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Today's featured article

Santa Cruz entering the field before a game in Belém

The Suicidal Tour took place when Brazilian professional football club Santa Cruz Futebol Clube toured the North Region of Brazil from 2 January to 29 April 1943. Over almost four months, they played either 26 or 28 friendly matches in six cities. The tour gained its name due to the misfortunes endured by the club. Looking to recover from a financial crisis, Santa Cruz arranged five matches in Belém, Pará. Traveling up the Amazon River for another round of matches, they first started experiencing problems in Manaus, where two players left to play for other clubs and seven members of the team's delegation caught dysentery. Two players went on to contract typhoid fever and died. Unable to return home through the sea, and needing to cover growing costs, Santa Cruz had to return to Recife by land, playing matches along the way to earn money. The return had further problems, including a fake arrest warrant for a player, a trip alongside thieves, and two train derailments. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

November 29: Black Friday in the United States (2024); Liberation Day in Albania

Screenshot of a game of Pong

1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong, running low on water, began the killing of more than 130 enslaved African people by throwing them into the sea to claim insurance.
1810 – Napoleonic Wars: British troops rendezvoused at Grand Baie to launch an invasion of Isle de France, now known as Mauritius.
1924 – The Bronx County Bird Club was formed and would go on to lead the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count in the eastern US for three years in a row.
1963 – Five minutes after taking off from Montréal–Dorval, Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831 crashed in bad weather, killing all 118 people on board.
1972 – Atari announced the release of Pong (screenshot pictured), one of the first video games to achieve widespread popularity in both the arcade and home-console markets.
2012 – In resolution 67/19, the United Nations General Assembly voted to accord the status of a non-member observer state to Palestine.

Christian Doppler (b. 1803)
George Brown (b. 1818)
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (b. 1908)
Yōichi Masuzoe (b. 1948)

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In the news

Thierry Neuville

Israel and Lebanon agree to a 60-day ceasefire to halt the current hostilities.
In motorsport, Thierry Neuville (pictured) and Martijn Wydaeghe win the World Rally Championship.
In Formula One, Max Verstappen wins the World Championship.
Following parliamentary elections, the Seimas elects Gintautas Paluckas as the prime minister of Lithuania.

Did you know...

Atrium of The Empire Brunei

... that the opening of The Empire Brunei (pictured) was timed to help create hotel capacity in Brunei for an APEC summit?
... that museum administrator Herbert Smith hired a special train so that civil servants could watch a total solar eclipse in 1927?
... that Yan Ruisheng, China's first full-length feature film, was banned within two years?
... that Shadia Abu Ghazaleh was one of the first women to join the Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank?
... that the radio program Radio City Music Hall of the Air employed approximately 10,000 musicians during the first eight years of its broadcast history?
... that Stanley Washburn's message on November 29, 1941, warning the US Navy not to underestimate the Japanese, failed to reach Admiral Kimmel before the attack on Pearl Harbor?
... that the first standalone street toilets to cater to both men and women in Auckland were converted into a male-only facility during the Second World War?
... that Taurus 09 was the largest Royal Navy deployment in more than ten years?
... that the name of Kim Jong Un's daughter has not been publicly disclosed?

Today's featured picture

Picture of the day

The Rose of Persia; or, The Story-Teller and the Slave, is a two-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Basil Hood. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 29 November 1899, closing on 28 June 1900 after a profitable run of 211 performances. The opera then toured, had a brief run in America and played elsewhere throughout the English-speaking world.Painting credit: Dudley Hardy; restored by Adam Cuerden

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