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On this day in 2023

On this day in 2022

• EVENTS
• Tennis superstar Serena Williams announces her intention to retire in an interview with "Vogue".
• DEATHS
• Raymond Briggs, Cartoonist.
• Alberto Orzan, Italian soccer defender (4 caps; Udinese, Fiorentina), who died at 91.
• TV SERIES
• I Just Killed My Dad is released. The three-part documentary series directed by Skye Borgman uses archival news footage, police interrogation tapes; home video and audio; and interviews with law enforcement officials, family members and Anthony Templet, who confessed to killing his father, to examines the events that led to the shooting in 2019.
• GAMING: PLAYSTATION 5
• Two Point Campus for PlayStation 5 is released. Welcome to the University of U. Build your university, your way!Build your university, your way! It’s time to spin academia on its head! Got a yearning for learning? Or just keen to build an educational masterpiece? Campus is jam-packed with new creative tools to help you build the university of your dreams. For the first time, build in the great outdoors as you develop your own delightfully educational campus environment, housing the top teaching facilities in the land. Whether you prefer building on simple foundations, or placing every tree, you can build the university you want.Lay down pathways with new easy-to-use tools. Plant glorious collections of outdoor flora. Place benches, fountains, sculptures, hedgerows – even picket fences. The only limit is your imagination (and your in-game bank balance).

On this day in 2021

• EVENTS
• Herd of 14 elephants returning home from a 500km (300-mile) trek across China, lead authorities to evacuate 150,000 people out of their path.
• American hip-hop and R&B record producer Chucky Thompson died of complications from COVID-19 pandemic. He was a member of Bad Boy Entertainment's ‘Hitmen’ team of in-house producers during the 1990s, and worked with Bad Boy mogul Sean Combs on material for artists such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Faith Evans..
• Cholera outbreak in Nigeria has killed more than 800 people with 31,425 suspected cases since January 2021 according to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
• DEATHS
• Bob Jenkins, American television and radio sports announcer (IndyCar & NASCAR telecasts ESPN/ABC, NBC Sports), who died from brain cancer at 73.
• Siti Sarah Raissuddin, World Music Singer.
• Patricia Hitchcock, British-American actress, who died at 93.
• Sakhile Hlatshwayo, World Music Singer.
• TV SERIES
• Reservation Dogs: Season 1 is released. The comedy series from Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi follows four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma as they find ways (including stealing) to save money to move to California.
• GAMING: PC
• City of Gangsters for PC is released. The year is 1920, the start of Prohibition in the USA. With congressional action, a huge segment of the national economy becomes illegal overnight: bars and saloons are ordered to close, distilleries and breweries go quiet, distributors shut down. But a new era is dawning: a gilded age for smugglers, black markets, illegal manufacture, and organized crime.This is where you come in. You're a new arrival in the city at the dawn of Prohibition, with ambitions of striking it big. Behind many of the city's facades, people are building makeshift distilleries, secret loading docks, nighttime speakeasies. Work your way into this network, and the world will be yours.But think beyond making a quick buck or two. You gotta be thinking ahead. You gotta be thinking bigger. Much bigger.

On this day in 2020

• EVENTS
• Brazil passes 100,000 COVID-19 pandemic deaths, the world's 2nd highest, with over 3 million recorded cases.
• New Zealand marks 100 days without community transmission of COVID-19 pandemic.
• DEATHS
• Martin Birch, British sound engineer and record producer ( Whitesnake; Iron Maiden), who died at 71.
• POLITICS
• Disputed Belarusian presidential election sees long time dictator Alexander Lukashenko officially win 80% of the votes but unofficially lose 60-70% of the votes to main opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Sparks widespread protests in Belarus and international condemnation..

On this day in 2019

• EVENTS
• Landslide from torrential rain kills 59 in Mon state, Myanmar, with 80,000 in emergency evacuation sites.
• MOVIES: NOT RATED
• Light of My Life is released. Parent and child journey through the outskirts of society a decade after a pandemic has wiped out half the world’s population. As a father struggles to protect his child, their bond, and the character of humanity, is tested.
• After the Wedding is released. Isabel (Michelle Williams) has dedicated her life to working with the children in an orphanage in Calcutta. Theresa (Julianne Moore) is the multimillionaire head of a media company who lives with her handsome artist husband (Billy Crudup) and their two adorable twin boys in New York. When word comes to Isabel of a mysterious and generous grant for the financially struggling orphanage, she must travel to New York to meet the benefactor—Theresa—in person. And when Isabel is spontaneously invited to Theresa’s daughter’s wedding, Isabel discovers a connection to Theresa that takes her on an unexpected journey into her own past. [Sundance]
• Socrates is released. After his mother's sudden death, Socrates, a 15-year-old living on the margins of São Paulo's coast, must survive on his own while coming to terms with his grief.
• This Changes Everything is released. Told first-hand by some of Hollywood’s leading voices behind and in front of the camera, This Changes Everything is a feature-length documentary that uncovers what is beneath one of the most confounding dilemmas in the entertainment industry—the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women. It takes an incisive look at the history, empirical evidence, and systemic forces that foster gender discrimination and thus reinforce disparity in our culture. Most importantly, the film seeks pathways and solutions from within and outside the industry, and around the world.
• Vision Portraits is released. A feature-length documentary that chronicles the creative paths of blind and visually impaired artists including a photographer (John Dugdale), dancer (Kayla Hamilton), writer (Ryan Knighton) and the film’s own director, Rodney Evans.
• MOVIES: PG
• The Art of Racing in the Rain is released. Based on the best-selling novel by Garth Stein, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN is a heartfelt tale narrated by a witty and philosophical dog named Enzo (voiced by Kevin Costner). Through his bond with his owner, Denny Swift (Milo Ventimiglia), an aspiring Formula One race car driver, Enzo, a philosophical (voiced by Kevin Costner), has gained tremendous insight into the human condition and understands that the techniques needed on the racetrack can also be used to successfully navigate the journey of life. The film follows Denny and the loves of his life - his wife, Eve (Amanda Seyfried), their young daughter Zoe (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), and ultimately, his true best friend, Enzo.
• Dora and the Lost City of Gold is released. Having spent most of her life exploring the jungle with her parents, nothing could prepare Dora (Isabela Moner) for her most dangerous adventure ever – High School. Always the explorer, Dora quickly finds herself leading Boots (her best friend, a monkey), Diego (Jeffrey Wahlberg), a mysterious jungle inhabitant (Eugenio Derbez), and a rag tag group of teens on a live-action adventure to save her parents (Eva Longoria, Michael Peña) and solve the impossible mystery behind a lost city of gold.
• MOVIES: PG13
• Brian Banks is released. Brian Banks (Aldis Hodge), an All-American high school football star committed to USC, finds his life upended when he is wrongly convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Despite lack of evidence, Banks is railroaded through a broken justice system and sentenced to a decade of prison and probation. Years later, with the support of Justin Brooks (Greg Kinnear) and the California Innocence Project, Banks fights to reclaim his life and fulfill his dreams of playing in the NFL.
• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is released. It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind...but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time—stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying tome.
• MOVIES: R
• The Kitchen is released. Three 1978 Hell’s Kitchen housewives' mobster husbands are sent to prison by the FBI. Left with little but a sharp ax to grind, the ladies take the Irish mafia’s matters into their own hands—proving unexpectedly adept at everything from running the rackets to taking out the competition.
• Ode to Joy is released. How does a man who is—literally—paralyzed by happiness find love? Thanks to a condition called cataplexy—a rare disorder that causes him to lose control of his muscles whenever he is overcome by strong emotion, particularly joy—Brooklyn librarian Charlie (Martin Freeman) has learned to carefully edit all delight-triggering people, places, and events out of his life. Family weddings, cute babies, adorable puppies, and, yes, romance are all fraught with peril in Charlie’s carefully managed world. But when the beautiful, spontaneous Francesca (Morena Baccarin) falls for him, the risk-averse Charlie finds himself at a crossroads: suppress his feelings of attraction, or take a chance and let love in? Based on a true story originally featured on This American Life, Ode to Joy is a hilarious and touching look at what happens when we stop being afraid and let ourselves truly live. [IFC Films]
• One Child Nation is released. China’s One Child Policy, the extreme population control measure that made it illegal for couples to have more than one child, may have ended in 2015, but the process of dealing with the trauma of its brutal enforcement is only just beginning. From award-winning documentarian Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow, I Am Another You) and Jialing Zhang, the sweeping One Child Nation explores the ripple effect of this devastating social experiment, uncovering one shocking human rights violation after another - from abandoned newborns, to forced sterilizations and abortions, and government abductions. Wang digs fearlessly into her own personal life, weaving her experience as a new mother and the firsthand accounts of her family members into archival propaganda material and testimony from victims and perpetrators alike, yielding a revelatory and essential record of this chilling, unprecedented moment in human civilization. [Amazon Studios]
• MOVIES: TVMA
• This Is Not Berlin is released. 1986. Mexico City. Seventeen-year-old Carlos doesn't fit in anywhere: not in his family nor with the friends he has chosen in school. But everything changes when he is invited to a mythical nightclub where he discovers the underground nightlife scene: post punk, sexual liberty, and drugs that challenges the relationship with his best friend Gera and lets him find his passion for art.
• TV SERIES
• GLOW: Season 3 is released. The ladies of GLOW are headed to Las Vegas.
• ALBUMS
• How Do You Love? was released by The Regrettes. The second full-length release for the Los Angeles-based band is the first with new drummer and bassist Brooke Dickson and Drew Thomsen.
• Any Human Friend was released by Marika Hackman. The third full-length release for the London-based singer-songwriter was produced by Hackman and David Wrench.
• Aokohio was released by Why?. The sixth full-length studio release for the Yoni Wolf-led indie rock band was co-produced by brother Josiah and features guest appearances from Gabby’s World, Christian Lee Hutson, Gia Margaret, and Lala Lala.
• We Are Not Your Kind was released by Slipknot. The sixth full-length studio release for the metal band was produced by Greg Fidelman.
• Port of Miami 2 was released by Rick Ross. The 10th full-length studio release for the rapper features guest appearances from A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, Ball Greezy, Denzel Curry, Dej Loaf, Drake, Gunplay, Jeezy, John Legend, Lil Wayne, Meek Mill, Nipsey Hussle, Swizz Beatz, Teyana Taylor, Wale, Summer Walker, and YFN Lucci.
• GAMING: SWITCH
• Turok 2: Seeds of Evil Remaster for Switch is released. The Dinosaur Hunter ReturnsHaving defeated the Campaigner, Turok throws the Chronocepter into a waiting volcano to destroy it. Unfortunately the blast awakens an even deadlier force - The Primagen. Once again Turok is tasked with restoring peace to the land and stopping the Primagen from merging Earth with the nether world.Fight your way through 35 different types of enemies with bouncing bellies, blinking eyes, stretching tentacles and snapping jaws. From Prehistoric Raptors, to evolved Flesh Eaters, to your final battle with the Mother of all beasts you'll want to defeat all of them!

