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Georg Karo (1872–1963) was a German archaeologist who specialised in Mycenaean and Etruscan civilisation. He was twice director of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens (DAI), in which capacity he excavated the Mycenaean site of Tiryns and the Temple of Artemis on Corfu. A colleague of Wilhelm Dörpfeld, who had worked with Heinrich Schliemann at Troy, Karo published the findings from Schliemann's excavations of Grave Circle A at Mycenae. The work was considered to be Karo's greatest contribution to scholarship. He taught at Bonn between 1902 and 1905 before moving to the DAI in Athens as Dörpfeld's deputy. Although an early supporter of the Nazi government of Germany, Karo was forced from his post of director of the DAI in 1936 by antisemitism against his Jewish ancestry. In 1939, he fled to the United States, where he was accused of spying for the Nazi regime. He returned to Germany in 1952, and became an honorary professor at the University of Freiburg. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Sappho Fresco

... that the Sappho Fresco (pictured) from Pompeii is not a portrait of Sappho?
... that Thames lightermen would pull their barges up to the Leaning Tower of Rotherhithe to collect their wages?
... that Christophe de Menil had "a long history of supporting 'difficult' art projects", according to The New York Times?
... that the Dutch colonial Amfioen Society was designed to maintain a legal monopoly over raw opium?
... that gymnast Mikhail Koudinov, at 14 years old, was New Zealand's youngest competitor at the 2006 Commonwealth Games?
... that Malpas's debut album was composed over email?
... that Solanum baretiae was named after Jeanne Baret, who circumnavigated the world disguised as a man?
... that Carolina Contreras founded one of the first all-natural hair salons in the Dominican Republic?
... that "Soda Pop" was originally "Ice Cream"?

In the news

María Corina Machado

María Corina Machado (pictured) is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her pro-democracy activism in Venezuela.
José Jerí is sworn in as President of Peru after Dina Boluarte is removed from office by the Congress.
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their work on macroscopic quantum phenomena.
The Nobel Prize in Medicine is awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their work on peripheral immune tolerance.

On this day

October 11: Feast day of Saint James the Deacon (Anglicanism); National Coming Out Day

Bashir Shihab II

1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Royal Navy captured eleven Dutch Navy ships without any losses at the Battle of Camperdown.
1840 – Bashir Shihab II (pictured) surrendered to the Ottoman Empire and was removed as Emir of Mount Lebanon after an imperial decree by Sultan Abdülmecid I.
1942 – World War II: At the Battle of Cape Esperance on the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, American ships intercepted and defeated a Japanese fleet sent to attack Henderson Field.
1950 – A field-sequential color system developed by Hungarian-American engineer Peter Goldmark became the first color television system to be adopted for commercial use, only for it to be abandoned a year later.
1973 – Typhoon Nora, the fourth-most intense tropical cyclone on record, dissipated after killing 40 people and leaving more than a million homeless across Taiwan and the Philippines.

Maria James (b. 1793)
Thích Nhất Hạnh (b. 1926)
Dorothea Lange (d. 1965)
Alexei Leonov (d. 2019)

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Today's featured picture

Emily Davison (11 October 1872 – 8 June 1913) was a suffragette who fought for votes for women in the United Kingdom in the early 20th century. Davison grew up in a middle-class family and studied at Royal Holloway College, London, and St Hugh's College, Oxford, before taking jobs as a teacher and governess. A staunch feminist and passionate Christian, she deemed socialism to be a moral and political force for good. She became an officer of the Women's Social and Political Union and a chief steward during its marches. Her tactics included breaking windows, throwing stones, setting fire to postboxes, and, on three occasions, hiding overnight in the Palace of Westminster – including on the night of the 1911 census. Davison was arrested nine times, went on hunger strike seven times, and was force fed on forty-nine occasions. She died after being hit by King George V's horse Anmer at the 1913 Epsom Derby when she walked onto the track during the race. This studio portrait, showing Davison wearing her Hunger Strike Medal and Holloway brooch, was taken in the early 1910s.

Photograph credit: Andrew William Dron; restored by Adam Cuerden

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