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Holden Calais V

The Holden Commodore (VE) is a full-size car that marked the introduction of the fourth generation of the Holden Commodore, a series of automobiles produced by Australian carmaker Holden. Referred to as Holden's "billion dollar baby", the company invested more than AU$1 billion in developing the car before production began on 13 July 2006; it made its public debut three days later. The VE was Holden's first project designed entirely in Australia; previous generations relied on Opel-sourced platforms. The company produced several body styles of the VE: a sedan, a ute, and a station wagon dubbed the Sportwagon. Variants by Holden's performance vehicle partner, Holden Special Vehicles, were released soon after the sedan's debut. Over the VE's production, Holden also introduced a series of changes, identified by the model year. Often ranked as Australia's annual best-selling car during production, the VE was discontinued in May 2013 and succeeded by the VF. (Full article...)

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Kiara St. James

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... that a formerly best-selling title in the Fate franchise remained exclusive to Japan until an English fan translation was released a decade later?
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... that the Torreón del Monje was the headquarters of a pigeon-shooting club?
... that Marvin Lowenthal went from being a silk-mill bobbin boy to writing a sixteen-century history of Jews in Germany?
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... that Shark Tank was adapted from a Japanese show that aimed to encourage entrepreneurship during a lengthy period of economic stagnation in the Japanese economy?
... that John Gauntlett was defeated in an election by his next-door neighbour, Charles Mompesson?

In the news

Beth Mooney

Thirteen people are killed in a wildfire in Almería, Spain.
A series of coordinated attacks across Pakistan's Balochistan province leaves at least forty-two people dead.
The IOC provisionally lifts its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee.
In cricket, the Women's T20 World Cup concludes with Australia defeating England in the final (player of the match Beth Mooney pictured).

On this day

July 16

First-edition cover of The Catcher in the Rye

1232 – Muhammad ibn Yusuf, who later established the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state in Spain, was elected the ruler of Arjona.
1950 – Uruguay won the decisive match of the fourth FIFA World Cup, defeating Brazil 2–1 at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
1916 – Max Reger's Hebbel Requiem was first performed in a memorial concert for the composer, conducted by Philipp Wolfrum.
1951 – The Catcher in the Rye (cover pictured), an American coming-of-age novel by J. D. Salinger, was published by Little, Brown.
2007 – A magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck off the coast of Niigata Prefecture, Japan, causing a leak of radioactive gases from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant.

Yasuo Fukuda (b. 1936)
Sergio Busquets (b. 1988)
Evelyn Ebsworth (d. 2015)
Connie Francis (d. 2025)

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Today's featured picture

A snifter is a type of stemware, a short-stemmed glass whose vessel has a wide bottom and a relatively narrow top. It is mostly used to serve aged brown liquors such as bourbon, brandy and whisky. This photograph shows armagnac in a pipe snifter, a variant with a glass tube to allow the liquor to be consumed from the bottom of the vessel.

Photograph credit: Didier Descouens

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