Wikipedia:Today's featured list/July 2020


July 3

The World Fantasy Award—Life Achievement is given each year to individuals for their overall career in fields related to fantasy. It is one of the World Fantasy Awards, which are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction and fantasy art published in English during the preceding calendar year. The Life Achievement category has been awarded annually since 1975. World Fantasy Award nominees are decided by attendees and judges at the annual World Fantasy Convention. A ballot is posted in June for attendees of the current and previous two conferences to determine two of the finalists, and a panel of five judges adds three or more nominees before voting on the overall winner of each category. Unlike the other World Fantasy Award categories, the nominees for the Life Achievement award are not announced; instead, the winner is announced along with the nominees in the other categories. During the 45 nomination years, 71 people have been given the Life Achievement Award. Multiple winners have been awarded 22 times, typically two co-winners, though five were noted in 1984. (This list is part of a featured topic: World Fantasy Award.)


July 6

The Japanese holding company Bandai Namco is best known for its video game franchises. The company was formed following the merger of Bandai and Namco on 29 September 2005, with both companies' assets being merged into a single corporate entity. The core video game branch of the company is Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly called Namco Bandai Games, which develops games for home consoles, arcades and mobile phones internationally. Pac-Man is its highest-grossing franchise, with over US$12.8 billion by 2016, while Tekken is its best-selling franchise, with over 49 million copies across multiple platforms. Bandai Namco owns former developer Banpresto, which operates as a toy company in Japan and was purchased in 2006, and acquired a 95-percent stake in D3 Publisher in 2009. Bandai Namco also owns the video game rights to several anime licenses, notably Dragon Ball. (Full list...)


July 10

Bill Rodgers
Bill Rodgers

Winners of the New York City Marathon include 35 men and 30 women who have won the open division, and 9 men and 7 women who have won the wheelchair division. The New York City Marathon, one of the six World Marathon Majors, is a 26.2-mile (42.2 km) race which has been held in New York City since 1970. It is the largest marathon in the world; since 2013, every race except one has had over 50,000 finishers. Gary Muhrcke won the first race in a time of 2:31:38. The following year, Beth Bonner became the first female finisher, winning the race in 2:55:22. Norwegian runner Grete Waitz dominated the women's marathon between 1978 and 1989, winning nine of the eleven races during that period; her nine wins are the most of any runner at the New York City Marathon. In the men's race, Bill Rodgers (pictured) has won the most times, doing so in four consecutive years, from 1976 to 1979. A wheelchair race has been held since 2000, when 72 people finished: Kamel Ayari won the men's race, and Anh Nguyen Thi Xuan won the women's. (Full list...)


July 13

[[File:|170px|St Mary's Church ]]
St Mary's Church

There are 53 Grade I listed buildings in Sedgemoor, 14 of which are on Castle Street, Bridgwater. Sedgemoor is a local government district in the English county of Somerset. In the United Kingdom, the term listed building refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance; Grade I structures are those considered to be "buildings of exceptional interest". From 1723 to 1728, Castle Street was built on the site of the demolished Bridgwater Castle, as homes for the merchants trading in the town's port. Outside the town of Bridgwater, the largest concentration of Grade I listed buildings are in the village of Cannington, where the 12th-century Cannington Court and 14th-century St Mary's Church (pictured) were both associated with a Benedictine nunnery. Most of the Grade I listed buildings in Sedgemoor are Norman- or medieval-era churches, many of which are included in the Somerset towers, a collection of distinctive, mostly spireless Gothic church towers. (This list is part of a featured topic: Grade I listed buildings in Somerset.)


July 17

Armando Manzanero
Armando Manzanero

The Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is an honor presented annually by The Latin Recording Academy, the same organization that distributes the Latin Grammy Awards, to commend performers "who have made contributions of outstanding artistic significance to Latin music". Award recipients are honored during "Latin Grammy Week", a string of galas just prior to the annual Latin Grammy Awards ceremony. The awards were first presented to Mercedes Sosa, José José, Roberto Carlos, Willie Colón, and Antonio Aguilar in 2004. José and Carlos were later honored as the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year in 2005 and 2015. Armando Manzanero (pictured), Linda Ronstadt, and Joan Baez have also been recipients of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Colombian musician Joe Arroyo is the only recipient to have posthumously received the Latin Grammy Lifetime Award, in 2011, following his death four months earlier. (Full list...)


July 20

Skyline of Pittsburgh
Skyline of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is home to 32 completed high-rise buildings that exceed 300 feet (91 m), and over 125 of at least 115 feet (35 m). Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The tallest building in Pittsburgh is the 64-story U.S. Steel Tower, which rises 841 feet (256 m), was completed in 1970, and is the fifth-tallest building in Pennsylvania. The second-tallest skyscraper in the city is BNY Mellon Center, which rises 725 feet (221 m). The history of skyscrapers in Pittsburgh began with the 1895 completion of the Carnegie Building; this structure, rising 13 floors, was the first steel-framed skyscraper to be constructed in the city. It never held the title of tallest structure in the city, however, as it did not surpass the 249-foot (76 m) tower of the Allegheny County Courthouse, which was completed in 1888. Pittsburgh experienced a large building boom from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. During this time, 11 of the city's 20 tallest buildings were constructed. (Full list...)


July 24

Cher
Cher

The 60th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on April 11, 1988, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 22 categories, honoring films released in 1987. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and directed by Marty Pasetta. The Last Emperor won nine awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Bernardo Bertolucci. For their performances in Moonstruck, Cher (pictured) and Olympia Dukakis won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. Michael Douglas won Best Actor for his role in Wall Street; Sean Connery won Best Supporting Actor for The Untouchables. (Full list...)


July 27

Trophies won by Manchester United in the 1998–99 season
Trophies won by Manchester United in the 1998–99 season

The Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year is an award honouring the achievements of teams that have demonstrated "supreme performance" in the world of sports. It was first awarded in 2000 as one of the seven constituent awards presented during the Laureus World Sports Awards. The awards are presented by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, a global organisation involved in more than 150 charity projects supporting 500,000 young people. The inaugural winner of the award was English football team Manchester United, who had completed an "historic treble" by winning the UEFA Champions League, the Premier League and the FA Cup (trophies pictured) during the 1998–99 season. Football teams, including both domestic and international sides, have won more awards than any other sport with ten, followed by rugby union (four) and Formula One teams (three). Teams from Germany and France have won the award three times, while teams from England, Spain, and South Africa have won it twice. The 2020 winner of the Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year was the South Africa national rugby union team. (This list is part of a featured topic: Laureus World Sports Awards.)


July 31

Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars

American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars has released one concert video and appeared in various music videos, films, television shows, and two television commercials. From his debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans (2010), he released music videos for "Just the Way You Are", "Grenade", "Liquor Store Blues", and "The Lazy Song". In 2011, he received various awards for the "Just the Way You Are" music video, including MTV Video Music Award Japan for Best Male Video and Favorite International Video at the Myx Music Awards. In 2012, Mars's music video for "Locked Out of Heaven", from his second album Unorthodox Jukebox (2012), won Best Male Video at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. In 2016, Mars released his third album, 24K Magic, which spawned music videos for "24K Magic", "That's What I Like", "Versace on the Floor", and "Finesse" featuring Cardi B. The video for "That's What I Like" won several accolades in 2017, including an American Music Award for Video of the Year and Outstanding Music Video at the NAACP Image Awards. (Full list...)