Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 August 29

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From today's featured article

AGM-129 ACM cruise missile

In a nuclear weapons incident on 29–30 August 2007, United States Air Force warheads were not protected by mandatory security precautions. Six AGM-129 ACM cruise missiles, each loaded with a W80-1 variable yield nuclear warhead, were mistakenly loaded onto an Air Force B-52H heavy bomber at Minot Air Force Base and transported to Barksdale Air Force Base. The nuclear warheads in the missiles were supposed to have been removed before taking the missiles from their storage bunker. The missiles with the nuclear warheads were not reported missing and remained mounted to the aircraft at both Minot and Barksdale for 36 hours. After an investigation, four Air Force commanders were relieved of their commands, and nuclear weapons operations at Minot were suspended. In 2008, Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff of the Air Force General T. Michael Moseley were forced to resign, in part over this incident. In response to recommendations by a review committee, a new Air Force Global Strike Command assumed control of all Air Force nuclear bombers, missiles, and personnel. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Pylon on the Tucuruí transmission line

... that the Tucuruí transmission line (pylon pictured) carries power for 1,800 kilometres (1,100 mi) through the Amazon region?
... that the clothing historian Janet Arnold was still working on clothes for the Mermaid Theatre just two days before her death from lymphoma?
... that the Soviet 17th Mechanized Corps lost all of its armored vehicles in the Battle of Białystok–Minsk?
... that Mexican parliamentarian Hortensia Aragón Castillo's alternate deputy is her sister?
... that East Texas State Teachers College president James G. Gee declared Sam Rayburn, the congressman and college alumnus, "my personal enemy", during a faculty meeting?
... that Roy Thomas Severn established the biggest centre for the study of earthquake engineering in the UK?
... that after taking up arms against Hungary during the failed 1848 revolution, Ioan Pușcariu, an ethnic Romanian, returned to work in Hungarian government service for decades?
... that exhibits in the Sudha Cars Museum have found their way onto Ripley's Believe It or Not!?

In the news

Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge under construction

Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge (pictured under construction), the world's tallest suspension bridge, opens to traffic across the Bosphorus.
The exoplanet Proxima Centauri b is discovered in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun.
The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captures Jarabulus from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits central Italy, killing at least 290 people.
The Summer Olympics conclude in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

On this day...

August 29: Feast day for the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Gregorian calendar); National Heroes' Day in the Philippines (2016)

Michael Faraday

1831 – Michael Faraday (pictured) discovered electromagnetic induction, leading to the formation of his law of induction.
1885 – Gottlieb Daimler patented the world's first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen.
1916 – The United States Congress passed the Philippine Autonomy Act, the first formal and official declaration of the US commitment to grant independence to the Philippines.
1991 – Italian businessman Libero Grassi was killed by the Sicilian Mafia after taking a public stand against their extortion demands.
1996 – Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801 crashed on approach to Svalbard Airport, Norway, killing all 141 aboard.

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From today's featured list

Viswanathan Anand

The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna is the highest sporting honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India and is given for the "spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports" at various International events like Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games. The recipient(s) is/are selected by a committee constituted by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Honoured for the performance in the year 1991–92, Chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand (pictured) was the first recipient of the award. Usually conferred upon only one sportsperson in a year, a few exceptions have been made when multiple recipients were awarded in a year. As of 2016, there have been thirty-two recipients from fourteen sport disciplines and the most recent recipients of the award are the badminton player P. V. Sindhu, gymnast Dipa Karmakar, sports shooter Jitu Rai, and wrestler Sakshi Malik. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The dining hall at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Built in the early 16th century, the hall is used for Formal Hall. Fellows and their guests dine at the High Table, placed on a platform one step above ground level at the far end of the hall. Students dine at three long benches in front of and perpendicular to the High Table and spanning to the entrance.

Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel. Today it is one of the smaller constituent colleges.

Photograph: David Iliff; edit: Adam Cuerden

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