On this day in 2018

• EVENTS
• Saudi-led air coalition strikes a school bus in Sada Province, Yemen, killing 43, many of them children.
• Argentina's Senate rejects bill to legalize abortion in first 14 weeks.
• GAMING: PC
• Monster Hunter: World for PC is released. In Monster Hunter: World you assume the role of a hunter venturing to a new continent where you track down and slay ferocious beasts in heart-pounding battles. This new land and its diverse inhabitants play a critical role in each quest as you strategically use the surrounding environment including terrain, vegetation and wildlife to your advantage in battle or become hindered by the hazards they present. As a hunter, you must use your cunning and expertise to track and maneuver your targets throughout the intense, evolving battles. [Capcom]
• GAMING: SWITCH
• Minit for Switch is released. Minit is a peculiar little adventure played sixty seconds at a time. Journey outside the comfort of your home to help unusual folk, uncover countless secrets, and overcome dangerous foes, all in hopes of lifting a rather unfortunate curse that ends each day after just one minute. Minit is a collaboration between Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Jukio Kallio & Dominik Johann. [Nintendo]
• Okami HD for Switch is released. In Okami, the player takes the role of the mythical sun goddess Amaterasu, in the form of a wolf. Her task is to restore color (or 'life') to the world by destroying the monsters who have stolen it. Since Amaterasu is a diety, there are naturally people who worship her and people who don't. The more people who worship her (as a result of her restoring color and doing other good deeds for them), the more powerful she becomes.
• SPORTS
• EPL club Tottenham Hotspur fails to bring in one player during the transfer window; first time since FIFA made system compulsory in 2002-03.

