Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 April 22

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From today's featured article

The Lynchburg Sesquicentennial half dollar was a commemorative half dollar designed by Charles Keck and struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1936, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of Lynchburg, Virginia. The obverse of the coin depicts former Secretary of the Treasury and U.S. Senator Carter Glass, a native of Lynchburg. The reverse depicts a statue of the goddess Liberty, her arms outstretched in welcome. In the background is the Old Lynchburg Courthouse and the city's Confederate monument. After Congress authorized the half dollar, the Commission of Fine Arts proposed that it should bear the portrait of John Lynch, founder of Lynchburg, instead of Glass, but no portrait of him was known. Glass became the third living person to appear on a U.S. coin, and the first to be shown alone. Issued for $1, the coins have appreciated over the years, with 2018 estimates of value ranging between $225 and $365. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Fabiana Rosales

... that Venezuelan journalist Fabiana Rosales (pictured) has assumed the role of international ambassador, soliciting support for her husband's opposition party and the crisis in Venezuela?
... that the 1996 video game Polanie is considered a cult classic in Poland?
... that footballer Chris Summers set a Welsh Premier League record during the 2003–04 season by scoring in 11 consecutive matches?
... that among the threats facing the "critically endangered" freshwater crayfish Euastacus dalagarbe are domestic livestock and cane toads?
... that the tenor Ferry Gruber performed at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich for 50 years, including in Prokofiev's Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen alongside Ingeborg Hallstein in 1960?
... that height functions allow mathematicians to count and distinguish objects such as rational points of algebraic varieties?
... that Rachel Koopmans was part of a research team which discovered that two stained glass windows at the Canterbury Cathedral dated to the 1180s?
... that the Butler matrix squints?

In the news

NGC 7027

At least 290 people are killed and hundreds of others are injured in multiple bombings at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.
Scientists announce the discovery of naturally occurring helium hydride ions, believed to be the first compound to have formed in the universe, in the planetary nebula NGC 7027 (pictured).
The former president of Peru Alan García commits suicide after a warrant is issued for his arrest.

On this day

April 22: Earth Day; Confederate Memorial Day in Alabama and Georgia (2019)

The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889

1622 – An Anglo-Persian force combined to capture the Portuguese garrison at Hormuz Island in the Persian Gulf.
1889 – More than 50,000 people rushed to claim (pictured) a piece of the available two million acres (8,000 km²) in the Unassigned Lands, the present-day U.S. state of Oklahoma, founding Oklahoma City.
1951 – Korean War: The People's Volunteer Army of China attacked positions occupied mainly by Australian and Canadian forces, starting the Battle of Kapyong.
2004 – Flammable cargo exploded at Ryongchon Station in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing at least 54 people and injuring more than a thousand.

Pope Caius (d. 296) · Emily Davies (b. 1830) · Jack Nicholson (b. 1937)

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New Zealand national cricket team, 2009

There have been 12 tied Twenty20 Internationals. A Twenty20 International (T20I) is an international cricket match between two representative teams, each having T20I status, as determined by the International Cricket Council (ICC), and is played under the rules of Twenty20 cricket. For a match to finish as a tie, both teams must have scored the same number of runs. The number of wickets lost is not considered. Although such matches are recorded as ties, a tiebreak is played; prior to December 2008, this was a bowl-out, and since then it has been a Super Over. The first tied T20I occurred in 2006, between New Zealand (team pictured) and the West Indies. Hosted at Eden Park in Auckland, it was the fifth T20I. The next tie, involving India and Pakistan, happened during the group stages of the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. India won the resulting bowl-out, and were awarded two points, the equivalent of a win. Every Test-playing nation except Bangladesh and Afghanistan has been involved in a tied T20I. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

A Funifor is a type of cable car with two guide ropes, patented by the Doppelmayr Garaventa Group. Two reversible cabins run on parallel tracks and, unlike other types of aerial tramway, the two drives for the two cabins are not interconnected. At the top of each track the haul rope for that track loops back to the bottom instead of looping over to serve the other track. This feature allows for single-cabin operation when traffic warrants. The independent drive also allows for evacuations to occur by means of a bridge connected between the two adjacent cabins. The Funifor system is stable in high wind conditions owing to the horizontal distance between the two guide ropes comprising each track.

This picture shows a Funifor in the Arabba-Porta Vescovo ski resort in Italy.

Photograph: Wolfgang Moroder

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