Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 2012

Today's featured articles for August 2012

Today's featured article archive

August 1

Poppy Meadow is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Rachel Bright. She was introduced by executive producer Bryan Kirkwood on 11 January 2011 as the best friend of established character Jodie Gold (Kylie Babbington) in scenes filling in for those cut from a controversial baby-swap storyline. Poppy returned to the series in June 2011 as a supporting character and comedy element, in a move that was generally welcomed by the tabloid press; her storylines focused on her friendship with Jodie and their intertwined love lives. Both Jodie and Poppy left the series on 14 November 2011, but the possibility was left open for Poppy to return in the future. In June 2012 Bright reprised her role as Poppy, quickly moving into Walford and resuming her employment at the local beauty salon. Poppy was introduced into the series in what critics described as "bizarre and utterly irrelevant" and "pointless" scenes, which substituted for cut scenes of the dead baby's parents at the graveside. Guardian critic Stuart Heritage considered Poppy to be "perhaps the greatest television bit-part character of the modern age" and several Daily Mirror writers gave Poppy positive reviews upon both of her returns. (more...)

Recently featured: Stephen Trigg – Aries – Jovan Vladimir

August 2

Brunette Coleman was a pseudonym used by the poet and writer Philip Larkin (1922–1985). In 1943, toward the end of his time as an undergraduate at St John's College, Oxford, he wrote several works of fiction, verse and critical commentary under that name. The style he adopted parodies that of popular writers of contemporary girls' school fiction, but the extent of the stories' homoerotic content suggests they were written primarily for adult male titillation. The Coleman oeuvre consists of a completed novella, Trouble at Willow Gables, set in a girls' boarding school; an incomplete sequel, Michaelmas Term at St Brides, set in a women's college at Oxford; seven short poems with a girls' school ambience; a fragment of pseudo-autobiography; and a critical essay purporting to be Coleman's literary apologia. The manuscripts' existence was revealed to the public when Larkin's Selected Letters and Andrew Motion's biography were published in 1992 and 1993 respectively. The Coleman works themselves were finally published, with other Larkin drafts and oddments, in 2002. Critical reaction was divided. (more...)

Recently featured: Poppy Meadow – Stephen Trigg – Aries

August 3

Melville Island is a small peninsula in Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Northwest Arm of Halifax Harbour, west of Deadman's Island. It is part of the Halifax Regional Municipality. The land is rocky, with thin, acidic soil, but supports a limited woodland habitat. The site was discovered by Europeans in the 1600s, though it was likely earlier explored by aboriginals. It was initially used for storehouses before being purchased by the British, who built a prisoner-of-war camp to hold captives from the Napoleonic Wars and later the War of 1812. The burial ground for the prisoners was on the adjacent Deadman's Island. Melville Island was used as a receiving depot for slaves escaping the United States, then as a quarantine hospital for immigrants arriving from Europe (particularly Ireland). It briefly served as a recruitment centre for the British Foreign Legion during the Crimean War and was then sold to the British for use as a military prison. The land was granted to the Canadian government in 1907, which used it to detain German and Austro-Hungarian nationals during the First World War. During the Second World War, prisoners were sent to McNabs Island instead, and ammunition depots were kept on Melville Island. The peninsula now houses the clubhouse and marina of the Armdale Yacht Club. Melville Island has been the subject of a number of cultural works, most of which concern its use as a prison. (more...)

Recently featured: Brunette Coleman – Poppy Meadow – Stephen Trigg

August 4

The Song Thrush is a thrush that breeds across much of Eurasia. It has brown upperparts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has three recognised subspecies. Its distinctive song, which has repeated musical phrases, has frequently been referred to in poetry. The Song Thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East; it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia. Although it is not threatened globally, there have been serious population declines in parts of Europe, possibly due to changes in farming practices. The Song Thrush builds a neat mud-lined cup nest in a bush or tree and lays four or five dark-spotted blue eggs. It is omnivorous and has the habit of using a favourite stone as an "anvil" on which to smash snails. Like other perching birds (passerines), it is affected by external and internal parasites and is vulnerable to predation by cats and birds of prey. (more...)

