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Regents of the University of California v. Bakke was a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1978 upholding affirmative action. It found diversity in the classroom to be a compelling state interest and allowed race to be one of several factors in college admission policy, but rejected specific quotas, such as the 16 out of 100 seats set aside for minority students by the UC Davis School of Medicine. Although the court had outlawed segregation in schools, it had not resolved the legality of voluntary affirmative action programs initiated by universities. Proponents deemed such programs necessary to make up for past discrimination, while opponents believed they violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case fractured the court: the nine justices issued a total of six opinions. The judgment of the court was written by Justice Lewis Powell, and two different blocs of four justices joined various parts of Powell's opinion. The decision had little practical effect on most affirmative action programs. In 2003 the court upheld Powell's position in a majority opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Excavations at Mes Aynak

... that the director of Saving Mes Aynak presented Afghani leaders with a petition signed by 100,000 people in support of the preservation of the 5,000-year-old archaeological site (excavations pictured)?
... that W. Lair Thompson, the President of the Oregon Senate, lost his re-election bid in 1916 by one vote?
... that the freshwater snails Sinotaia aeruginosa and Cipangopaludina cathayensis are used in Chinese cuisine?
... that Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, who would later become president of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico, sued a judge in the 1980s so she could appear in court dressed in pants?
... that Makrana marble was used in the construction of the Taj Mahal and the Victoria Memorial?
... that Black Metropolis, a foundational American sociology text by St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton, Jr., resulted from the work of as many as 200 researchers, typists, and copyists?
... that chestnut cake may be prepared using flour from ground chestnuts?

In the news

Denny Hamlin

Spotlight wins Best Picture and Mad Max: Fury Road wins six awards at the Academy Awards.
Thirty-six people are killed in an explosion in a coal mine near Vorkuta, Russia.
The Jamaica Labour Party, led by Andrew Holness, wins a narrow majority in the Jamaican general election.
Tara Air Flight 193 crashes in Nepal, killing all twenty-three people on board.
In motorsport, Denny Hamlin (pictured) wins the Daytona 500 by 0.01 seconds, the narrowest margin in the race's history.

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- Zika virus outbreak
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On this day...

February 29: Leap day (Gregorian calendar)

Tokyo Skytree

1752 – Alaungpaya, a village chief in Upper Burma, founded the Konbaung Dynasty; by the time of his death, he had unified all of Myanmar, and driven out the French and the British.
1768 – A group of Polish nobles established the Bar Confederation to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russian influence and against King Stanisław II Augustus.
1944 – The Admiralty Islands campaign during the Pacific War of World War II began when American forces assaulted Los Negros Island, the third largest of the Admiralty Islands.
1960 – Morocco's deadliest earthquake struck the city of Agadir, killing at least 12,000 people.
2012 – Construction of Tokyo Skytree (pictured), the world's tallest tower and second-tallest structure, was completed.

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Mel Gibson

The 68th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1995 and took place on March 25, 1996, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Quincy Jones and directed by Jeff Margolis. Actress Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show for the second time, having previously presided over the 66th ceremony in 1994. Braveheart won five awards including Best Picture, the ninth film to do so without any acting nominations, and Best Director for Mel Gibson (pictured). Other winners included Apollo 13, Pocahontas, Restoration, and The Usual Suspects with two awards each. The telecast garnered almost 45 million viewers in the United States. (Full list...)

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The Lagoon Nebula is a giant interstellar cloud in the constellation Sagittarius. It is classified as an emission nebula and as a H II region. Discovered by Giovanni Hodierna before 1654, it is one of only two star-forming nebulae faintly visible to the naked eye from mid-northern latitudes. Seen with binoculars, it appears as a distinct oval cloudlike patch with a definite core. In the foreground is the open cluster NGC 6530.

Photograph: ESO/VPHAS+ team

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