Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 April 23

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Marjorie Cameron (April 23, 1922 – June 24, 1995) was an American artist, poet, actress, and occultist. After serving in the navy during the Second World War, she settled in Pasadena, California. There she met the rocket pioneer Jack Parsons, whom she married in 1946. After Parsons' death in an explosion at their home in 1952, Cameron came to suspect that her husband had been assassinated, and began rituals to communicate with his spirit. She was part of the avant-garde artistic community of Los Angeles; among her friends were the filmmakers Curtis Harrington and Kenneth Anger. She appeared in two of Harrington's films, The Wormwood Star and Night Tide, as well as in Anger's film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. In later years, she made appearances in art-house films created by John Chamberlain and Chick Strand. Cameron's recognition as an artist increased after her death, and her paintings were shown in exhibitions across the country. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Walter Stanley Haines

... that Walter Stanley Haines (pictured) testified about the Haymarket bombing of 1886, the disappearance of Louisa Luetgert in 1897, and the suspicious deaths in multimillionaire Thomas H. Swope's family in 1909?
... that "der kleine Tag" ("the Little Day") is 23 April in the musical of the same name?
... that Katharine Timpson Cook established training programmes for midwives in Namirembe, Uganda, but distrusted her students and censored their mail?
... that since St George's Church opened in Polegate in 1938, the composition of its parish has changed five times?
... that the Italian cardiologist Attilio Maseri has been the physician to both Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II?
... that digger's speedwell is so named because it was thought to indicate the presence of gold?
... that Antonia Franceschi starred in the 1980 film Fame, set at the same High School of Performing Arts that she attended in real life?
... that an engineer inadvertently took off in an English Electric Lightning fighter jet after engaging the afterburner by mistake?

In the news

Volodymyr Zelensky

Volodymyr Zelensky (pictured) wins the Ukrainian presidential election.
At least 310 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.

On this day

April 23

Main Building of the University of Notre Dame

1348 – The first appointments to the Order of the Garter, an order of chivalry founded by King Edward III of England, were announced.
1516 – The best-known version of the Reinheitsgebot, the German Beer Purity Law, was adopted across the entirety of Bavaria.
1879 – A fire destroyed the second version of the Main Building (pictured) of the University of Notre Dame.
1979 – Activist Blair Peach suffered fatal head injuries when he was knocked unconscious during an Anti-Nazi League demonstration in Southall, London, against a National Front election meeting in the town hall.
2009 – Gamma-ray burst GRB 090423 was detected, coming from the most distant astronomical object of any kind known at the time.

Adeliza of Louvain (d. 1151) · Pandita Ramabai (b. 1858) · Halston (b. 1932)

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James Buchanan (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States (1857–1861), serving immediately prior to the American Civil War. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 17th United States secretary of state and had served in the Senate and House of Representatives before becoming president. Buchanan wished and aspired to be a president who would rank in history with George Washington, by using his tendencies toward neutrality and impartiality. Historians fault him, however, for his failure to address the issue of slavery and the secession of the southern states, and they commonly rank him as one of the worst presidents in American history.

Engraving: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restoration: Andrew Shiva

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