Gold dinar of al-Hafiz

Al-Hafiz (c. 1075 – 1149) was the eleventh caliph of the Fatimids from 1132 until his death. He rose to power as regent after his cousin al-Amir was killed in 1130 leaving an infant son. The army seized power, imprisoning al-Hafiz, but he was freed a year later. In 1132, he proclaimed himself caliph and imam. Many Isma'ili followers abroad refused to recognize him as imam, breaking away as the Tayyibi sect. There were repeated uprisings even in Egypt, although his reign saw little foreign aggression. He tried to restrain his overmighty viziers, with mixed success. He was repeatedly forced to give way to the demands of various military factions, and although for the last decade of his reign he ruled without a vizier, he was ultimately unable to halt the evolution of the vizierate into a de facto sultanate, independent of the caliph. His successors would be reduced to puppets at the hands of powerful viziers, until the end of the Fatimid Caliphate in 1171. (Full article...)

TVBoy mural of Alexia Putellas

• ... that street artist TVBoy, known for his murals of footballers in Barcelona (example pictured), painted uplifting art in regions of Kyiv ahead of the one-year anniversary of the 2022 Russian invasion?
• ... that Foster Loyer broke Michigan's high-school and Steph Curry's Davidson records for consecutive free throws?
• ... that the 2023 United Kingdom student protests were organised on TikTok and Snapchat?
• ... that at the age of 27 New Zealand entrepreneur Jamie Beaton had degrees from Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and Tsinghua University, and was working on his seventh degree, from Yale?
• ... that It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water explores the theme of water and was inspired by Phil Elverum's visits to the ocean?
• ... that in 1956 Green Bay Packers athletic trainer Bud Jorgensen became the first athletic trainer selected by the National Football League to treat players at a Pro Bowl?
• ... that the St. Raphael Provincial Park in Northern Ontario, Canada, is part of the 1,530 km² (590 sq mi) St. Raphael Signature Site, which is recognized for its natural and recreational values?
• ... that in the 1970s, residents of the Belnord in New York City had to sneak in refrigerators at night?

Jon Rahm

• In the Myanmar civil war, the military junta's air force kills at least 130 civilians in Pazigyi.
• In golf, Jon Rahm (pictured) wins the Masters Tournament.
• Former U.S. president Donald Trump is arraigned on 34 charges of falsifying business records.
• Finland joins NATO as its 31st member.
• In the Andorran parliamentary election, the liberal coalition, led by Prime Minister Xavier Espot, wins an absolute majority of seats in the General Council.

April 13: Night of Decree (Shia Islam, 2023)

Jefferson Memorial

• 1742 – The first performance of Messiah, an oratorio by the British composer Handel, was held in Dublin.
• 1943 – The Neoclassical Jefferson Memorial (pictured) in Washington, D.C., was formally dedicated on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.
• 1946 – Nakam, a Jewish organization seeking revenge for the Holocaust, attempted to poison thousands of SS prisoners at Langwasser internment camp, but did not kill anyone.
• 1953 – Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale was published as the first work to feature his British spy character James Bond.
• 2017 – War in Afghanistan: In an airstrike in Nangarhar Province, the U.S. military dropped the most powerful conventional bomb ever used in combat.