On this day in 2017

• EVENTS
• Nepal's parliament bans menstruation huts (comes into effect August 2018).
• North Korea says it plans to fire rockets on US territory Guam in continuing escalation of tension between it and the US.
• DEATHS
• Leonard Sundholm, Race Car Driver.
• Aili Jõgi, Estonian freedom fighter, who died at 86.
• MOVIES: NOT RATED
• After Love is released. Boris (Cédric Kahn) and Marie (Bérénice Bejo) have decided to separate after 15 years together. They have two girls that they adore. However, cash-strapped Boris is still living in the family home. When all is said and done, neither of the two is willing to give up. Now their apartment is a war zone and their situation a nightmare.
• Machines is released. Marrying stunning visuals with social advocacy, Rahul Jain’s debut documentary — winner of the Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival — takes audiences into the labyrinthine passages of an enormous textile factory in Gujarat, India. Jain’s camera wanders freely between pulsating machines and bubbling vats of dye to create a moving portrait of the human laborers who toil away there for 12 hours a day to eke out a meager living for their families back home. Interviews with these workers and the factory owners who employ them reveal the stark inequality and dangerous working conditions brought about by unregulated industrialization in the region. This political message is delivered amidst the unsettling beauty of the factory’s mechanical underworld and the colorful, billowing fabrics it produces. [Kino Lorber]
• TV SERIES
• Mr. Mercedes: Season 1 is released. Psychopath killer Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway) sends letters and emails to retired police detective Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) about his unsolved killings in David E. Kelley's adaptation of Stephen King’s 2014 book.
• GAMING: PC
• Rez Infinite for PC is released. To resolve the world's rising crime rates, a new system called Project-K was created. However, Eden, the core of Project-K, has fallen into a vegetative state. Now it's up to you, a hacker, to travel through a cyberspace filled with firewalls, viruses, and other obstacles, and jump-start the system's artificial intelligence. Scattered throughout the levels are evolution spheres, which let you transform into more powerful humanoid forms. The game features a pounding soundtrack and unique vector worlds.
• POLITICS
• Giant inflatable chicken resembling US President Donald Trump placed outside US White House as a political protest.
• Al McCandless, American Republican politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California), who died at 90.

On this day in 2016

• EVENTS
• Longest ever hunger strike ends, Indian human rights campaigner Irom Sharmila tastes honey after 16 years.
• DEATHS
• Bill Alsup, Race Car Driver.
• Bob Kiley, American public transit specialist (New York, London), who died at 80.
• Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor,6th Duke of Westminster, British peer and its 3rd richest Britain, who died at 64.
• Gerald Grosvenor, English 6th Duke of Westminster and 3rd richest Britain, who died at 64.
• GAMING: PLAYSTATION 4
• Brut@l for PlayStation 4 is released. Brut@l is a modern re-imagining of the classic ASCII dungeon crawler with roguelike elements. With Perma death as a key feature players choose their hero: Ranger, Mage, Warrior or Amazon then descend into a procedurally generated world constructed entirely from ASCII. With weapon crafting, potion brewing and an onslaught of enemies to face, can you survive this Brut@l dungeon crawler? [Playstation.com]
• No Man's Sky for PlayStation 4 is released. No Man’s Sky is an exploration and survival game set in an infinite procedurally generated universe. Whether a distant mountain or a planet hanging low on the horizon, you can go forth there. You can fly seamlessly from the surface of a planet to another, and every star in the sky is a sun that you can visit. Where you’ll go and how fast you’ll make you way through this universe is your decision. Explore uncharted solar systems and catalog unique new forms of life. Every planet’s landscape is different from the next and populated by species never before encountered. Acquire ancient artifacts that may reveal the secrets behind the universe. Choose whether to share your discoveries with other players. You won’t see them, but they’re exploring the same universe in parallel; perhaps you’ll make your mark on their worlds as well as your own. Every solar system, planet, ocean and cave is filled with danger, and - make no mistake - you are vulnerable. Your ship and suit are fragile, and every encounter may test your skills to the limit. From dog-fighting in space to first-person combat on a planet’s surface, you will face foes ready to overwhelm you. One mistake could see you lose it all. In No Man’s Sky, every victory and every defeat is permanent. The voyage that stands before you cannot be taken lightly. You must prepare. Collect precious resources on the surfaces of planets and trade them for the ships, suits and equipment that will take you to your destiny in the stars.
• SPORTS
• Hungary's Katinka Hosszú records an Olympic record of 2:06.58 in the women's 200m individual medley, her 3rd gold medal of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
• American swimmer Katie Ledecky wins her second gold medal of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 1:53.73 in the women's 200m freestyle ahead of Sarah Sjöström of Sweden and Australian Emma McKeon.
• Chinese weightlifter Deng Wei sets a world record of 147kg in the clean & jerk, and another for a total score of 262kg, to win the women's 63kg gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

On this day in 2015

• EVENTS
• At Ferguson anniversary of the shooting of unarmed Michael Brown, a man is shot and a state of emergency declared.
• Little Mix were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Black Magic’. It was released as the lead single from their third studio album, Get Weird..
• WEDDINGS
• Model Kate Grigorieva at the age of 27 weds her boyfriend Alexander in Saint Petersburg.
• DEATHS
• David Nobbs, English comedic writer (The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin), who died at 80.
• Frank Gifford, American NFL player and broadcaster, who died at 84.
• SEPERATIONS
• Russian model Kate Grigorieva (27) weds her boyfriend Alexander in Saint Petersburg, Russia; divorce in 2016.

