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550 Madison Avenue is a postmodern skyscraper on Madison Avenue between 55th Street and 56th Street in New York City. Designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee with associate architect Simmons Architects, the building was completed in 1984. It is a 647-foot-tall (197-meter), 37-story office tower with a facade made of pink granite. It was originally the headquarters of AT&T Corp., which relocated from 195 Broadway, the company's previous headquarters. Following the breakup of the Bell System in 1982, AT&T spun off subsidiary corporations and never occupied the entire building as it had originally intended. The building later became the American headquarters of Sony. An annex to the west was demolished and replaced in the early 2020s. Opinion of the building has been mixed ever since its design was first announced in March 1978. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building's exterior as a landmark in 2018. (Full article...)

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HMS Malabar was a 74-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1818 at Bombay Dockyard. In 1838, Malabar ran aground off Prince Edward Island in British North America and was damaged, with the loss of two crew members. She was refloated later that year and towed into Three Rivers in Lower Canada. In August 1843, Malabar, under the command of Sir George Sartorius, assisted in fighting a fire that destroyed the United States Navy sidewheel frigate USS Missouri at Gibraltar, taking aboard about 200 of that ship's survivors. Malabar was converted to a hulk in 1848, eventually becoming a coal hulk, and was renamed Myrtle in 1883. The hulk was sold out of the navy in 1905. This lithograph from around 1843 shows the crew of Malabar watching as Missouri explodes and burns in the distance.

Lithograph credit: Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton, after Edward Duncan and George Pechell Mends; restored by Adam Cuerden

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In the News

Aitana Bonmatí

The CNSA Chang'e 6 completes sampling and takeoff from the far side of the Moon.
In association football, the UEFA Champions League concludes with Barcelona defeating Lyon in the women's final (player of the match Aitana Bonmatí pictured) and Real Madrid defeating Borussia Dortmund in the men's final.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump is found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records.
In Indy car racing, Josef Newgarden wins the Indianapolis 500.

Did you know?

Albert Tangora

... that Albert Tangora (pictured), one of the most successful competitive typewriter speed typists, once had his hands insured for $100,000?
... that the managing editor of Aujourd'hui was executed by firing squad in 1944?
... that football player Michael Jurgens never lost in 42 high school varsity games?
... that the success of the British band Shiva was cut short by the death of its lead vocalist?
... that Barron Trump signed for D.C. United Academy as a midfielder?
... that the 1972 Finnish film The Sheep Eaters gathered more than a million viewers opposite the 1975 Ice Hockey World Championships match between Finland and the Soviet Union?
... that according to second-century AD Greek rhetorician Athenaeus, the Phoenicians played a flute-like instrument called the gingras in their mourning rituals?
... that 55 Broad Street, a skyscraper in the Financial District of Manhattan, was called "an unlovable building in an unlivable neighborhood"?
... that when Sithu Pauk Hla was appointed the governor of Yamethin, he was also given command of a 50-strong company of war elephants?

On this day...

June 4: Trianon Treaty Day in Romania (1920)

German submarine U-505

1784 – Élisabeth Thible became the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon, covering a distance of 4 km (2.5 mi) and reaching an estimated altitude of 1,500 m (4,900 ft).
1944 – World War II: A United States Navy task group captured German submarine U-505 (pictured).
1974 – Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians hosted Ten Cent Beer Night, but had to forfeit the game to the Texas Rangers due to rioting by drunken fans.

1989 – Following the death of Ruhollah Khomeini, the Assembly of Experts elected Ali Khamenei to be Supreme Leader of Iran.

Antoine, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1489)
Benjamin Huntsman (b. 1704)
Miguel de Azcuénaga (b. 1754)
Chester Nez (d. 2014)

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