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Today's featured list: The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets less than 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has sixty-two moons with confirmed orbits, fifty-three of which have names, and only thirteen of which have diameters larger than 50 kilometers (31 mi). Saturn has seven moons that are large enough to become spherical, and dense rings with complex orbital motions of their own.

Today's featured topic: The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of one titular award. Several new awards have been introduced, and as of 2008^[update], eight awards are presented, including the Team of the Year, Overseas Personality, Lifetime Achievement Award, Helen Rollason Award, the Coach Award, and the Newcomer Award.

Listen to
Spring, from The Four Seasons

Today's featured sound: The Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723,The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. Performed by John Harrison and the Wichita State University Chamber Players.

Did you know...

Circle Tower

... that the Circle Tower (pictured), an Art Deco building in Indianapolis, features ziggurat-like upper floors?
... that Jacob Christiaan Koningsberger, a biologist who catalogued the flora and fauna of Java, also served as the Dutch minister of the colonies?
... that researchers submitting to the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy intentionally introduced security bugs into Linux?
... that the Tang dynasty politician Fang Yi'ai, together with his wife Princess Gaoyang, rebelled against Emperor Gaozong of Tang, but their rebellion was swiftly suppressed, resulting in their deaths?
... that El Califa de León is the first Mexican taqueria to be awarded a Michelin star?
... that first-team All-American soccer player Jordynn Dudley holds her high school's basketball scoring record?
... that the Larmanjat guided rail system was successfully demonstrated in England but failed completely when used commercially in Lisbon?
... that during a comedy routine Reuben Solo drew a graph plotting the audience's reaction to his routine?
... that in 2016, the removal of a few lines of code briefly "broke the Internet"?

In the news
Boeing Starliner launch The Boeing Starliner spacecraft conducts its first crewed flight (launch pictured), carrying two astronauts to the International Space Station. The CNSA Chang'e 6 completes sampling and takeoff from the far side of the Moon. Claudia Sheinbaum is elected as the president of Mexico. In South Africa's general election, the African National Congress wins the most seats but loses its majority for the first time since the end of apartheid. Ongoing: Israel–Hamas war timeline Russian invasion of Ukraine timeline Sudanese civil war timeline Recent deaths: Sergei Novikov Rosa Brigitte Bierlein John Burnside Alexander Lang Carl Cain Nominate an article
On this day...
June 8 Margaret Bondfield 1826 – In York, Upper Canada, members of the Family Compact destroyed William Lyon Mackenzie's printing press in the Types Riot after Mackenzie accused them of corruption. 1929 – Margaret Bondfield (pictured) became the first female member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom when she was named Minister of Labour by Ramsay MacDonald. 1941 – World War II: The Allies commenced the Syria–Lebanon campaign against Vichy French possessions in the Levant. 1953 – An F5 tornado struck Flint and Beecher, Michigan, causing 116 fatalities, 844 injuries and $19 million in damage during a larger tornado outbreak sequence. William of York (d. 1154) Cora Agnes Benneson (d. 1919) Lauren Burns (b. 1974) Omar Bongo (d. 2009) More anniversaries: June 7 June 8 June 9 Archive By email List of days of the year

Today's featured picture

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Located in the south-east of Scotland, it is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth estuary and to the south by the Pentland Hills. With a population of 506,520 in mid-2020, Edinburgh is the second-largest city in Scotland by population and the seventh-largest in the United Kingdom. The royal burgh of Edinburgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, and has been capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century. This aerial photograph, with Edinburgh Castle in the foreground, was taken around 1920.

Photograph credit: Alfred Buckham; restored by Adam Cuerden

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