Recently featured: Melville Island – Brunette Coleman – Poppy Meadow

August 5

Stamata Revithi was a Greek woman who ran the 40-kilometre marathon during the 1896 Summer Olympics. The Games excluded women from competition, but Revithi insisted that she be allowed to run. Revithi ran one day after the men had completed the official race, and although she finished the marathon in approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes and found witnesses to sign their names and verify the running time, she was not allowed to enter the Panathinaiko Stadium at the end of the race. She intended to present her documentation to the Hellenic Olympic Committee in the hopes that they would recognize her achievement, but it is not known whether or not she did so. No known record survives of Revithi's life after her run. According to contemporary sources, a second woman, Melpomene, also ran the 1896 marathon race. There is debate among Olympic historians as to whether or not Revithi and Melpomene are the same person. (more...)

Recently featured: Song Thrush – Melville Island – Brunette Coleman

August 6

Halo 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox video game console on November 9, 2004, the game is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. A Microsoft Windows version of the game, developed by Microsoft Game Studios, was released on May 31, 2007. The player alternately assumes the roles of the human Master Chief and the alien Arbiter in a 26th-century conflict between the human United Nations Space Command and genocidal Covenant. Time constraints forced a series of cutbacks in the size and scope of the game, including the campaign mode's cliffhanger ending, which drew widespread criticism. On release, Halo 2 was the most popular video game on Xbox Live, holding that rank until the release of Gears of War for the Xbox 360 nearly two years later. Halo 2 is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game, with at least 6.3 million copies sold in the United States alone. Critical reception was generally positive, with most publications lauding the strong multiplayer component. (more...)

Recently featured: Stamata Revithi – Song Thrush – Melville Island

August 7

Peveril Castle is a medieval building overlooking the village of Castleton in the English county of Derbyshire. Its site provides views across the Hope Valley and Cave Dale. The castle is named after its founder, William Peveril, who held lands in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire on behalf of the king. It was built some time between the Norman Conquest in 1066 and its first recorded mention in 1086, in the Domesday Book. Nearby Castleton benefited from the presence of the castle, which acted as the administrative centre of an independent lordship called Peak. There were periods of building work at the castle in the 13th century, with Peveril's final form established by 1300. Near the end of the 14th century, the lordship was granted to John of Gaunt. Having little use for the castle, he ordered some of its material to be stripped out for reuse, marking the beginning of its decline. Since that time, the castle has been administered by the Duchy of Lancaster. Peveril Castle became less important administratively and in 1609 was described as "very ruinous and serveth for no use". In the 19th century, Sir Walter Scott featured the castle in his novel Peveril of the Peak. The site is cared for by English Heritage and situated in a national park. Peveril Castle is protected as a scheduled monument and a Grade I listed building. (more...)

Recently featured: Halo 2 – Stamata Revithi – Song Thrush

August 8

CenturyLink Field is a multi-purpose stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States. The stadium was designed for both American football and soccer. It serves as the home field for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL) and Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer (MLS). CenturyLink Field hosted the U.S. Open Cup championship matches in 2010 and 2011, with both occasions setting an attendance record for the tournament final and seeing a Sounders FC victory. The venue also hosts concerts, trade shows, and consumer shows along with sporting events. Located within a mile (1.6 km) of Seattle's central business district, it is accessible by multiple freeways and forms of mass transit. It was built between 2000 and 2002 after voters approved funding for the construction in a statewide election. This vote created the Washington State Public Stadium Authority to oversee public ownership of the venue. CenturyLink Field is a modern facility with views of the skyline of Downtown Seattle and can seat 67,000 people. (more...)

Recently featured: Peveril Castle – Halo 2 – Stamata Revithi

August 9

The Western Ganga Dynasty was an important ruling dynasty of ancient Karnataka in India which lasted from about 350 to 1000 CE. They are known as Western Gangas to distinguish them from the Eastern Gangas who in later centuries ruled over modern Orissa. Though territorially a small kingdom, the Western Ganga contribution to polity, culture and literature of the modern south Karnataka region is considered important. The Western Ganga kings showed benevolent tolerance to all faiths but are most famous for their patronage towards Jainism resulting in the construction of monuments in places such as Shravanabelagola and Kambadahalli. The kings of this dynasty encouraged the fine arts due to which literature in Kannada and Sanskrit flourished. Chavundaraya's writing, Chavundaraya Purana of 978 CE, is an important work in Kannada prose. Many classics were written on various subjects ranging from religion to elephant management. (more...)

