Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 May 25

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From today's featured article

Hurricane Fred over Cape Verde

Hurricane Fred was the easternmost Atlantic hurricane ever to form in the tropics, and the first to move through Cape Verde since 1892. The second hurricane of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season, Fred became a Category 1 hurricane on August 31 as it approached Cape Verde, which was placed under a hurricane warning for the first time ever. The Barlavento Islands endured gales and flooding rains as the eye of the hurricane paralleled their shorelines. Structural damage across Boa Vista and Sal presented as leveled roofs, damaged homes and toppled utility poles. Farmers on São Nicolau suffered crop and livestock losses when they saw their lands flood. Fred's rains, though destructive, alleviated a drought across the Sotavento Islands of Cape Verde. Elsewhere, violent seas along the West African shoreline destroyed fishing villages and submerged homes in Senegal. Between the coasts of West Africa and Cape Verde, nine people died in maritime incidents. (Full article...)

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Hudson Yards

... that at a cost of $25 billion, Hudson Yards (pictured) in Manhattan is one of the most expensive real-estate developments ever built in the United States?
... that effigies of Soedjono Hoemardani, a personal assistant to Indonesian president Suharto, were burnt by students protesting foreign investment?
... that the American-built clipper ship Gravina was named after a Spanish admiral who fought with the French at the Battle of Trafalgar?
... that Svan mountain climber Mikhail Khergiani was nicknamed the "Tiger of the Rocks" for his ability in attacking difficult routes?
... that the VI Corps of the North Korean People's Army was disbanded in the 1990s, allegedly after being involved in a coup attempt?
... that after his side defeated Leeds United in the FA Cup, Cardiff City chairman Sam Hammam had two BBC reporters forcibly removed and had an altercation with the opposing manager?
... that U.S. general George Mathews attempted a failed annexation of Spanish Florida just months before the outbreak of the War of 1812?
... that despite being known as the Mexican hydrangea, Clerodendrum bungei is neither from Mexico nor a species of hydrangea?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

The aircraft involved in the accident, in 2015

A Pakistan International Airlines passenger aircraft (pictured) crashes in Karachi, killing ninety-seven people.
Cyclone Amphan impacts eastern India and Bangladesh, killing over one hundred people and forcing the evacuation of more than four million others.
The Iranian Navy frigate Jamaran accidentally strikes the Iranian support vessel Konarak with a missile, killing nineteen sailors.

On this day

May 25: Africa Day (1963); Anniversary of the First National Government in Argentina (1810); Independence Day in Jordan (1946); Memorial Day in the United States (2020)

Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States by Howard Chandler Christy

1787 – The Constitutional Convention (depicted) met in Philadelphia with the intention of revising the Articles of Confederation of the United States.
1810 – The Primera Junta, the first independent government in Argentina, was established in an open cabildo in Buenos Aires, marking the end of the May Revolution.
1878 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opened at the Opera Comique in London.
1962 – The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, the last overnight steamboat service in the U.S., went out of business.
2012 – SpaceX's Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to rendezvous with the International Space Station.

Flann Sinna (d. 916)
Naim Frashëri (b. 1846)
Sonia Rykiel (b. 1930)

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From today's featured list

The Beatles

The Beatles recorded hundreds of songs during their career. The group's "main catalogue" – songs released between 1962 and 1970 – consists of 213 songs (four of which exist in different versions): 188 originals and 25 covers. Since their break-up, more than 100 other songs by the group have been officially released, which include live songs the group never recorded in the studio and numerous outtakes. The band also recorded several songs that remain unreleased. Following their signing with EMI in 1962, each member of the "Fab Four" contributed to songwriting. Their primary songwriters were the partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who composed most of the group's songs; lead guitarist George Harrison wrote 22 songs, including "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun", while drummer Ringo Starr wrote two songs ("Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden"), and was credited as co-writer for four others. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Japanese pygmy woodpecker (Yungipicus kizuki) is a species of woodpecker native to coniferous and deciduous forests in Russia, China, North Korea, South Korea and Japan. With a length of about 140 mm (5.5 in), its plumage is a dark greyish-brown, barred and blotched with white, with pale brown, streaked underparts. The male has a small red mark on the side of its nape, which the female lacks. It usually occurs in pairs or mixed-species foraging flocks, searching on trees for invertebrates, such as spiders, caterpillars, ants and aphids, and berries. Breeding takes place in the spring, with the nest being in a hole excavated in a dead branch.

This picture shows a Japanese pygmy woodpecker photographed in Sakai, in Osaka Prefecture, Japan.

Photograph credit: Laitche

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