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From today's featured article

Famicom and its disk system, for which The Lost Levels was released

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is a platform game released on June 3, 1986, as a sequel to Super Mario Bros. (1985) by Nintendo. It was designed to be similar in style and gameplay for players who had mastered the original. Players control Mario or Luigi to jump between platforms and rescue the Princess from Bowser. It became the most popular game in Japan for the Famicom Disk System, selling about 2.5 million copies. Deeming it too difficult for North American audiences, Nintendo of America instead retrofitted another game as the region's sequel. The Japanese sequel was renamed as The Lost Levels in the 1993 compilation Super Mario All-Stars, the sequel's first international release. Reviewers regarded the sequel as an extension of the original's difficulty progression. The Lost Levels is remembered as among the most difficult Nintendo games and regarded as a precursor to the franchise's Kaizo subculture in which fans create and share ROM hacks featuring nearly impossible levels. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Piper's Hole, Tresco

... that according to legend, dogs who travelled through a passage between Piper's Hole in Tresco (pictured) and Piper's Hole in St Mary's emerged without most of their fur?
... that Russ Davis hit the first home run at Safeco Field?
... that according to The Wire, the web application Tek Fog was used to "amplify right-wing propaganda" among Indians?
... that after developing the first packet switching network for the ARPANET in the United States, computer scientist David Walden went to Norway to develop a packet switching network in that country?
... that William Shakespeare once described a shepherd's hat as a "platted hive of straw"?
... that Lucy Westlake summited the highest peak of each of the 48 contiguous U.S. states by age 12?
... that as a result of the crisis of the late 16th century in Russia, many service-class landowners were left with no peasants working their land?
... that fashion designer Ouigi Theodore's anvil-horn-shaped beard inspired his alter ego, "The Bearded Man"?

In the news

Elizabeth II

The Commonwealth of Nations celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II (pictured).
In cricket, Gujarat Titans win the Indian Premier League, defeating Rajasthan Royals in the final.
Tara Air Flight 197 crashes in Nepal, killing all 22 people on board.
At least 31 people die in a stampede at a church charity event in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

On this day

June 3: Anniversary of Khomeini's Death in Iran (1989); Martyrs Day in Uganda

Anfield, home of Liverpool F.C.

1770 – Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, a historic Catholic mission church in present-day Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, and the site of the first Christian confirmation in Alta California, was established.
1892 – Liverpool F.C. (stadium pictured), one of England's most successful football clubs, was founded.
1940 – Franz Rademacher, a Nazi official, proposed that the island of Madagascar be made available as a destination for the resettlement of the Jewish population of Europe.
1963 – Buddhist crisis: South Vietnamese Army soldiers attacked protesting Buddhists in Huế, with liquid chemicals from tear gas grenades, causing 67 people to be hospitalised.
1982 – A failed assassination attempt was made on Shlomo Argov, the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom; this was later used as justification for the First Lebanon War.

Staurakios (d. 800)
Georges Bizet (d. 1875)
Susannah Constantine (b. 1962)

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From today's featured list

Yash Chopra

Veer-Zaara, a 2004 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film, won 34 awards out of 92 nominations; the direction, the performances of the cast, the soundtrack, and the lyrical composition garnered the most attention from various award groups. The film was directed by Yash Chopra (pictured), written by Aditya Chopra, and stars Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, and Rani Mukerji. Veer-Zaara won the award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment at the 52nd National Film Awards. It was nominated in eleven categories at the 50th Filmfare Awards, including for Best Director (Yash Chopra), Best Actor (Khan), Best Actress (Zinta), Best Supporting Actor (Amitabh Bachchan), and two nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Divya Dutta and Mukerji), and won four including Best Film. In the sixth edition of the International Indian Film Academy Awards, the film received seven awards, including for Best Film. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The crankset (also known as a chainset in the UK) of a bicycle is the component of the drivetrain that converts the reciprocating motion of the rider's legs into rotational motion used to drive the chain or belt, which in turn drives the rear wheel. The road-bicycle crankset depicted in this photograph was manufactured by Shimano, with two chainrings and 172.5 mm (6.79 in) cranks.

Photograph credit: Petar Milošević

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