The Heart of Thomas is a 1974 Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Moto Hagio (pictured). Originally serialized in Shūkan Shōjo Comic, a weekly manga magazine publishing shōjo manga – manga aimed at young and adolescent women – the series follows the events at a German all-boys school after the suicide of student Thomas Werner. It is one of the earliest manga in the shōnen-ai (male–male romance) genre. While The Heart of Thomas was initially poorly received by readers, by the end of its serialization it was among the most popular series in Shūkan Shōjo Comic. It significantly influenced shōjo manga as a medium, with many of the stylistic and narrative hallmarks of the series becoming standard tropes of the genre. The series has attracted considerable scholarly interest, and has been adapted into a film, a stage play, and a novel. In North America, an English-language translation of The Heart of Thomas, translated by Rachel Thorn, was published by Fantagraphics Books in 2013.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1936:

Second Italo-Ethiopian War: Italian troops captured the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa unopposed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_the_Iron_Will

1961:

Project Mercury: American astronaut Alan Shepard made a sub- orbital spaceflight on board Freedom 7, becoming the second person to travel into outer space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_3

1981:

After a 66-day hunger strike, Irish republican Bobby Sands died of starvation in HM Prison Maze. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Sands

1991:

Riots broke out in Washington, D.C., after a rookie police officer shot a Salvadoran man in the chest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Washington,_D.C._riot

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

lustrum: 1. (Ancient Rome, religion, historical) A ceremonial purification of all the people, performed every five years after the taking of the census; a lustration. 2. (by extension, literary) A period of five years. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lustrum

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The presence of irony does not necessarily mean that the earnestness is excluded. Only assistant professors assume that.   --Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Concluding_Unscientific_Postscript_to_Philosophical_Fragments