Design · Newspaper

Tonight's headline

Eurovision concludes in Vienna — Austria's win last May brings the contest home tonight.

The 70th Eurovision Song Contest's grand final airs from the Wiener Stadthalle this evening. Twenty-six countries compete; the voting window opens at 23:00 CEST. By morning the bookkeepers will know where the 2027 contest is going — which is, statistically, the question worth caring about. Eurovision has held its grand final on a Saturday in May every year since 1956, with three exceptions, all of which are interesting.

The shortest distance any host nation has had to defend its title is 364 days; the longest, 728. Tonight closes the gap.

Cultural calendar · eurovision details →

"The next total eclipse over Europe is two minutes and sixteen seconds long. The one after that won't arrive until 2081.

— page 2, Astronomy

Astronomy · page 2

The next total eclipse falls on a Wednesday in Spain.

August 12 brings a total solar eclipse — totality crosses Iceland, northern Spain, and a sliver of Portugal. The path is narrow but stretches more than 4,000 kilometres. In Bilbao, totality is two minutes, sixteen seconds. The last total eclipse over Europe was August 1999. The next one after this won't be visible from the continent until 2081.

all eclipses through 2040 →

Sport · page 3

26 days until the first World Cup kick-off in North America.

June 11 opens the first 48-team World Cup with Mexico hosting at the Estadio Azteca. The tournament finishes on a Sunday — July 19, at MetLife — sixty-three matches and roughly forty days later. The Azteca is the only stadium to have hosted three World Cup matches across multiple tournaments; this June it claims a fourth.

tournament schedule →

This day in history · page 4

97 years ago: the first Academy Awards.

May 16, 1929. A private dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel handed out fifteen statuettes in fifteen minutes. Wings took Best Picture (then called "Outstanding Picture"). Tickets were five dollars. The 98th edition lands ten months from today.

academy awards →

In brief

Pentecost Monday May 25 — a public holiday in Austria, Germany, France, and 14 other countries. Nine days out.
Full moon June 1, 04:01 CEST. Visible across Europe overnight. Sometimes called the Strawberry Moon.
Roland Garros opens in eight days. The clay-court Grand Slam runs through to June 7. Two weeks at the Stade.
US fiscal Q3 ends in 45 days. Federal year runs to September 30; budget resets October 1.
Met Gala has passed for the year (May 4). The 2027 edition lands on Monday, May 3 — first Monday of May, always.

Sky report

Sunrise: 05:31
Solar noon: 13:01
Sunset: 20:31
Day length: 15h 01m
Civil twilight: ends 21:07
Moon: waxing crescent · 23%
Next full: June 1

The ledger — distances at a glance

D-Day	29,932	days since	Tuesday, June 6, 1944
Moon landing	20,759	days since	Sunday, July 20, 1969
Fall of the Wall	13,326	days since	Thursday, November 9, 1989
Y2K	9,632	days since	Saturday, January 1, 2000
Brexit referendum	3,612	days since	Thursday, June 23, 2016
Christmas	222	days until	Friday, December 25, 2026
Halley's Comet returns	22,114	days until	circa July 2086

Letters & corrections

"When is Easter again?"

Easter falls on April 5 in 2026. Western Easter is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon following the spring equinox. Eastern Orthodox Easter is sometimes the same date, sometimes weeks later. This year it's April 12, seven days behind.

— A. R., Linz

"Is the year half over?"

Not quite. Day 183 of 2026 is July 2nd; that's the calendar midpoint. Today is day 136 of 365. The exact midpoint falls at noon on July 2nd if the year has 365 days, noon on July 1st if it has 366. (2026 is not a leap year.)

— B. K., Salzburg

"What's the longest day of the year?"

June 21 is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, with the sun reaching its highest declination. In Vienna, sunrise is 04:54, sunset 20:59 — fifteen hours, fifty-five minutes of daylight. The earliest sunset of the year, oddly, is in mid-December, not at the solstice itself.

— Editor's response

The week ahead

Sat
May 16

Today · Eurovision Final tonight
Sun
17
— quiet day
Mon
18
Victoria Day · Canada
Tue
19
— quiet day
Wed
20
— quiet day
Thu
21
Ascension · AT, DE, FR, NL
Fri
22
— quiet day

For specific questions, the calculator is open all night.

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