The Carpet from Bagdad is a 1915 American silent adventure film directed by Colin Campbell, based on Harold MacGrath's 1911 novel of the same name. In the story, Horace Wadsworth (played by Guy Oliver), one of a gang of criminals planning a bank robbery in New York, steals a prayer rug from a Baghdad mosque. He sells the carpet to antique dealer George Jones (Wheeler Oakman) to fund the robbery scheme. The carpet's guardian kidnaps both men and Fortune Chedsoye (Kathlyn Williams), the innocent daughter of another conspirator, but they escape. Marketing for the film included a media tour of part of the set and an invitation-only screening sponsored by the publisher of MacGrath's book. The Carpet from Bagdad was released on 3 May 1915 to mostly positive reviews. Many praised the tinted desert scenes and realistic Middle East imagery, although some felt the scenery overshadowed the characters. The film is now lost, except for one badly damaged reel salvaged from the RMS Lusitania in 1982. Images from several feet of the reel were recovered by the British Film Institute's National Archive.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carpet_from_Bagdad

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1491:

Nkuwu Nzinga of the Kingdom of Kongo was baptised as João I by Portuguese missionaries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_I_of_Kongo

1791:

The Polish–Lithuanian Constitution of May 3, the oldest codified national constitution in Europe, was adopted by the Great Sejm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_May_3,_1791

1921:

The island of Ireland was divided into two distinct territories: Northern and Southern Ireland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_Ireland

1960:

The Off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks made its premiere, eventually becoming the world's longest-running musical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fantasticks

2007:

Four-year-old Madeleine McCann was abducted while on holiday with her family in Portugal, sparking "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Madeleine_McCann

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

needn't: (Britain) Need not. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/needn%27t

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Whenever men are not obliged to fight from necessity, they fight from ambition; which is so powerful in human breasts, that it never leaves them no matter to what rank they rise. The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything: so that the desire being always greater than the acquisition, there results discontent with the possession and little satisfaction to themselves from it   --Niccolò Machiavelli https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli