Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 July 14

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From today's featured article

Hurricane Isidore

The 2002 Atlantic hurricane season produced 14 tropical cyclones, including 12 named storms, 4 hurricanes, and 2 major hurricanes. A record-tying eight storms developed in September. No tropical storms formed after October 6—a rare occurrence, caused partly by El Niño conditions. The most intense hurricane of the season was Isidore, with a minimum central pressure of 934 mbar, although Hurricane Lili attained higher winds and peaked at Category 4 on the Saffir–Simpson Scale. The season was less destructive than average, causing an estimated US$2.6 billion in property damage and 23 fatalities. In September, Hurricane Gustav moved ashore on Nova Scotia as it was transitioning into an extratropical cyclone, lashing the region with high winds for several days. Isidore struck the Yucatan Peninsula and later the United States, causing about $970 million in damage and killing a total of seven. Several other storms directly affected land during August and September, including the longest lived of the season, Hurricane Kyle. In early October, Lili made landfall in Louisiana, where it caused $860 million in damage and 15 deaths. (Full article...)

Part of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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Did you know...

Scolopendra cataracta

... that Scolopendra cataracta (pictured), the world's only known amphibious centipede, was discovered by an entomologist on his honeymoon?
... that Cynthia Cooke nursed Far East prisoners of war before becoming head of the Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service?
... that the 1982 Dutch film Het Beest, featuring Willem Ruis in his first and last cinema role, was a "legendary flop"?
... that in 1984 Maine lawyer Linda Smith Dyer rebutted opponents' claims that passage of the Equal Rights Amendment would legalize same-sex marriage in the state?
... that the perpetrators of a major burglary were caught after discussing it in a Pentonville Road pub?
... that G. T. Bynum, the mayor-elect of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is related to three former Tulsa mayors?
... that the War of the Antiochene Succession "came to a rather unspectacular end" in 1219?

In the news

Theresa May

Theresa May (pictured) replaces David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
At least 27 people are killed when two trains collide near Andria, Italy.
In association football, Euro 2016 concludes with Portugal defeating France in the final.
The Liberal–National Coalition, led by the Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, is returned to government at the Australian federal election.
Flooding along the Yangtze River causes more than 180 deaths in central and eastern China.

On this day...

July 14: Bastille Day in France (1789)

Matterhorn

756 – Emperor Xuanzong fled the Tang capital Chang'an as An Lushan's forces advanced toward the city during the An Lushan Rebellion.
1791 – The Priestley Riots began, in which Joseph Priestley and other religious Dissenters were driven out of Birmingham, England.
1865 – A seven-man team made the first ascent of the Matterhorn (pictured), marking the end of the golden age of alpinism.
1933 – With the enactment of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, the Nazi Party began its eugenics program.
2003 – In an effort to discredit US Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had written an article critical of the invasion of Iraq, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak revealed that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIA "operative".

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Today's featured picture

Francisco de Miranda (1750–1816) was a Venezuelan revolutionary who unsuccessfully fought for the independence of the Spanish American colonies. Miranda was directly involved in the French Revolution for which he was awarded the title Hero of the Revolution and Marshal of France. He is the only person from the Americas engraved on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. In 1812, he was handed over to the Spanish, dying four years later in a Cádiz prison. His imprisonment is depicted in this 1896 oil painting on canvas by Arturo Michelena.

Painting: Arturo Michelena

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