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Destiny's Child was an American girl group formed in Houston, Texas, in 1990. Its final lineup comprised Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. Known for their vocal harmonies, stage performances, and themes of female empowerment, Destiny's Child is regarded as one of the most influential girl groups in popular music. They released five studio albums; their best-sellers include The Writing's on the Wall (1999) and Survivor (2001). In 2001, the group went on hiatus so that each member could work on solo projects, before reuniting to release their final album, Destiny Fulfilled (2005). They garnered the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Bills, Bills, Bills", "Say My Name", "Independent Women", and "Bootylicious". The group officially disbanded in 2006, but has reunited several times. Destiny's Child is one of the best-selling girl groups, has received many accolades and honors, and has been named one of the greatest musical trios of all time. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Q Manivannan and Iris Duane

... that Q Manivannan and Iris Duane (both pictured) are the first two openly transgender people elected to the Scottish Parliament?
... that Bad Bunny was the first Spanish-language Latino solo artist to headline a Super Bowl halftime show?
... that, under Nathalie Drach-Temam's presidency, Sorbonne University opted out of the Times Higher Education rankings?
... that diglossia is a major feature of ancient and modern languages used in Palestine?
... that American actress Ruby Rose Turner debuted as a dancer on the TV show Sábado Gigante at the age of seven?
... that the captain of the Annie Jane threatened to shoot anyone who turned the ship around, before it was wrecked?
... that anti-racism campaigner Kamal Chunchie converted to Christianity from Islam during the First World War when serving in the British Army?
... that the co-creator of the Sam & Max comic series voices a character in its VR game adaptation?
... that Norman Balon revelled in his title as the "rudest landlord in London"?

In the news

Keiko Fujimori

Keiko Fujimori (pictured) is elected President of Peru.
The Catholic Church declares the Society of Saint Pius X to be in schism and excommunicates its members following a consecration dispute.
Heatwaves affect Europe, leading to more than 5,600 deaths.
Two earthquakes strike Venezuela, leaving more than 3,300 people dead and tens of thousands of others missing.

On this day

July 6

Nicolae Ceausescu

1483 – The last monarch of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty, Richard III, was crowned King of England.
1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: A Royal Navy squadron failed to eliminate a smaller French Navy squadron at Algeciras before they could join their Spanish allies.
1971 – After visiting several Asian communist countries, Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu (pictured) gave a speech on a number of neo-Stalinist and socialist-realist ideals, which became known as the July Theses.
1989 – A Palestinian Islamic Jihad member carried out a suicide attack by hijacking a bus and forcing it into a ravine near Kiryat Ye'arim, Israel.
2006 – A gunman killed an 18-year-old man and injured six other people in a mass shooting on Cabildo Avenue in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Maria Luisa, Duchess of Lucca (b. 1782)
Maria Goretti (d. 1902)
George W. Bush (b. 1946)
Zhu De (d. 1976)

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White ash

Many hardwood trees are included in Silvics of North America, a forest inventory compiled and published by the United States Forest Service in 1991. It superseded Silvics of Forest Trees of the United States (1965), which was the first such formal scholarly inventory. Hardwood has a variety of commercial uses, including in furniture, carpentry, tools and musical instruments. Some timber is milled for plywood, wood veneer and construction framing, including structural support beams and studs. Logs can be fashioned into posts and poles. Less sturdy timber is often ground and processed into pulpwood, principally for papermaking. (Full list...)

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Silver certificates are a type of representative money issued between 1878 and 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Coinage Act of 1873, which had effectively placed the United States on a gold standard. Since 1968, silver certificates have been redeemable only in Federal Reserve Notes and are thus obsolete, but they remain legal tender at their face value and hence are still an accepted form of currency. This 1928 one-dollar silver certificate, part of the National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History, bears a portrait of George Washington and the signatures of Harold Theodore Tate (Treasurer of the United States) and Andrew Mellon (Secretary of the Treasury) on the obverse.

Banknote design credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; scanned by Andrew Shiva

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