Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 April 29

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From today's featured article

The Hudson Sesquicentennial half dollar is a fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1935 as a commemorative coin. The coin was designed by Chester Beach. Its obverse depicts the Half Moon, flagship of Henry Hudson, after whom the city of Hudson is named. In addition to showing the ship, the coin displays a version of the Hudson city seal, with Neptune riding a whale, a design that has drawn commentary. Although the city of Hudson was a relatively small municipality, legislation to issue a coin in honor of its 150th anniversary went through Congress without opposition and was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, becoming the Act of May 2, 1935. Most of the coins were likely bought by coin dealers, leaving few for collectors, with the result that prices spiked from the $1 cost at the time of issue. This caused collector anger, but did not lower the coin's value, which has continued to increase in the 80-plus years since it was struck. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Churchill tank

... that Henry Merritt's triple-differential transmission allowed the Churchill tank (pictured) to rotate on the spot?
... that the Yokohama Northwest Route features a 4.1-kilometer-long (2.5 mi) tunnel equipped with emergency escape slides?
... that French weightlifter Alexandre Maspoli, who won a medal at the 1906 Intercalated Games, later competed in the sculpture event at the 1924 Summer Olympics?
... that GirlsDoPorn was one of the top 20 most viewed channels on Pornhub before its co-owners and a male pornographic actor were charged with sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion?
... that the first batch of cadets from the Indian Military Academy included the future army chiefs of Pakistan, Burma, and India?
... that Luis Miguel's duet with Frank Sinatra, "Come Fly with Me", is the only English-language song that he has released to date?
... that the potter of Potters Crouch may have been Le Pottere, whose son was also a Pottere?
... that at the age of seventeen, Tiger King subject Carole Baskin used llamas for a lawn-trimming business?

In the news

Coronavirus pandemic

Netanyahu and Gantz

After seventeen months of stalemate, the Likud and Blue and White parties reach an agreement for Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz (pictured) to share power in Israel.
A mass shooting in Nova Scotia, Canada, leaves twenty-two victims dead.
In the South Korean legislative election, the ruling Democratic Party and their allies increase their majority in the National Assembly.

On this day

April 29: Independence Day in Israel (2020)

Replica of HMS Endeavour

1770 – On his first voyage, British explorer James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour (replica pictured) landed at Botany Bay near present-day Sydney, making the first recorded European contact with the eastern coast of Australia.
1903 – A rockslide buried the Canadian mining town of Frank under more than 110 million tonnes (120 million short tons) of rock, killing at least 70 people.
1945 – The Holocaust: The U.S. Army liberated Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, and killed German prisoners of war.
1970 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese forces began the Cambodian campaign, aiming to attack North Vietnamese jungle bases.
2015 – The ringleaders of the Bali Nine were executed in Indonesia for attempting to smuggle 8.3 kg (18 lb) of heroin to Australia in 2005.

Louis II of Anjou (d. 1417)
Thomas Beecham (b. 1879)
Uma Thurman (b. 1970)

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Today's featured picture

The Neo Geo CD is the second home video game console of SNK's Neo Geo family, released in 1994, four years after its cartridge-based equivalent. The unit's 1X CD-ROM drive was slow, with very long loading times, and the system could also play audio CDs. The Neo Geo CD was launched bundled with a control pad, instead of a joystick like the previous AES version. However, the original AES joystick can be used with all three Neo Geo CD models.

The picture shows the top-loader model of the Neo Geo CD system, with a plugged-in controller consisting of an analog stick, four colored buttons, and two buttons labelled "select" and "start". The CD-ROM drive and the power button are visible at the top of the console, with two controller ports at the front.

Photograph credit: Evan Amos

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