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Candide, a rollicking musical version of Voltaire's philosophical fantasy set in the "best of all possible worlds," with music by Leonard Bernstein, book by Lillian Hellman, and lyrics by Richard Wilbur, opened on Broadway on Dec. 1, 1956—50 years ago this week.

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Photograph:Lethal-injection gurney in Huntsville, Texas.

Capital Punishment

Capital punishment is now banned in more than 80 countries. Others, such as China, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, retain the death penalty, and a few countries still perform public executions, acts condemned by the United Nations as “incompatible with human dignity.” In Britannica's entry on capital punishment, Roger Hood of the University of Oxford surveys the arguments for and against its practice.

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Biography of the Day

Born this day in 1942, American guitarist Jimi Hendrix altered the course of popular music in his brief career through his innovative playing of the electric guitar and his standing as a symbol of the 1960s youth movement.

This Day in History

Through the will drawn up by Alfred Bernhard Nobel—the Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist who invented dynamite and other, more powerful explosives—the Nobel Prizes were established on this day in 1895.
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He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac

Britannica's interactive Timelines trace key dates and developments through history with illustrations and encyclopedia links.

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Britannica's popular Year in Review covers the most important people and events of the previous year, from Nobel Prize winners to the films taking top honours around the world.

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Encyclopædia Britannica has published, for more than 200 years, the foremost writers, thinkers, and scholars in the world. Our Classics feature highlights some of these famous contributors and their writings for Britannica.

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Britannica has extensive coverage of the nations of the world, including articles, maps, flags, images, videos, and more.

View the Nations

Britannica's interactive World Atlas allows you to browse maps and profiles of continents, countries, states, and more. Find national and state flags, profiles, and hundreds of political and physical maps.

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Using a database of current and historical statistics for 217 countries, create cross-national comparisons with custom tables and charts, or export the information to a spreadsheet for data crunching and deeper analysis.
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Which Central Asian game is played with a headless goat? Which bank relies on peer pressure as collateral for loans? Glad You Asked, a new book by Britannica and Triumph Books, provides the answers to these and hundreds of other questions. The book features witty commentary by Michael Feldman, acclaimed host of the Whad'Ya Know radio show. Learn more about the book from the Britannica Store.

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Climate of Fear: The Quest for Dignity in a Dehumanized World

Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, a past member of Britannica's Editorial Board of Advisors and one of the most eloquent advocates for human rights, explores in Climate of Fear: The Quest for Dignity in a Dehumanized World the shared anxiety so palpable around the world. Derived from the prestigious Reith Lectures delivered by Soyinka in 2004, the book is now available from the Britannica Store.

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Capital Punishment

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Who wrote Song of Solomon?

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