Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 August 26

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From today's featured article

Alfred Naujocks

Operation Bernhard was an exercise by the Nazis to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the economy, but the operation was closed in early 1942 after its head, Alfred Naujocks (pictured), fell out of favour with his superior officer, Reinhard Heydrich. It was reopened in July as a counterfeiting operation to finance German intelligence operations. Prisoners were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp to work under SS Major Bernhard Krüger, producing British notes until mid-1945 worth between £130 and £300 million. Counterfeit notes from the operation were used to pay the Turkish agent Elyesa Bazna—code-named Cicero—for his work in obtaining secrets from the British ambassador in Ankara, Turkey. Another £100,000 helped to free the Italian leader Benito Mussolini in the Gran Sasso raid in September 1943. The operation was dramatised in a 1981 BBC comedy-drama miniseries, Private Schulz, and in a 2007 Austrian film, The Counterfeiters. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Sydney Metro Blues

... that the Sydney Metro Blues (pictured) are the 2017 Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League champions?
... that Marcus Bosch conducted a performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Staatstheater Nürnberg that was shown live in 50 cinemas in Germany and Austria?
... that following a failed attempt earlier in the year, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill establishing Barack Obama Day on May 19, 2017?
... that Traci Hunter Abramson used her experience as a swim coach and a CIA employee to write Undercurrents, a novel about an Olympic-hopeful swimmer in witness protection?
... that of the 64 first-round draft picks made by the New England Patriots, 20 have been selected to play in the Pro Bowl?
... that Ghanaian Member of Parliament Kwesi Ankama died on an official government delegation to the United Kingdom?
... that the green worm Eulalia viridis does not breed until it is at least two years old?
... that Thomas Lyle Williams had the idea to create the first mascara, Maybelline, after seeing his sister Mabel use a mix of petroleum jelly and burnt cork to darken her eyelashes?

In the news

The solar eclipse

At least 28 people are killed in riots in Northern India after guru Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is convicted of rape.
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.

On this day...

August 26: Heroes' Day/Herero Day in Namibia; Women's Equality Day in the United States

Bomb explosion at Harvey's Resort Hotel

1071 – Byzantine–Seljuq wars: Seljuk Turks led by Alp Arslan captured Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV at the Battle of Manzikert.
1810 – Juan José Castelli ordered the execution of Santiago de Liniers, during the Argentine War of Independence.
1914 – First World War: The German colony of Togoland surrendered to French and British forces after a 20-day campaign.
1968 – The Beatles released "Hey Jude", which became the then-longest single to top the UK charts.
1980 – Three men planted a bomb (explosion pictured), which the FBI later described as the most complex improvised explosive device ever created, at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada, U.S.

Manuel Abad y Queipo (b. 1751) · Sue Bailey Thurman (b. 1903)

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Today's featured picture

Crowds line the Champs-Élysées as the French 2nd Armored Division rolls down the avenue from the Arc de Triomphe toward the Place de la Concorde on 26 August 1944, following the liberation of Paris. Ruled by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Second Compiègne Armistice in 1940, Paris was freed during a week-long struggle that pitted the French Forces of the Interior, the French 2nd Armored Division, and the United States Third Army against the German 325th Security Division. The battle ended with German General Dietrich von Choltitz surrendering to French forces. More than 1,700 French and 3,200 German soldiers were killed in the fighting.

Photograph: Jack Downey

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