Marriage License is an oil painting by American illustrator Norman Rockwell (pictured) created for the cover of the June 11, 1955, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. It depicts a young man and woman filling out a marriage license application at a government building in front of a bored-looking clerk. Although the room and its furnishings are dark, the couple are illuminated by the window beside them. The contrast between the couple and the clerk highlights two reoccurring themes in Rockwell's works: young love and ordinary life. The painting has been praised by critics and compared to the works of Johannes Vermeer due to the use of light and dark. The painting is in the Norman Rockwell Museum's collection and has been a part of major exhibitions in 1955, 1972, and 1999. In 2004 the magazine Mad published a parody of Marriage License that depicted a pair of gay men, seen as a commentary on competing meanings of marriage and the government's role in deciding whether same-sex marriage is valid.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1857:

Mindon Min was crowned as King of Burma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_Mindon_Min

1863:

American Civil War: Union troops captured Jackson, the capital of Mississippi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jackson,_Mississippi

1931:

Five people were killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers opened fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85dalen_shootings

1948:

David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of Independence at Independence Hall in Tel Aviv. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Declaration_of_Independence

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

mother figure: One (especially an older woman) who behaves as, is regarded as equivalent to, or represents a mother for another person or group of people. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mother_figure

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

All the measures now proposed are only a compromise with the errors of the present systems; but as these errors now almost universally exist, and must be overcome solely by the force of reason; and as reason, to effect the most beneficial purposes, makes her advance by slow degrees, and progressively substantiates one truth of high import after another, it will be evident, to minds of comprehensive and accurate thought, that by these and similar compromises alone can success be rationally expected in practice. For such compromises bring truth and error before the public; and whenever they are fairly exhibited together, truth must ultimately prevail.   --Robert Owen https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Owen