Director Toshihiro Nagoshi in 2014

Daytona USA is an arcade racing game developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega in March 1994. Inspired by the popularity of the NASCAR motor racing series in the US, the game has players race stock cars on one of three courses. It was the first arcade game to be released on the Sega Model 2, an arcade system board which was co-developed by GE Aerospace. AM2's Toshihiro Nagoshi (pictured) became the game's director and co-producer. Sega aimed to outperform Namco's Ridge Racer (1993). The developers researched motorsports extensively and mapped Daytona International Speedway. Daytona USA was a critical and commercial success, praised for its graphics, soundtrack and gameplay. A conversion was made for the Sega Saturn in 1995, and was followed by sequels and enhancements for consoles and arcades. Daytona USA is one of the highest-grossing arcade video games ever, and has been frequently named one of the best video games of all time. (Full article...)

Barren Island

• ... that Barren Island (pictured), located in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is the only active volcano in India?
• ... that Irish International Brigader Tommy Wood had only been in Spain for 18 days when he was killed at the Battle of Lopera during the Spanish Civil War?
• ... that the Brazilian social media page Tupinizando is dedicated to the promotion of Old Tupi, a dead language?
• ... that in 1940 Xu Ruiyun became the first Chinese woman to receive a PhD in mathematics?
• ... that Greenpeace v. Eni is the first climate change lawsuit filed against a privately owned company in Italy?
• ... that South African civil rights activist Thambi Naidoo was arrested along with Mahatma Gandhi and sent outside of Transvaal for refusing to register?
• ... that the novel series Aisling is based on a character archetype elaborated upon by users of a Facebook group?
• ... that storyteller Rita Cox thinks of stories as "gently echoed music" between the storyteller and the listener?
• ... that an Arkansas TV station apologized for not being on the air by sending local media a drawing of ducks?

Wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge

• A bus falls from a bridge in Limpopo, South Africa, killing 45 people.
• The Francis Scott Key Bridge in the U.S. city of Baltimore collapses (wreckage pictured) after being hit by a container ship.
• Bassirou Diomaye Faye is elected President of Senegal.
• A mass shoot­ing and ex­plo­sions kill 144 people at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, Russia.

April 3

Rakesh Sharma

• 1043 – Edward the Confessor, usually considered to be the last king of the House of Wessex, was crowned King of England.
• 1984 – Aboard Soyuz T-11, Rakesh Sharma (pictured) became the first Indian to be launched into space.
• 1996 – A U.S. Air Force CT-43 crashed into a mountainside while attempting an instrument approach to Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing all 35 people on board, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.
• 2009 – A gunman opened fire at an American Planning and Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York, U.S., killing thirteen and wounding four before committing suicide.
• 2013 – The northeastern section of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, experienced several flash floods that killed at least 100 people.