Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 March 16

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From today's featured article

The Bridgeport, Connecticut, Centennial half dollar is a fifty-cent piece issued by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1936 as a commemorative coin. Designed by Henry Kreis, the obverse (pictured) depicts the showman P. T. Barnum, who was one of Bridgeport's most famous residents, mayor of the city, helped develop it, and is buried there. Bridgeport authorities wanted a commemorative coin, and authorizing legislation passed Congress without opposition. Kreis had designed the Connecticut Tercentenary half dollar (1935), and he produced designs showing Barnum and a modernistic eagle similar to the one on the Connecticut piece. The coins were vended to the public beginning in September 1936 at a price of $2. Too late for most of the centennial celebrations, the coins sold well. Unsold pieces were bought up by coin dealers and wholesale quantities were available on the secondary market until the 1970s. The Bridgeport half dollar sells in the low hundreds of dollars, depending on condition. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Common toothwort flowers

... that Ripon Parks is noted for its colonies of the parasitic common toothwort (pictured) and yellow star-of-Bethlehem?
... that David Leleo Kinimaka was the first member of the Royal Guards of Hawaii to voluntarily leave the ranks during an 1873 mutiny at ʻIolani Barracks?
... that the 3-metre-high (9.8 ft), 6th-century Parel Relief, with seven figures of Shiva, was found in Mumbai during road building in 1931, and is now worshipped at a local temple?
... that violinist Günter Kehr, director of the Peter Cornelius Conservatory from 1953, founded the Kehr Trio, a string trio that toured South America, North Africa, and the Near East?
... that the premiere of the television series Arrow's fourth season is the first time that the title character is referred to by his comics moniker Green Arrow?
... that boxer Angélique Duchemin was an undefeated French, European, and world champion?
... that 26 Broadway, the former New York City headquarters of Standard Oil, has a pyramidal tower that once contained a kerosene-burning cauldron?
... that the residents of Ely, Cardiff, rioted over the sale of bread in 1991?

In the news

Reported cases of COVID-19 by country as of 13 March 2020

The World Health Organization recognises the coronavirus outbreak (map pictured) as a pandemic, while the Italian government implements a national quarantine.
In cricket, the Women's T20 World Cup concludes with Australia defeating India in the final.
Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara win the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

On this day

March 16: Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires

United States Military Academy

934 – Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period: Chinese general Meng Zhixiang proclaimed himself emperor and established Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.
1244 – Albigensian Crusade: Following the successful Siege of Montségur, French royal forces burned about 210 unrepentant Cathars in a bonfire.
1802 – Congress passed the Military Peace Establishment Act, authorizing the establishment of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to operate the U.S. Military Academy (pictured) at West Point, New York.
1872 – In the first ever final of the FA Cup, the world's oldest association football competition, Wanderers defeated Royal Engineers 1–0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
1988 – Iran–Iraq War: Iraqi forces began attacking the Kurdish town of Halabja with chemical weapons, killing up to 5,000 people.

Jean de Brébeuf (d. 1649) · Ami Boué (b. 1794) · Iso Rae (d. 1940)

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Adele

English singer-songwriter Adele has received various awards and nominations. She is the recipient of nine Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, fifteen Grammy Awards, eighteen Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, and two Ivor Novello Awards for Songwriter of the Year. Adele's second studio album 21 was released in January 2011 and held the top position for 24 weeks in the United States. The single Rolling in the Deep won three Grammy Awards – Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Short Form Music Video. 21 won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. In 2012, she released "Skyfall", a song of the 2012 James Bond film of the same name. The song won a Brit Award for British Single of the Year; the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song; and a Grammy Award. Her third studio album 25 won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album, and the single "Hello" received Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat and philosopher who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He is widely considered to be one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States, and historians have generally ranked him as an above-average president.

This picture is a line engraving of Madison, produced around 1902 by the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) as part of a BEP presentation album of the first 26 presidents, which was reportedly given to Treasury Secretary Lyman J. Gage.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva

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