers, Rodat drafted the script and Paramount Pictures hired him to finish the writing. Spielberg wanted to make Saving Private Ryan as authentic as possible, and hired Frank Darabont and Scott Frank to perform uncredited rewrites based on research and interviews with veterans. The cast went through a week-long boot camp to understand the soldier experience. Filming took place from June to September 1997 in England and Ireland. Saving Private Ryan earned critical acclaim for its graphic portrayal of combat. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Working Sketch of the Mastodon

... that exhibits at Peale's Philadelphia Museum included the first nearly complete skeleton of a mastodon (sketch pictured)?
... that German factory worker Julius Welschof now plays in the National Football League?
... that despite "C U in da Ballpit" being Camping in Alaska's best known song, the band says they all hate it?
... that journalist Jacques Poitras spent a month repeatedly crossing the "Imaginary Line" separating New Brunswick and Maine in order to publish a book about it?
... that George Krugers was circumcised so he could pass as Muslim and film The Great Mecca Feast?
... that the TikTok success of DellaXOZ's "Ahh!!" prompted a lawyer to contact her?
... that the New York State Pavilion, one of the most popular attractions at the 1964 World's Fair, later stored hazardous waste?
... that Stellar Blade's Eve was described as "a woman born from South Korea's culture and philosophy" by The Washington Post?
... that Tad's Steaks offered "tasty food, low prices, service with a grunt"?

In the news (For today)

Dani Carvajal

The CNSA Chang'e 6 completes sampling and takeoff from the far side of the Moon.
In association football, the UEFA Champions League concludes with Real Madrid defeating Borussia Dortmund in the men's final (player of the match Dani Carvajal pictured) and Barcelona defeating Lyon in the women's final.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump is found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records.
In Indy car racing, Josef Newgarden wins the Indianapolis 500.

In two days

June 6: National Day of Sweden

Shivaji

1513 – War of the League of Cambrai: Milanese forces with Swiss mercenaries defeated the French in Novara, forcing them to withdraw from the Duchy of Milan and Italy.
1674 – Shivaji (pictured), who led a resistance to free the Maratha from the Bijapur Sultanate and the Mughal Empire, was crowned the first chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire.
1882 – The Shewan army defeated Gojjame forces at the Battle of Embabo, an event that contributed to the supremacy of Shewa within the Ethiopian Empire.
1971 – Hughes Airwest Flight 706 collided with a US Marine Corps jet near Duarte, California, killing 50 people.
1985 – The remains of Josef Mengele, a Nazi physician notorious for performing human experiments on Auschwitz inmates, were exhumed in Embu das Artes, Brazil.

Regiomontanus (b. 1436)
Jean Pouliot (b. 1923)
Carl Jung (d. 1961)
Maria Alyokhina (b. 1988)

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Featured picture (Check back later for the day after tomorrow's.)

The Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae, which is native to western North America. They grow to a height of around 20 to 100 metres (70 to 330 feet) and commonly reach 2.4 metres (8 feet) in diameter. The largest coast Douglas firs regularly live for more than 500 years, with the oldest specimens more than 1,300 years old. The cones are pendulous and differ from true firs as they have persistent scales. The cones have distinctive long, trifid (three-pointed) bracts which protrude prominently above each scale. They become tan when mature, measuring 6 to 10 centimetres (2+1⁄2 to 4 inches) long for coastal Douglas firs. This photograph shows a young female cone of the variety Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir), cultivated near Keila, Estonia.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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