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Donut lovers, rejoice! Friday, June 4, 2021, is National Donut Day. That means it is your civic duty to consume at least one — or even a dozen — of the delicious confections. The fun US holiday, observed annually on the first Friday of June, was started in 1938 by the Salvation Army to help raise funds for those in need....

Antarctica is surrounded by icebergs. However, the finger-shaped chunk of ice that recently broke loose from the western side of the Ronne Ice Shelf — one of the world's most extensive ice platforms — is worthy of a mention. Measuring approximately 105 miles (170 km) long and 15 miles (25 km) wide, it boasts a surface area of 1,660 sq miles (4,300 sq km) and is currently the world's largest iceberg....

While scientists have managed to recover and examine thousands of meteorites, finding their origin or even whether they are from icy comets or rocky asteroids has proved elusive. Now, for the first time, a team of international researchers has traced the source of a boulder-sized rock that landed in Botswana to an asteroid named Vesta. Boasting a diameter of about 326 miles, it is one of the largest and brightest rocks in the asteroid belt that circles the Sun between Jupiter and Mars....

Simone Biles, the world's most decorated gymnast, is well-known for performing moves so tricky and unique that many have been named after her. On May 22, 2021, the 24-year-old phenom made history again by becoming the first woman to perform a Yurchenko double pike in a competition. Even more impressive, the US Classic in Indianapolis, where Biles' accomplished the feat, was the gymnast's first meet since the COVID-19 pandemic caused all events to be canceled in early 2020....

The quarter dollar is both the most commonly-used coin in the American currency and the most unique. Since 1999, the coin's reverse, or "tails," side has showcased all 50 US states, as well as the breathtaking beauty of the country's national parks. Now, the US Mint plans to use the silver canvas to celebrate female leaders who have played a crucial part in shaping the nation's history....

Memorial Day, which will be celebrated on May 31, 2021, is one of the most important American holidays. Observed annually on the last Monday of May, it honors the brave men and women of the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, National Guard, Air Force, and the Coast Guard who sacrificed their lives to defend America's freedom. Meanwhile, Veterans Day, which takes place each year on November 11, honors all veterans — living or dead—but mainly gives thanks to living veterans who served their country honorably during war or peacetime....

A collection of 1,000 prehistoric structures dubbed mustatils — the plural form of the Arabic term for rectangles — scattered across 124,274 miles (200,000 kilometers) in northwest Saudi Arabia may be the world's oldest monuments. A team of archeologists from the University of Western Australia (UWA) reached this conclusion after radiocarbon dating of charcoal found inside the courtyards indicated they were constructed in 5,000 BC — or about 2,000 years before the Egyptian pyramids or monuments like Stonehenge in southern England....

When Jennifer Johnson and her team embarked on their annual quest to survey the sturgeon population in the Detroit River in mid-April 2021, they had fully expected to find some super-sized specimens. However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists had never anticipated luring in the granddaddy of all sturgeons — a massive, 240-pound, 6-foot, 10-inch long fish that they estimate is at least a century old!...

The annual 3-to 4-millimeter rise in sea levels is expected to impact many coastal communities in the coming decades. However, few are as vulnerable as the Republic of the Maldives, a collection of more than a thousand picturesque islands in the Indian Ocean. NASA researchers believe that parts of what is "arguably the lowest-lying country in the world" will become uninhabitable by 2050, due to wave-driven flooding and limited freshwater. To combat the inevitable, the government recently unveiled plans for the world's first "true" floating island city....

Regeneration, or the ability to regrow body parts, is a fairly widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom. However, the skill is usually restricted to growing a new tail or a new limb. Now, researchers have found two species of sacoglossan sea slugs — Elysia atroviridis and Elysia marginata — that deliberately detach their heads from their original bodies and grow brand new ones!...

The beauty of love is that it can happen with the most unexpected person in the most unlikely of places. In the case of a one-year-old stray puppy in Duplin County, North Carolina, that "person" happened to be a bright purple stuffed unicorn at a local Dollar General store. The good news is that this unusual love story has a happy ending!...

When 36-year-old Andy Duran decided to return to his favorite high school hobby — skateboarding — in January 2021, the only obstacle he expected to encounter was his own ability to get back into the sport after the long hiatus. However, the 340-pound skateboarder from Oakland, California, soon realized that was the least of his problems....

Darius, one of the world's most famous rabbits, has disappeared! The massive, 4 foot 3-inch long Continental Giant, who has held the Guinness World Record for the "longest living rabbit" since 2010, vanished from his backyard in the village of Stoulton, England, on April 10, 2021. The local police, who are frantically searching for Darius, believe he was stolen from his enclosure overnight on Saturday....

