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Ken "Snakehips" Johnson (10 September 1914 – 8 March 1941) was a swing band leader and leading figure in black British music of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in British Guiana, he was educated in Britain and travelled to New York to immerse himself in the Harlem jazz scene. He returned to Britain and established the Aristocrats (or Emperors) of Jazz, a mainly black swing band, with Leslie Thompson. In 1937 Johnson took control of the band through a legal loophole, causing the departure of Thompson and several musicians. Johnson filled the vacancies with Caribbean musicians, the band's popularity grew, and it changed its name to the West Indian Dance Orchestra. In 1938 the band broadcast on BBC Radio, recorded their first discs and appeared in an early television broadcast. Johnson was considered a pioneer for black musical leaders in the UK. While the band was employed as the house band at the Café de Paris, a German bombing raid in 1941 hit the nightclub, killing Johnson. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Two people in an Electriquette

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... that 19th-century Polish writer Józef Ignacy Kraszewski authored hundreds of works, including more than 200 novels?
... that the legalization of abortion in Benin was supported by two members of the cabinet who had both worked as gynecologists?
... that in December 2023, former Major League Soccer referee Alex Chilowicz began officiating in the English Football League after relocating to England?
... that many producers of Marmelada de Santa Luzia, a variety of quince cheese, are descendants of quilombolas?
... that Nathaniel Coe declined nomination to the United States Senate, instead choosing to serve as an inspector for the United States Postal Service?
... that Sachi Narashima came up with the idea for the manga Cosmetic Playlover after her friend, who worked as a beauty consultant, mentioned that there were male beauty consultants?
... that Mary Jo West compared working in network TV news to learning that Santa Claus is just an ordinary man?

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Michel Barnier is appointed prime minister of France by President Emmanuel Macron, leading to nationwide anti-government protests.
An attempted jailbreak at Makala Central Prison in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, leaves 129 people dead.
A Mil Mi-8 helicopter crashes in Kamchatka, Russia, killing all 22 people on board.

On this day

September 10

Portland Vase

1724 – Johann Sebastian Bach led the first performance of Jesu, der du meine Seele, BWV 78, a chorale cantata based on a passion hymn by Johann Rist.
1779 – American Revolutionary War: Captain William Pickles of the Continental Navy boarded and captured the British sloop HMS West Florida at the Battle of Lake Pontchartrain.
1845 – John Doubleday completed a "masterly" restoration of the Portland Vase (pictured), which had been smashed into hundreds of pieces seven months prior.
1974 – After centuries of Portuguese rule, the country of Guinea-Bissau was formally recognized as independent.
2000 – British forces freed soldiers and civilians who had been held captive by the militant group the West Side Boys, contributing to the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War.

Mary Wollstonecraft (d. 1797)
Mortimer Wheeler (b. 1890)
Boyd K. Packer (b. 1924)
Jack Ma (b. 1964)

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Today's featured picture

Tirumala septentrionis, commonly known as the dark blue tiger, is a species of butterfly in the danaid subfamily of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in South and Southeast Asia, including the Himalayas to southern India and Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Cambodia. Its upper wing is generally black with some bluish-white semihyaline markings, and its wing span is 80 to 115 millimetres (3.1 to 4.5 inches). This male butterfly of the subspecies T. s. dravidarum was photographed in Kumarakom in the Indian state of Kerala.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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