On this day · archive
The olinguito gets its own place in the family tree
On August 15, 2013, the Smithsonian announced the olinguito as the first new carnivorous species found in the Americas in 35 years. The small tree-dwelling mammal made discovery feel less like arrival than recognition.
8
events in todayish file
2013
The Smithsonian announces the discovery of the olinguito.
A familiar-looking inhabitant of Andean cloud forests received a distinct scientific name and a new place in the family tree.
The word discovery can suggest an empty map and a dramatic first encounter. The olinguito offers a more careful version. The animal was already living in Andean cloud forests; the announcement marked science recognizing it as a distinct species.
That recognition depended on patient comparison: museum specimens, field observation, anatomy, range, and the accumulated evidence that a familiar-looking animal had been filed under the wrong assumption.
August 15 gives the archive a small, bright correction. Even among mammals, and even in collections already studied, the living world can remain more various than the labels attached to it.
The full record
8 entries from the day’s archive, filed year by year with a note on what each one leaves behind.
US president Donald Trump meets with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the first such summit since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The meeting returned the two presidents to direct talks against the continuing war in Ukraine.
Diplomacy
Kabul falls into the hands of the Taliban as Ashraf Ghani flees Afghanistan along with local residents and foreign nationals, effectively reestablishing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
The collapse of the republic sent Afghans and foreign nationals into a desperate evacuation.
Conflict
Russia begins production on the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
Vaccine production began amid a global race for evidence, supply, and public confidence.
Health
North Korea moves its clock back half an hour to introduce Pyongyang Time, 81⁄2 hours ahead of UTC.
A change of thirty minutes turned national timekeeping into a political statement.
Civic
At least 27 people are killed and 226 injured in an explosion in southern Beirut near a complex used by Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. A previously unknown Syrian Sunni group claims responsibility in an online video.
The bombing brought regional sectarian conflict into a crowded Beirut neighborhood.
Violence
The Smithsonian announces the discovery of the olinguito, the first new carnivorous species found in the Americas in 35 years.
The announcement gave a distinct name to a cloud-forest mammal long hidden by classification.
Science
An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates Ica and various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring 1,090.
The earthquake devastated communities along Peru’s coast and left a major recovery effort.
Disaster
In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet matriculated at The Citadel (she drops out less than a week later).
Her matriculation broke the institution’s male-only admissions barrier despite the brevity of her stay.
Education