Recently featured: CenturyLink Field – Peveril Castle – Halo 2

August 10

The Gregorian mission was a missionary endeavour sent by Pope Gregory I (depicted) that began in 596 AD. Headed by Augustine of Canterbury, its goal was to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Along with Irish and Frankish missionaries, they converted Britain and helped influence the Hiberno-Scottish missionaries on the continent. In the late 6th century, Pope Gregory sent a group of missionaries to Kent to convert Æthelberht, King of Kent, whose wife, Bertha, was a Frankish princess and practising Christian. Augustine was the prior of Gregory's own monastery in Rome, and Gregory prepared the way for the mission by soliciting aid from the Frankish rulers along Augustine's route. In 597, the forty missionaries arrived in Kent and were permitted by Æthelberht to preach freely in his capital of Canterbury. Soon the missionaries wrote to Gregory, telling him of their success and that conversions were taking place. A second group of monks and clergy was dispatched in 601, bearing books and other items for the new foundation. The exact date of Æthelberht's conversion is unknown, but it occurred before 601. Before Æthelberht's death in 616, a number of other bishoprics had been established. Although the missionaries could not remain in all of the places they had evangelised, by the time the last of them died in 653, they had established Christianity in Kent and the surrounding countryside and contributed a Roman tradition to the practice of Christianity in Britain. (more...)

Recently featured: Western Ganga Dynasty – CenturyLink Field – Peveril Castle

August 11

The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago. Regions of the city, referred to as sides, are divided by the Chicago River and its branches. The South Side of Chicago was originally defined as all of the city south of the main branch of the Chicago River, but it now excludes the Loop. The South Side has a varied ethnic composition, and it has great disparity in income and other demographic measures. The South Side covers 60% of the city's land area, with a higher ratio of single-family homes and larger sections zoned for industry than the rest of the city. Neighborhoods such as Armour Square, Back of the Yards, Bridgeport, and Pullman tend to be composed of more blue collar residents, while Hyde Park, the Jackson Park Highlands District, Kenwood, and Beverly tend to have middle, upper-middle class, and affluent residents. The South Side boasts a broad array of cultural and social offerings, such as professional sports teams, landmark buildings, nationally renowned museums, elite educational institutions, world class medical institutions, and major parts of the city's elaborate parks system. (more...)

Recently featured: Gregorian mission – Western Ganga Dynasty – CenturyLink Field

August 12

The Olympic Games are considered to be the world's foremost sports competition, and more than 200 nations participate. The Games are held biennially, with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating, so that each of these is held every four years. Originally, the ancient Olympic Games were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, which is still the governing body of the games. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen several changes to the games, such as the creation of the Winter Games for ice and winter sports, the Paralympic Games for athletes with a physical disability, and the Youth Olympic Games. The Olympics have shifted away from the pure amateurism envisioned by Coubertin to allow participation of professional athletes. The growing importance of the mass media has created issues around corporate sponsorship and commercialization of the Games. World Wars led to the cancellation of the 1916, 1940, and 1944 Games. Large boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Games. (more...)

Recently featured: South Side, Chicago – Gregorian mission – Western Ganga Dynasty

August 13

The gray mouse lemur is a small lemur, a type of strepsirrhine primate, found only on the island of Madagascar. Nearly indistinguishable from each other by appearance, the gray mouse lemur and all other mouse lemurs are considered cryptic species. For this reason, the gray mouse lemur was considered the only mouse lemur species for decades until more recent studies began to distinguish between the species. Like all mouse lemurs, this species is nocturnal and arboreal. It is very active, and although it forages alone, groups of males and females will form sleeping groups and share tree holes during the day. It exhibits a form of dormancy called torpor during the cool, dry winter months, and in some cases undergoes seasonal torpor (or hibernation), which is unusual for primates. Its diet consists primarily of fruit, insects, flowers, and nectar. In the wild, its natural predators include owls, snakes, and endemic mammalian predators. Predation pressure is higher for this species than among any other primate species, with one out of four individuals taken by a predator each year. This is counterbalanced by its high reproductive rate. Although threatened by deforestation, habitat degradation, and live capture for the pet trade, it is considered one of Madagascar's most abundant small native mammals. (more...)

