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Cher (born May 20, 1946) is an American singer and actress. Dubbed the "Goddess of Pop", she gained fame in 1965 as part of thefolk duoSonny & Cher, early exponents of1960s counterculture. She became a TV star in the 1970s, withThe Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour drawing more than 30 million viewers weekly, and topped theBillboard Hot 100 with narrativepop songs including "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" and "Half-Breed". Transitioning to film, she earned twoAcademy Awards nominations—forSilkwood (1983) andMoonstruck (1987), winningBest Actress for the latter—and received theCannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress forMask (1985). Herdance-pop comeback albumBelieve (1998) introduced the "Cher effect", a stylized use ofAuto-Tune to distort vocals. Her 2002–2005Farewell Tour grossed $250 million, thehighest ever by a female artist at the time. ARock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Cher is the only solo artist withBillboard number-one singles in each of seven decades. (Full article...)

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Austria, represented byJJ(pictured) with the song "Wasted Love", winsthe Eurovision Song Contest.
Formerpresident of UruguayJosé Mujica dies at theage of 89.
TheSocialist Party led by current prime ministerEdi Rama wins an outright majority in theAlbanian parliamentary election.
TheKurdistan Workers' Party announces its dissolution, endingits insurgency against Turkey.

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May 20:National Day of Remembrance in Cambodia (1975);National Awakening Day in Indonesia (1908)

325 – TheFirst Council of Nicaea(depicted), the firstecumenical council of theChristian Church, was formally opened byConstantine the Great.
794 – According to theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle,King Æthelberht II ofEast Anglia was beheaded on the orders ofOffa of Mercia.
1714 –J. S. Bach led the first performance of hisPentecost cantataErschallet, ihr Lieder at the chapel ofSchloss Weimar.
1927 – With the signing of theTreaty of Jeddah, the United Kingdom recognized the sovereignty ofIbn Saud overHejaz andNejd, which later merged to become Saudi Arabia.
1941 –World War II: Germanparatroopers began theBattle of Heraklion on the island ofCrete, capturing the airfield and port inHeraklion ten days later.

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Rhina Aguirre (20 May 1939 – 30 October 2021) was a Bolivian disability activist, politician, and sociologist. An opponent of the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s, Aguirre was an early activist in the country's human rights movement. Exiled to Ecuador by the regime ofLuis García Meza, she collaborated withLeonidas Proaño's indigenous ministry and worked closely with the country's peasant and social organizations. Blinded in both eyes bytoxoplasmosis, Aguirre took up the cause ofdisability rights, joining the Departmental Council for Disabled Persons upon her return to Bolivia. In 2009, she joined theMovement for Socialism and was elected to represent the department ofTarija in theChamber of Senators, becoming the first blind person in Bolivian history to assume a parliamentary seat. This photograph of Aguirre was taken in 2014.

Photograph credit:Chamber of Senators; edited byKrisgabwoosh

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