Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 June 20

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Melbourne Castle was an incomplete medieval castle, founded in 1311 by Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, in Melbourne, Derbyshire. It was built on the site of an earlier royal manor house that had provided accommodation for noblemen hunting in a nearby royal park in the reign of King John. After the earl's execution in 1322 for opposing Edward II, the castle was mainly in the possession of the Crown or the Earls and Dukes of Lancaster. Improvements and repairs were made by John of Gaunt and others, and the building was in generally good condition throughout the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. John I, Duke of Bourbon, was kept at Melbourne for 19 years after his capture at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and it was considered as a possible prison for Mary Queen of Scots. The castle was in decline by the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. It was purchased in 1604 by Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon, who had his own castle in nearby Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and was gradually demolished for its building materials. All that remains is a short section of wall and some foundations. The ruins are grade II listed and the site is a scheduled monument, with no public access. (Full article...)

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Cephalotes alveolatus

... that the ant Cephalotes alveolatus (pictured) is distinguished by its clubbed hairs?
... that Soviet economist Dimitri Navachine, assassinated in Paris in 1937, may have been killed for possessing documents showing that certain Soviet political prisoners were innocent?
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... that Frieda Fraser and Edith Williams corresponded for 24 years before they were able to acquire a home to live together in 1941?
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... that the first tests of the British hydrogen bomb programme were hailed as a triumph but in fact were failures?
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Finsbury Park Mosque

Multiple persons are injured as a vehicle runs down pedestrians near the Finsbury Park Mosque (pictured) in London.
Wildfires in the Pedrógão Grande municipality of Portugal kill at least 63 people.
En Marche! wins an absolute majority of seats in the French legislative election.
In motorsport, Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber, driving a Porsche 919 Hybrid, win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl dies at the age of 87.

The Tennis Court Oath, depicted by Auguste Couder

1685 – Monmouth Rebellion: The Duke of Monmouth declared himself King of England at Bridgwater.
1789 – French Revolution: Meeting in a tennis court near the Palace of Versailles, members of France's Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath (pictured), pledging not to separate until a new constitution was established.
1921 – Workers at the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Madras, India, began a four-month strike.
1960 – The Mali Federation gained independence from France, but lasted only two months before dividing into Senegal and Mali.
2007 – Sammy Sosa of the Texas Rangers became the fifth player in Major League Baseball history to hit his 600th career home run.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld (b. 1743) · Voltairine de Cleyre (d. 1912) · Frank Lampard (b. 1978)

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NGC 4414 is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 62 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is a flocculent spiral galaxy, with short segments of spiral structure but without the dramatic well-defined spiral arms of a grand design spiral. NGC 4414 is a very isolated galaxy, with no signs of past interactions with other galaxies.

Photograph: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)

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