Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 August 26

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From today's featured article

The Alabama Centennial half dollar is a commemorative fifty-cent coin struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1921 as a belated acknowledgement of the 100th anniversary of Alabama's admission to the Union in 1819. The half dollar was created by Laura Gardin Fraser, who became the first woman designer of a coin. Alabama Congressman Lilius Bratton Rainey introduced authorizing at the request of the state's centennial commission. The bill moved quickly through the legislative process and became law on May 10, 1920. The sponsors of the issue chose to depict William Bibb, the State of Alabama's first governor, and Thomas Kilby, its governor at the time of the centennial, thus making Governor Kilby the first living person to appear on a U.S. coin. They were issued in October 1921, and to boost sales, a symbol, 2X2, was included in the design for a minority of the coins; these are generally more expensive today. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Ruspolia nitidula male

... that the bush cricket Ruspolia nitidula (pictured) is commonly eaten in Uganda, where the price per unit weight is periodically higher than that of beef?
... that Dorothy Olsen was one of only twelve American women certified for night flight in World War II?
... that Ethiopian Jews protesting police brutality in Israel used a slogan from the Black Lives Matter movement?
... that Donald Dean Jackson, known for his editing of the George Washington papers, originally felt he did not have the proper background and hesitated to act in that capacity?
... that the opera Behold the Sun by Alexander Goehr, about the Anabaptists in Münster, was premiered in an abridged version in German, but the BBC aired it in full in English?
... that Yuri Korolev led the Soviet Union national ice hockey team's research group for 28 years while the team won 17 Ice Hockey World Championships and 7 Winter Olympic Games gold medals?
... that the Louisville Sinking Fund Building went from being slated for demolition to being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in six years?
... that R. K. Wilson, the surgeon behind the hoax "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster, was later awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Order of Orange-Nassau?

In the news

Wildfires in Brazil and
the Amazon

Brazil's National Institute for Space Research announces that it has detected more than 75,000 wildfires in the country (satellite image pictured) since January, at least 40,000 of which have occurred in the Amazon rainforest.
At least 80 people are killed and 160 others injured in a bombing at a wedding in Kabul, Afghanistan.
All 233 people on board Ural Airlines Flight 178 survive a crash following bird strikes in both engines of an Airbus A321.

On this day

August 26: Eid al-Mubahalah (Islam, 2019), Heroes' Day and Herero Day in Namibia; National Heroes' Day in the Philippines (2019); Women's Equality Day in the United States

The Battle of Crécy

1346 – Hundred Years' War: English forces established the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights at the Battle of Crécy (illustration shown).
1748 – The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, was founded in Philadelphia.
1914 – World War I: As the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and French Fifth Army began their retreat from Mons, the BEF delayed the pursuing Germans at the Battle of Le Cateau long enough for the main force to escape.
1955 – Pather Panchali, the first film in The Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, was released and went on to win many Indian and international film awards.
2015 – Two American journalists were murdered on live television while conducting an interview in Moneta, Virginia.

Manuel Abad y Queipo (b. 1751) · Geraldine Ferraro (b. 1935) · Ralph Vaughan Williams (d. 1958)

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2011 champion Sukanya Roy

The first Scripps National Spelling Bee champion was Frank Neuhauser of Louisville, who beat eight other finalists to win the inaugural competition in 1925. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The competition was initially organized by The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, until the Scripps Howard Broadcasting Company (now the E. W. Scripps Company) assumed sponsorship in 1941. In both 1957 and 1962 joint champions were declared when both remaining contestants spelled the same word incorrectly. After three consecutive ties between 2014 and 2016, a written tiebreaker round was introduced, but it was discontinued for the 2019 Bee, which subsequently resulted in an unprecedented eight-way tie when the organizers ended the final session after the remaining contestants had completed five consecutive perfect rounds. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Polystichum setiferum, also known as the soft shield-fern, is an evergreen or semi-evergreen fern native to southern and western Europe. The Latin specific epithet, setiferum, means 'with bristles'. The species is frequently cultivated as an ornamental plant for use in gardens. This picture shows a new leaf of the P. setiferum cultivar 'Cristato Pinnulum', about 30 cm (12 in) in height.

Photograph credit: Dominicus Johannes Bergsma

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