With over 120 pasta sizes and shapes available, one would think there was a design to satisfy every palette. However, Dan Pashman, host of James Beard and Webby Award-winning podcast The Sporkful, was unhappy with the available options. So, the food-lover spent three years, and a substantial amount of his personal savings, to create cascatelli — a new pasta shape that is purportedly more functional than any available today....

An ancient volcanic space rock found in the Algerian Sahara Desert, may provide scientists with insights into the building blocks of planets. Dubbed Erg Chech 002, or EC 002, the meteorite is believed to be a remnant of a protoplanet dating back 4.6 billion years — about the time when our solar system was being formed....

The 2020 Summer Olympics torch relay is finally underway. The Olympic flame, which was kindled in Olympia, Greece, on March 12, 2020, and transported to Japan on March 20, 2020, spent a year at the Olympic Museum in Tokyo after the Games were postponed due to the coronavirus. It began its 121-day journey from Fukushima to Tokyo's National Stadium — the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies — on March 25, 2021....

On most days, pulling a harmless prank, or two, on family members would result in a time-out. However, on April 1st, aka April Fools' Day, lighthearted tricks are both expected and welcomed. The origins of the tradition are hazy. Some believe the fun began in 1582 when the world transitioned from the Julian calendar — which ushered in the New Year on the last week of March — to the current Gregorian calendar. Those unaware of the change, or refusing to accept the January 1st start date, were often pranked on December 31st. Others maintain the ritual began as a joyful way to welcome spring....

With just one correct answer out of 43 quintillion possible combinations, it is not surprising that most people spend days, if not months, trying to solve the Rubik's Cube. However, don't tell that to speedcuber extraordinaire Atharva R Bhat. The eight-year-old from Bangalore, India, just established a new Guinness World Record (GWR ) by solving three of the 3x3 rotating puzzles simultaneously in an astonishing one minute and 29.97 seconds....

The over 48,000 orange trees that permeate all corners of Seville, Spain, not only fill the city's air with the pleasant smell of azhar, or orange blossoms, in spring; they also yield over 16,500 tons of fruit every winter. Though that gives the capital of southern Spain’s Andalusia region the bragging rights of being Europe's top orange-producing city, the fruit is too tart to be consumed fresh. While some of the produce is used to make marmalade and orange liqueur, most of it ends up in Seville's landfills. However, that may change soon thanks to an ingenious idea to use the oranges to produce clean energy....

On March 21, 2021, Earth will have its closest encounter with 2001 FO32 — the largest and fastest-known asteroid scheduled to fly past our planet this year. The space rock, estimated to be between 2,526 feet ( 0.47 miles) and 5,577 feet (1.05 miles) in diameter, will zip past Earth at a staggering speed of 76,980 miles per hour (123,887 km/h). To put it in perspective, that is about 100 times faster than the speed of sound!...

Trash Panda, the Fulton County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency's (ESDA) feline mascot, often featured in the organization's memes to spread safety information, has openly declared his love for Fruity Pebbles. So the cereal's manufacturer, Post Consumer Brands, decided to surprise the two-year-old rescue cat with an honor usually reserved for star athletes like Michael Jordan and Simone Biles — its face featured on a cereal box....

When RM Sotheby's was commissioned to sell a Ferrari 330 P2 Junior, they expected it to fetch between $6,000 and $12,000 (5,000 to 10,000 euros). As it turned out, the experts had significantly underestimated the vehicle's value. On February 13, 2021, an enthusiastic bidder paid a record $145,445 (120,000 euros) — including the auctioneer's 20 percent commission — for the pristinely-preserved replica of one of Ferrari's finest 1960s sports-racing cars....

Celebrated every February, Black History Month is an annual commemoration to honor and recognize the central role of African Americans in U.S. history and reflect on their continued struggle for racial justice. While President Gerald Ford is credited for officially recognizing what is also called African American History Month in 1976, the idea was the brainchild of American historian and author Dr. Carter G. Woodson....

Located in California's Sierra Nevada mountains, Yosemite National Park is famous for its giant, ancient sequoia trees and impressive rock formations, like El Capitan and Half Dome. However, from mid-to-late February each year, the pristine preserve's main attraction is Horsetail Fall — a temporary waterfall that flows over the eastern edge of El Capitan every winter. During the brief two-week-period, the 1,500-foot-tall waterfall frequently transforms into a spectacular natural Firefall....