Recently featured: Olympic Games – South Side, Chicago – Gregorian mission

August 14

DNA nanotechnology is the design and manufacture of artificial nucleic acid structures for technological uses. In this field, nucleic acids such as DNA are used as non-biological engineering materials for nanotechnology rather than as the carriers of genetic information in living cells. Researchers in the field have created static structures such as crystal lattices, nanotubes, polyhedra, and arbitrarily shaped DNA origami; as well as functional structures including molecular machines and DNA computers. The conceptual foundation for DNA nanotechnology was first laid out in the early 1980s, and the field began to attract widespread interest in the mid-2000s. The field is beginning to be used as a tool to solve basic science problems in structural biology and biophysics, such as protein structure determination, and potential real-world applications in nanomedicine and molecular scale electronics are under development. (more...)

Recently featured: Gray mouse lemur – Olympic Games – South Side, Chicago

August 15

Manhunter is a 1986 film based on Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon. Written and directed by Michael Mann (pictured), it stars William Petersen as offender profiler Will Graham, Tom Noonan as serial killer Francis Dollarhyde—"The Tooth Fairy"—and features Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecktor. Manhunter focuses on the forensic work carried out by the FBI to track down the killer and shows the long-term effects that cases like this have on Graham, highlighting the similarities between him and his quarry. The film features heavily stylized use of color to convey this sense of duality, and the nature of the characters' similarity has been explored in academic readings of the film. Opening to mixed reviews, Manhunter fared poorly at the box office at the time of its release, making only $8.6 million in the United States. However, it has been reappraised in more recent reviews and now enjoys a more favorable reception, as both the acting and the stylized visuals have been appreciated better in later years. Its resurgent popularity has seen it labelled as a cult film. (more...)

Recently featured: DNA nanotechnology – Gray mouse lemur – Olympic Games

August 16

José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco (1819–1880) was a politician, monarchist, diplomat, teacher and journalist of the Empire of Brazil. In 1871, Rio Branco became the President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) for the first time. He would become the Council's longest-serving president, and his cabinet the second longest, in Brazilian history. His government was marked by a time of economic prosperity and the enactment of several necessary reforms—though they proved to be seriously flawed. The most important of these initiatives was the Law of Free Birth, which granted freeborn status to children born to slave women. Rio Branco led the government that enacted this law, and its passage increased his popularity. However, his government was plagued by a long crisis with the Catholic Church that had resulted from the expulsion of Freemasons from its lay brotherhoods. After more than four years heading the Cabinet, Rio Branco resigned in 1875. Following a long vacation in Europe, his health swiftly declined and he was diagnosed with oral cancer. Rio Branco died in 1880 and was widely mourned throughout the country. He is regarded by most historians as one of Brazil's greatest statesmen. (more...)

Recently featured: Manhunter – DNA nanotechnology – Gray mouse lemur

August 17

In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital download self-released, that customers could order for whatever price they saw fit, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during the last week of 2007. The album was released in North America on 1 January 2008 on TBD Records. In Rainbows was Radiohead's first release after the end of their contract with EMI and the end of the longest gap between studio albums in their career. Recording with producer Nigel Godrich, Radiohead worked on In Rainbows for more than two years, beginning in early 2005. In between recording, the band toured Europe and North America for three months in mid-2006. The songwriting on In Rainbows was more personal than that on Radiohead's other albums, with singer Thom Yorke describing most tracks as his versions of "seduction songs". Radiohead incorporated a wide variety of musical styles and instruments on the album, using not only electronic music and string arrangements, but also pianos, celestes, and the ondes Martenot. The album earned widespread critical acclaim, and was ranked as one of the best albums of 2007 by several publications. In 2012, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album no. 336 on their updated version of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. (more...)

Recently featured: José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco – Manhunter – DNA nanotechnology

August 18

Stanley Holloway (1890–1982) was an English stage and film actor, comedian, singer, poet and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady. He was also renowned for his comic monologues and songs, which he performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career. He had his first major theatre success in Kissing Time in 1919. In 1921, he joined a concert party, The Co-Optimists, and his career began to flourish. Characters from his monologues such as Sam Small, invented by Holloway, and Albert Ramsbottom, created for him by Marriott Edgar, were absorbed into popular British culture, and Holloway developed a following for the recordings of his many monologues. At the outbreak of World War II, Holloway made short propaganda films on behalf of the British Film Institute and Pathé News and took character parts in a series of war films including Major Barbara, The Way Ahead, This Happy Breed and The Way to the Stars. In 1956 he was cast as the irresponsible Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady. The role brought him international fame. In his later years, Holloway appeared in television series in the US and the UK, toured in revues, and appeared in stage plays in Britain, Canada, Australia and the US. (more...)

Recently featured: In Rainbows– José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco – Manhunter

August 19

The Rus' Khaganate was a polity that flourished during a poorly documented period in the history of Eastern Europe, roughly the late 8th and early-to-mid-9th centuries AD. A predecessor to the Rurik Dynasty and the Kievan Rus', the Rus' Khaganate was a state, or a cluster of city-states, set up by a people called Rus', who might have been Norsemen in what is today northern Russia. The region's population at that time was composed of Baltic, Slavic, Finnic, Turkic and Norse peoples. The region was also a place of operations for Varangians, eastern Scandinavian adventurers, merchants and pirates. According to contemporaneous sources, the population centers of the region, which may have included the proto-towns of Holmgard, Aldeigja, Lyubsha, Alaborg, Sarskoye Gorodishche, and Timerevo, were under the rule of a monarch or monarchs using the Old Turkic title Khagan. The Rus' Khaganate period marked the genesis of a distinct Rus' ethnos, and its successor states would include Kievan Rus' and later states from which modern Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine evolved. (more...)

Recently featured: Stanley Holloway – In Rainbows – José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco

August 20

The Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders were a series of trials held from 1949 to 1958 in which leaders of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) were accused of violating the Smith Act, a 1940 statute that set penalties for advocating the violent overthrow of the government. The prosecution argued that the CPUSA's policies promoted violent revolution; the defendants countered that they advocated a peaceful transition to socialism, and that the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech and association protected their membership in a political party. The first trial in 1949 prosecuted the top leaders of the party and was featured in the national headlines. After a ten-month trial, all defendants were found guilty and sentenced to five-year prison terms. The judge also sent all five defense attorneys to jail for contempt of court. Prosecutors then tried over 100 additional CPUSA officers for violating the Smith Act. Some were tried solely because they were members of the CPUSA. Many defendants had difficulty finding attorneys to represent them. Prosecutions came to an end following the US Supreme Court's 1957 Yates v. United States decision, which held that defendants could be prosecuted only for their actions, not for their beliefs. Membership in the CPUSA plummeted due to the trials, and never recovered. (more...)

Recently featured: Rus' Khaganate – Stanley Holloway – In Rainbows

August 21

USS New Ironsides was a wooden-hulled broadside ironclad built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship was commissioned midway through the war on 21 August 1862. She spent most of her career blockading the Confederate ports of Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1863–65, and bombarded the fortifications defending Charleston during the First and Second Battles of Charleston Harbor. At the end of 1864 and the beginning of 1865 New Ironsides bombarded the defenses of Wilmington in the First and Second Battles of Fort Fisher. Although she was struck many times by Confederate shells, gunfire never significantly damaged the ship or injured the crew. Her only casualty in combat occurred when she was struck by a spar torpedo carried by the Confederate torpedo boat David. Eight crewmen were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the Second Battle of Fort Fisher in 1865. The ship was placed in reserve after the war but was destroyed by fire in 1866. (more...)

Recently featured: Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders – Rus' Khaganate – Stanley Holloway

August 22

The Battle of Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the House of Lancaster and the House of York that raged across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 August 1485, the battle was won by the Lancastrians. Their leader Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, became the first English monarch of the Tudor dynasty by his victory and subsequent marriage to a Yorkist princess. His opponent Richard III, the last king of the House of York, was killed in the battle. Historians consider Bosworth Field to mark the end of the Plantagenet dynasty, making it one of the defining moments of English history. Richard's reign began in 1483 when he seized the throne from his twelve-year-old nephew Edward V; the boy and his younger brother soon disappeared. Meanwhile, Henry Tudor, a descendant of the House of Lancaster, also laid claim to the throne. Henry's first attempt to invade England in 1483 was frustrated by a storm, but his second arrived unopposed on 1 August 1485 on the southwest coast of Wales. Marching inland, Henry gathered support as he made for London. Richard hurriedly mustered his troops and intercepted Henry's army south of the town of Market Bosworth in Leicestershire. (more...)

