Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the main city of the Dhaka District. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka and its metropolitan area have a population of 11 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh and one of the most populous cities in the world. Under Mughal rule, the city was also known as Jahangir Nagar. The modern city was largely developed by British authorities and soon became the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta. With the partition of India, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan before becoming the capital of an independent Bangladesh in 1972. During this period Dhaka witnessed extensive political turmoil, including many periods of martial law, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, military suppression and devastation from war and natural calamities. Modern Dhaka is the centre of political, cultural and economic life in Bangladesh, enjoying the highest literacy rate amongst other Bangladeshi cities and a diverse economy. While the urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country, Dhaka suffers from severe challenges such as pollution, congestion, supply shortages, poverty and crime. In recent decades Dhaka has seen a modernisation of transport, communications and public works.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1500: Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral and his crew became the first Europeans to sight Brazil. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_%C3%81lvares_Cabral)

1913: The Bolshevik newspaper Pravda was first published in Saint Petersburg, Russia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravda)

1915: Chlorine gas was released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres, the first large-scale use of poison gas in World War I. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_poison_gas_in_World_War_I)

1930: The London Naval Treaty, regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding, was signed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Naval_Treaty)

2000: In a predawn raid, U.S. federal agents seized six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida and returned him to his Cuban father. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli%C3%A1n_Gonz%C3%A1lez)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

It is certainly not then — not in dreams — but when one is wide awake, at moments of robust joy and achievement, on the highest terrace of consciousness, that mortality has a chance to peer beyond its own limits, from the mast, from the past and its castle-tower. And although nothing much can be seen through the mist, there is somehow the blissful feeling that one is looking in the right direction. -- Vladimir Nabokov (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov)