today's Featured List/March 2014

March 3

Whoopi Goldberg hosted the 66th Academy Awards.

The 66th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1993 and took place on March 21, 1994, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 23 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and directed by Jeff Margolis. Actress Whoopi Goldberg (pictured) hosted the show for the first time. She was the first woman and first African American to host the telecast solo. Schindler's List won seven awards including Best Picture, the first black and white film since 1960's The Apartment to win that award, and Best Director for Steven Spielberg. Other winners were Jurassic Park and The Piano with three awards each, and Philadelphia with two awards. The telecast garnered more than 46 million viewers in the United States. (Full list...)

March 7

Curzon Hall, University of Dhaka

Of the 87 universities in Bangladesh, 52 are in Dhaka, the capital city. Out of the 6 divisions of Bangladesh, Dhaka Division houses 58 of the country's universities. The University of Dhaka (Curzon Hall pictured), established in 1921, is the oldest university of the country. The country's universities are mainly categorized into three different types: public, private, and international. Most universities focus on general studies, mixing together such areas of study as business, engineering and technology. Seven universities have specialized curricula. Two of these are focused on Islamic studies, two on agricultural science, one on healthcare science, one on veterinary medicine, and one on women's studies. Bangladeshi universities are affiliated with the University Grants Commission, a commission created according to presidential order. (Full list...)

March 10

Emeli Sandé at the 2013 NRJ Music Awards

Songs written by Emeli Sandé have been recorded for her debut studio album, Our Version of Events, as well as for other artists' albums. Sandé collaborated with Naughty Boy for many of the songs on Our Version of Events, including the album's lead single, "Heaven", which peaked at number one on the UK Dance Chart. The idea for the song was conceived after she and Naughty Boy had a "deep conversation about religion". She has collaboratively written songs with Grammy Award-winning producer Emile Haynie and American singer-songwriter and pianist Alicia Keys. Sandé appeared as a guest vocalist on Professor Green's song "Read All About It" and Labrinth's song "Beneath Your Beautiful", both written by herself. Sandé co-wrote the song "Half of Me" for Rihanna's seventh studio album, Unapologetic (2012), and "Trouble" for Leona Lewis' third studio album, Glassheart (2012). In August 2011, record executive Simon Cowell named Sandé his "favourite songwriter" of the moment. (Full list...)

March 14

Thomas Cromwell

The Master of the Rolls is the second most senior judge in England and Wales after the Lord Chief Justice, and serves as the presiding officer of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal. The position dates from at least 1286 as a clerk responsible for keeping the records of the Court of Chancery and it developed into a judicial office by 1520. With the Judicature Act 1873, the Master of the Rolls transferred from the now-defunct Court of Chancery to the Court of Appeal, retaining his clerical functions as the nominal head of the Public Record Office until the Public Records Act 1958 transferred responsibility for it to the Lord Chancellor. One of the most prominent people to hold the position of Master of the Rolls was Thomas Cromwell (pictured), a highly influential figure during the reign of Henry VIII. The present Master of the Rolls is Lord Dyson, who succeeded Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury on 1 October 2012. (Full list...)

March 17

Bowl of culinary nuts

Culinary nuts are dry, edible fruits or seeds that usually, but not always, have a high fat content. Nuts are used in a wide variety of edible roles, including in baking, as snacks, and as flavoring. In addition to botanical nuts, fruits and seeds that have a similar appearance and culinary role are considered to be culinary nuts. Non-botanical culinary nuts are divided into three categories: drupes, gymnosperm seeds, and angiosperm seeds. Nuts have a rich history as food. For many indigenous peoples of the Americas, a wide variety of nuts, including acorns, American beech, and others, served as a major source of starch and fat over thousands of years. Similarly, a wide variety of nuts have served as food for Indigenous Australians for many centuries. Other culinary nuts, though known from ancient times, have seen dramatic increases in use in modern times. The most striking such example is the peanut. Its usage was popularized by the work of George Washington Carver, who discovered and popularized many applications of the peanut after employing peanut plants for soil amelioration in fields used to grow cotton. (Full list...)

March 21

Ontario Highway 35 shield

The numbered roads in Kawartha Lakes account for 907.3 kilometres (563.8 mi) of roads in the Canadian province of Ontario. These roads include King's Highways that are signed and maintained by the province, as well as the city roads under the jurisdiction of the city. The 49 numbered highways provide year-round access to the mostly rural single-tier municipality of Kawartha Lakes. The longest of these roads is Highway 35, which stretches 86.7 kilometres (53.9 mi) across the municipality from the south to the north. The shortest numbered road is Kawartha Lakes Road 3, Hartley Road, a causeway just less than a kilometre long crossing Mitchell Lake. As in the rest of Ontario, the provincially maintained highways in Kawartha Lakes are designated with a shield-shaped sign topped with a crown (example pictured). These signs are known as shields, but may be referred to as reassurance markers. Highway 7, which is part of the Trans-Canada Highway, is also marked with a green maple leaf shield. (Full list...)

March 24

Front page of Asia Raja, 23 July 1942

Literary works published in Asia Raja, a newspaper in the Dutch East Indies and early Indonesia, were mostly written by Japanese and native contributors, with the latter more active; works by two foreign authors, Rabindranath Tagore and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, were also published in translation. A total of sixty-nine poems, sixty short stories, and three serials were published in Asia Raja, which was first published on 29 April 1942, months after the Empire of Japan invaded the Indies. Asia Raja was established under the occupation government and intended as a vehicle for pro-Japanese propaganda – including literature. The single most-published writer in Asia Raja was Rosihan Anwar, a recent senior high school graduate, who published seven poems and nine short stories while working for the newspaper. Andjar Asmara, a former film director, published the most serials; both of his serials were based on films he had made before the occupation. (Full list...)

March 28

Nagorno-Karabakh dram

There are currently 180 currencies that are circulating either as official or de facto currencies of the 193 United Nations (UN) member states, two UN observer states, nine partially recognized or unrecognized states, and 33 dependencies. These currencies include paper, cotton, and polymer banknotes and metal coins. Countries generally have a monopoly on the issuing of currency, although some countries share currencies with other countries. Today, currencies are the dominant medium of exchange. Different countries may use the same term to refer to their respective currencies, even though the currencies may have little else to do with each other. In some countries, the currencies used vary regionally. For example, four currencies circulate in the partially recognized state of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which claims the territory of Western Sahara. Some currencies, such as the Nagorno-Karabakh dram (pictured), are not used in day-to-day commerce, but are legal tender. (Full list...)

March 31

United States military captain John Gregory Bourke (1843-1896)

The oldest United States Military Academy alumnus to receive the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government, was John Cleveland Robinson, a non-graduating member of the class of 1839. The first alumnus of the Academy to perform actions to be recognized with the Medal of Honor was Charles Henry Tompkins, a non-graduating member of the class of 1851, while the last alumnus of the Academy to perform actions so recognized was Andre Lucas, a graduating member of the class of 1954. Two graduates, John Gregory Bourke (pictured) and Calvin Pearl Titus, received the Medal of Honor before being appointed to the Academy. Other notable Academy alumni who received the Medal of Honor include William Harding Carter, Douglas MacArthur, and Humbert Roque Versace. (Full list...)