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The Tower House, in the district of Holland Park in Kensington and Chelsea, London, is a late Victorian townhouse built between 1875 and 1881 by the architect and designer William Burges as his personal residence. Designed in the French Gothic Revival style, it echoes elements of Burges's earlier work. The house was built of red brick by the Ashby Brothers, with a distinctive cylindrical tower and conical roof. The interior was decorated by members of Burges's long-standing team of craftsmen including Thomas Nicholls and Henry Stacy Marks. The house retains most of its internal structural decoration, but much of the furniture, fittings and contents that Burges designed have been dispersed. Many items, including the Great Bookcase, the Zodiac settle, the Golden Bed and the Red Bed, are now in institutions such as The Higgins Bedford and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The house was designated a Grade I listed building in 1949. (Full article...)

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Evening Bells by Isaac Levitan

... that Isaac Levitan was inspired to paint Evening Bells (pictured) when he came across a small monastery in a remote village?
... that Sam Smith left the University of Louisville after being found to be academically ineligible for its basketball team, claiming the school was "too big for him"?
... that the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of Azerbaijan made the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic the first successful republic in the Muslim world?
... that Arnold Blackner was said to be the first person to sing over 3,000 miles (4,800 km) on the telephone?
... that the literary movement of créolie tries to integrate the identity of Réunion with France?
... that the Four-Track News is not news about the car music cassettes of the 1950s, but an illustrated magazine of the early 1900s on travel and education put out by the New York Central Railroad?
... that records of Acoutsina's captivity allow historians to analyse the eighteenth century French-Eskimo relationship?
... that a regional radio group with 75 stations started with a "Big Wrig"?

In the news

Jeanine Áñez

Former Bolivian president Jeanine Áñez (pictured) is sentenced to ten years in prison on charges related to her succession to office during the 2019 political crisis.
Voters in Kazakhstan pass 56 constitutional amendments in a referendum, following the January 2022 unrest.
In Nigeria, at least 40 people are killed in an attack at a Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State.
A fire and explosions at a storage depot in Sitakunda, Bangladesh, kill at least 41 people and injure more than 450 others.

On this day

June 12: Dia dos Namorados in Brazil; Independence Day in the Philippines (1898); Loving Day in the United States (1967)

Anne Frank

1798 – Following the successful French invasion of Malta, the Knights Hospitaller surrendered Malta to Napoleon, initiating two years of occupation.
1899 – The New Richmond tornado killed 117 people and injured 125 others in the Upper Midwest region of the United States.
1942 – On her thirteenth birthday, Anne Frank (pictured) began keeping a diary during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.
1991 – More than 150 Sri Lankan Tamil civilians were massacred by members of the military in the village of Kokkadichcholai.

Thomas Farnaby (d. 1647)
Egwale Seyon (d. 1818)
Javed Miandad (b. 1957)

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Today's featured picture

The Notre-Dame fire broke out in the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris on 15 April 2019, causing severe damage to the building's spire, roof, and upper walls. The fire resulted in the contamination of the site and nearby areas of the city with toxic dust and lead. Investigators believed that the fire was caused by a cigarette or an electrical short circuit; the prosecutor of Paris found no evidence showing the fire was started deliberately. The cathedral's wooden spire, or flèche, was built by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in the Gothic Revival style and installed in 1859, weighing around 250 tons. This photograph, taken during the 2019 fire, depicts the spire of Notre-Dame aflame; it collapsed shortly afterwards.

Photograph credit: Guillaume Levrier

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