Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 August 25

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From today's featured article

The Fade Out is a crime comic created by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips with the help of colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser and research assistant Amy Condit. Twelve issues were published by Image Comics between August 2014 and January 2016, and republished in paperback and hardcover formats. The story, partly inspired by the life of Brubaker's uncle, is set in 1948 and features Charlie Parish, a Hollywood screenwriter suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder and fronting for his blacklisted best friend, Gil. When Charlie wakes from a blackout in the same room as a murdered starlet, he and Gil set out to bring her killer to justice. As they learn more about her troubled past, they find themselves up against powerful Hollywood elites. Although Brubaker had been concerned the premise was not commercial enough to have wide appeal, The Fade Out sold better than any of the authors' previous collaborations and early issues went through several printings. The series received positive reviews from critics, who enjoyed the tragic conclusion. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Caroline Risque

... that Caroline Risque (pictured) made the bronze busts of the four founders of Stix Baer & Fuller?
... that some scenes in Home and Away: Revenge were filmed by the actors using GoPro cameras and mobile phones?
... that art curator Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi described sound artist Emeka Ogboh's work as capturing "the maddening hyper-visuality of Lagos"?
... that the Japanese embassy in Seoul has seen decades of protests, from weekly demonstrations to the throwing of Molotov cocktails, truck-ramming, self-immolation, and outright ransacking?
... that at the time of her death at age 105, Emma Clara Schweer was believed to be the oldest elected official in the United States?
... that 500 copies of Vietnamese singer Son Tung M-TP's compilation album M-tp M-TP sold out in 30 minutes?
... that in 1844, Latter Day Saints founder Joseph Smith became the first Mormon to run for President of the United States and the first American presidential candidate to be assassinated?
... that the shooter game Privates was created to raise awareness about sexually transmitted infections?

In the news

The solar eclipse

The Supreme Court of India rules that the practice of instant divorce is unconstitutional.
A total solar eclipse (pictured) crosses the contiguous United States for the first time since 1918.
In women's golf, the United States win the Solheim Cup.
At least 23 people are killed and 156 others are injured in a train accident in Khatauli, India.
A knife attack in Turku, Finland, kills 2 people and injures 8 others.
Three separate attacks in Catalonia, Spain, kill at least 15 people and injure more than 100 others.

On this day...

August 25

Rings of Neptune

1258 – George Mouzalon, regent of the Empire of Nicaea, was assassinated as part of a conspiracy led by the nobles under future emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.
1758 – Seven Years' War: Prussian forces engaged the Russians at the Battle of Zorndorf in present-day Sarbinowo, Poland.
1942 – World War II: Japanese forces attacked the Australian base at Milne Bay on the eastern tip of New Guinea.
1950 – In tennis, Althea Gibson became the first African American woman to compete at the United States National Championships (now known as the US Open).
1989 – The Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Neptune and provided definitive proof of the existence of the planet's rings (pictured).

Agnes Mowinckel (b. 1875) · Mary Tappan Wright (d. 1916) · Theresa Andrews (b. 1962)

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From today's featured list

James Cameron

The 2009 science fiction film Avatar garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with particular praise for its direction, cinematography and visual effects. Written and directed by James Cameron (pictured), the film is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are colonizing Pandora, a lush habitable moon in the Alpha Centauri star system, in order to mine the mineral unobtanium. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. At the 82nd Academy Awards, the film won for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for a total of nine awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It garnered four nominations at the 67th Golden Globe Awards ceremony, and received two awards for Best Film – Drama and Best Director. Avatar received recognition from a number of North American critics' associations. In December 2009, the American Film Institute recognized the film and Cameron's advances in CGI effects with their yearly "AFI Moments of Significance" award, claiming it "will have profound effects on the future of the art form". (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

A chain gang of young African-American convicts in the Southern United States, circa 1903. A common practice historically in the American South, prisoners would be chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work as a form of punishment. Chain gangs allowed prisoners to work in public outside of penitentiaries, satisfying the need for labor on government projects, such as railroads and roads. During the decline of convict leasing, from which states generated significant revenue, chain gangs were employed to offset the costs for the housing of inmates. The practice had ceased by the 1950s, though it had a small resurgence in the 1990s in some states.

Photograph: Detroit Publishing Company; restoration: Scewing

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