Recently featured: USS New Ironsides – Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders – Rus' Khaganate

August 23

The Olmec colossal heads are at least seventeen monumental stone representations of human male heads sculpted from large basalt boulders. The heads date from at least before 900 BC and are a distinctive feature of the Olmec civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. All portray mature men with fleshy cheeks, flat noses and slightly crossed eyes; their physical characteristics correspond to a type that is still common among the inhabitants of Tabasco and Veracruz. The boulders were brought from the Sierra de los Tuxtlas mountains of Veracruz; given that the extremely large slabs of stone used in their production were transported over large distances, presumably involving a great deal of people and resources, it is thought that finished monuments represent portraits of powerful individual Olmec rulers; each is given a distinctive headdress. The heads were variously arranged in lines or groups at major Olmec centres, but the method and logistics used to transport the stone to these sites remain unclear. The discovery of a colossal head at Tres Zapotes in the 19th century spurred the first archaeological investigations of Olmec culture by Matthew Stirling in 1938. Dating the monuments remains difficult due to the movement of many from their original context prior to archaeological investigation. Most have been dated to the Early Preclassic period (1500–1000 BC) with some to the Middle Preclassic (1000–400 BC) period. (more...)

Recently featured: Battle of Bosworth Field – USS New Ironsides – Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders

August 24

Aiphanes is a genus of spiny palms which is native to tropical regions of South and Central America and the Caribbean. There are about 26 species in the genus, ranging in size from understorey shrubs with subterranean stems to subcanopy trees as tall as 20 metres (66 ft). Most have pinnately compound leaves (leaves which are divided into leaflets arranged feather-like, in pairs along a central axis); one species has entire leaves. Stems, leaves and sometimes even the fruit are covered with spines. Plants flower repeatedly over the course of their lifespan and have separate male and female flowers, although these are borne together on the same inflorescence. Although records of pollinators are limited, most species appear to be pollinated by insects. The fruit are eaten by several birds and mammals, including at least two species of Amazon parrots. (more...)

Recently featured: Olmec colossal heads – Battle of Bosworth Field – USS New Ironsides

August 25

Herne Hill railway station is a passenger railway station in Lambeth, South London. Opened on 25 August 1862 by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, the station was an important interchange for passengers travelling between London and continental Europe for many decades; direct rail services were available to the Kent coast and London Victoria, the City of London and King's Cross. The arrival of the railways transformed Herne Hill from a wealthy suburb with large residential estates into a densely populated urban area; the number of residents increased five-fold in the decade after the station’s opening as workers took advantage of the fast and cheap trains to central London (some services cost as little as a penny per journey). Today, the station is served by two commuter routes and used by more than 2.6 million passengers a year. The original building, which is still in use, has been praised for its architectural quality and was Grade II listed in 1998. (more...)

Recently featured: Aiphanes – Olmec colossal heads – Battle of Bosworth Field

August 26

The Battle of Milne Bay, also known as Operation RE by the Japanese, was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II from 25 August to 7 September 1942. Japanese naval troops, known as Kaigun Rikusentai, attacked the Allied airfields at Milne Bay that had been established on the eastern tip of New Guinea. The Japanese miscalculated the size of the garrison and initially landed a force roughly equivalent in size to one battalion on 25 August. Meanwhile the Allies, forewarned by intelligence from Ultra, had heavily reinforced the garrison. Despite suffering a significant setback at the outset, when part of the invasion force had its landing craft destroyed by Allied aircraft as they attempted to land on the coast behind the Australian defenders, the Japanese quickly pushed inland and began their advance towards the airfields. Heavy fighting followed as they came up against Australian Militia and the veteran Second Australian Imperial Force units. Allied air superiority helped tip the balance. Finding themselves outnumbered, lacking supplies and suffering heavy casualties, the Japanese were compelled to withdraw their forces. The battle is considered to be the first in the Pacific campaign in which Allied troops decisively defeated Japanese land forces. (more...)

Recently featured: Herne Hill railway station – Aiphanes – Olmec colossal heads

August 27

The Gobrecht dollar, minted from 1836 to 1839, was the first silver dollar struck for circulation by the United States Mint after production of that denomination was officially halted in 1806. In 1835, Director of the United States Mint Robert M. Patterson began an attempt to redesign the nation's coinage. Christian Gobrecht was hired as an engraver. On August 1, Patterson wrote a letter to Philadelphia artist Thomas Sully laying out his plans for the dollar coin. He also asked Titian Peale to create a design for the coin. Sully created an obverse design depicting a seated representation of Liberty and Peale a reverse depicting a soaring bald eagle. After the designs were created and trials struck, production of the working dies began in September 1836. After a small quantity was struck for circulation, the Mint received complaints regarding the prominent placement of Gobrecht's name on the dollar, and the design was modified to incorporate his name in a less conspicuous position. In January 1837, the legal standard for the percentage of precious metal in silver coins was changed from 89.2% to 90%, and the Gobrecht dollars struck after that point reflect this change. In total, 1,900 Gobrecht dollars were struck during the official production run. (more...)

Recently featured: Battle of Milne Bay – Herne Hill railway station – Aiphanes

August 28

John Martin Scripps (1959–1996) was a British spree killer who murdered three tourists—Gerard Lowe in Singapore, and Sheila and Darin Damude in Thailand—with another three unconfirmed victims. He posed as a tourist himself when committing the murders, for which British tabloids nickname him "the tourist from Hell". He would stay in the same hotels as his victims in a room near theirs. Once he had an excuse to be in their rooms, he would use an electroshock weapon to immobilise them before killing them. Martin was arrested in Singapore when he returned there after murdering the Damudes. Photographs of decomposed body parts were shown as evidence during his trial, making it "one of the most grisly" ever heard in Singapore. He defended himself by saying that Lowe's death had been an accident and that a friend of his had killed the Damudes. The judge did not believe Martin's account of events and sentenced him to death by hanging, making him the first Briton in Singapore since Singapore's independence to be given the death penalty. (more...)

Recently featured: Gobrecht dollar – Battle of Milne Bay – Herne Hill railway station

August 29

The history of Michigan State University (MSU) dates to 1855, when the Michigan Legislature established the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan. As the first agricultural college in the United States, the school served as a prototype for future Land Grant institutions under the Morrill Act. The school's first class graduated in 1861. That same year, the Michigan Legislature approved a plan to allow the school to adopt a four-year curriculum and grant degrees comparable to those of rival University of Michigan. In 1870, the College became co-educational and expanded its curriculum beyond agriculture into a broad array of coursework commencing with home economics for women students. The school established "Farmers' Institutes" as a means of reaching out to the state's agricultural community; the program gradually became the MSU Extension Services. After World War II, the college gained admission to the Big Ten Conference and grew to become one of the largest educational institutions in the United States. In its centennial year of 1955, the state officially made the school a university and the current name was adopted in 1964 after Michigan voters adopted a new constitution. (more...)

Recently featured: John Martin Scripps – Gobrecht dollar – Battle of Milne Bay

August 30

Simon Bolivar Buckner (1823–1914) was a soldier in the Mexican–American War and a Confederate lieutenant general in the American Civil War. He graduated from West Point and taught there for five years, with an interlude during the Mexican–American War. He left the army in 1855 to manage real estate he inherited in Chicago. In 1857, he returned to his native state (Kentucky) and was appointed adjutant general by Governor Beriah Magoffin. He attempted to enforce Kentucky's neutrality policy during the early days of the Civil War, but enlisted in the Confederate Army in September 1861. He was the first Confederate general to surrender an army, doing so at the Battle of Fort Donelson in 1862. He also participated in Braxton Bragg's failed attempt to invade Kentucky. On August 30, 1887, he was inaugurated governor of Kentucky. As governor, he worked to suppress the Hatfield–McCoy feud and the Rowan County War and ordered an audit that prompted state treasurer James W. Tate to abscond with $250,000 from the state treasury. He unsuccessfully sought a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1895 and the U.S. Vice-Presidency in 1896. (more...)

Recently featured: History of Michigan State University – John Martin Scripps – Gobrecht dollar

August 31

"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn written by English poet and clergyman John Newton (pictured) and published in 1779. Based on Newton's personal experiences at sea (in the Royal Navy and the slave trade), it was originally written in 1773 and published in Newton and Cowper's Olney Hymns in 1779. Although it became relatively obscure in England, in the United States it was commonly used during the Second Great Awakening. The original tune, if any, is unknown, but it is now most commonly sung to the tune "New Britain". It conveys a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit, and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God. One of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world, it has been called "the most famous of all the folk hymns", having been recorded thousands of times during the 20th century and becoming emblematic in African American spiritual music. (more...)

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