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Empire of the Sultans was a touring exhibition from 1995 to 2004 displaying objects from the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art. Around two hundred exhibits, including calligraphy, textiles, pottery (example pictured), weapons, and metalwork, illustrated the art and daily life of six centuries of the Ottoman Empire. Many of the objects had been created for the leaders of the empire, the sultans. Two of the calligraphic pieces were the work of sultans themselves. In the 1990s, the exhibition was hosted by institutions in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Israel, and its first catalogue was published by J. M. Rogers. The exhibits visited thirteen cities in the United States from 2000 to 2004, despite controversies in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the Iraq War. Critics described the exhibition as wide-ranging and informative. They praised it for showing beautiful art works – naming the calligraphy in particular – and for presenting a fresh view of Islam. (Full article...)

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On this day

July 23: Seventeenth of Tammuz (Judaism, 2024), Birthday of Haile Selassie (Rastafari)

Wilfred Rhodes in 1906

1860 – The trial of the Eastbourne manslaughter, which later became an important legal precedent in the United Kingdom for discussions of corporal punishment in schools, began in Lewes.
1927 – Wilfred Rhodes (pictured) of England and Yorkshire became the only person to play in 1,000 first-class cricket matches.
1942 – The Holocaust: The gas chambers at Treblinka extermination camp began operation, killing 6,500 Jews who had been transported from the Warsaw Ghetto the day before.
1995 – Hale–Bopp, one of the most widely observed comets of the 20th century, was independently discovered by astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.
1999 – In Tulia, Texas, 47 people were arrested for dealing cocaine; years later, 35 of the 47 were pardoned by the Governor of Texas.

John Day (d. 1584)
Bonaventura Peeters the Elder (b. 1614)
Daniel Radcliffe (b. 1989)
Hassan II of Morocco (d. 1999)

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Today's featured picture

Censorship under the military dictatorship in Brazil consisted of restrictions on the media, artists, journalists, and others whom the government deemed "subversive", "dangerous" or "immoral". The political system of the Brazilian military dictatorship, installed by a 1964 coup d'état and which persisted until 1985, also set out to censor material that went against what it called "morality and good manners". The constitution of 1967 established censorship as an official, centralized activity of the Brazilian federal government. There were several protests against the practice, including the Cultura contra Censura protest in February 1968, depicted in this photograph, which shows the actresses Tônia Carrero, Eva Wilma, Odete Lara, Norma Bengell and Cacilda Becker.

Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden

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