On this day in 2014

• DEATHS
• Edwin "Ed" Nelson, American actor (Peyton Place, A Long Came a Spider), who died of heart failure at 85.
• Buddy Young, Race Car Driver.
• Michael Brown, American shooting victim whose death provoked nationwide protests and civil unrest, shot dead by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson at 18.
• TV SERIES
• Outlander (2014): Season 1 is released. Executive produced by Ronald D. Moore, married World War II nurse Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) time travels to 1743 century Scotland, where she meets Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) in this adaptation of the Outlander book series by Diana Gabaldon.

On this day in 2013

• EVENTS
• 8 people are killed and 24 are injured after gunmen open fire on a Sunni mosque in Quetta, Pakistan.
• DEATHS
• John Logan, American MLB player, who died at 86.
• Glen Hobbie, American MLB pitcher (Chicago Cubs), who died at 77.
• MOVIES: NOT RATED
• I Give It a Year is released. A look at the trials and tribulations of a newlywed couple during their first year of marriage.
• Off Label is released. Doctors today are liberally writing prescriptions for psychotropic drugs such as Adderall, Ambien, Zoloft, and Prozac (to name a very few). Often these drugs are combined in polypharmacy cocktails or are given out for unapproved or untested indications, leading to abuse, dangerous side effects, and heavy dependence. Off Label examines our runaway pharma-culture by weaving together the stories of drug-testing subjects, Big Pharma representatives, and many others touched by the rampant use of pharmaceuticals. Together, they create a poetic, sometimes amusing and frequently heartbreaking emotional road trip through an overmedicated, misdiagnosed, and drug-addled America. [Oscilloscope Pictures]
• Blood is released. Two cop brothers, smothered by the shadow of their former police chief father, must investigate a crime they committed.
• The Good Son: The Life of Ray "Boom Boom"Mancini is released. Ray "Boom Boom"Mancini recounts his father's legacy, his own meteoric rise in boxing and the tragic results and aftermath of his 1982 fight against Duk Koo Kim.
• Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride is released. A film about greed, politics, land use and public policy, Zipper tells the story behind the battle over an American cultural icon. Small-time ride operator, Eddie Miranda, proudly runs a 38-year-old carnival contraption called the Zipper in the heart of Coney Island’s gritty amusement district. When his rented lot is snatched up by an opportunistic real estate mogul, Eddie and his ride become casualties of a power struggle between the developer and the City of New York. Be it an affront to history or just the path of progress, the spirit of Coney Island is at stake. In a market-driven world where growth often trumps preservation, the Zipper may be only the beginning of what is lost.
• MOVIES: PG
• Planes is released. Dusty is a crop duster who dreams of competing in the most exhilarating around-the-world air race in history. Unfortunately, he is hopelessly afraid of heights, but with the support of his mentor Skipper and a host of new friends, Dusty takes off to heights he never dreamed possible.
• MOVIES: R
• Prince Avalanche is released. Two highway road workers spend the summer of 1988 away from their city lives. The isolated landscape becomes a place of misadventure as the men find themselves at odds with each other and the women they left behind.
• Elysium is released. In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station called Elysium while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. The only man with the chance to bring equality to these worlds is Max, an ordinary guy in desperate need to get to Elysium. With his life hanging in the balance, he reluctantly takes on a dangerous mission that could save his life and the lives of millions on Earth.
• In a World... is released. An underachieving vocal coach is motivated by her father, the king of movie-trailer voice-overs, to pursue her aspirations of becoming a voice-over star. Amidst pride, sexism and family dysfunction, she sets out to change the voice of a generation.
• Jug Face is released. Jug Face tells the story of a pregnant teen trying to escape a backwoods community when she discovers that she may be sacrificed to a creature in a pit. The entity in the pit requires a life for keeping the community safe. The face of the person to be sacrificed is crafted onto a ceramic jug. When ignored, the entity unleashes an evil onto the community. [Modern Distributors]
• Lovelace is released. In 1972—before the internet, before the porn explosion—Deep Throat was a phenomenon: the first scripted pornographic theatrical feature film, featuring a story, some jokes, and an unknown and unlikely star, Linda Lovelace. Escaping a strict religious family, Linda discovered freedom and the high-life when she fell for and married charismatic hustler Chuck Traynor. As Linda Lovelace she became an international sensation—less centerfold fantasy than a charming girl-next-door with an impressive capacity for fellatio. Fully inhabiting her new identity, Linda became an enthusiastic spokesperson for sexual freedom and uninhibited hedonism. Six years later she presented another narrative to the world—herself as the survivor of a far darker story. [RADiUS-TWC]