Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 August 1

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From today's featured article

The pleasure cruiser MV Darlwyne disappeared off the Cornish coast in south-west England on 31 July 1966, with two crew and twenty-nine passengers. Formerly a naval picket boat, the vessel had undergone considerable structural modifications which adversely affected its seaworthiness, before beginning service as an unlicensed passenger boat without radio, distress flares or other lifesaving equipment. On the fatal voyage, a group from the Greatwood guest house in Mylor were taken on a 30-mile trip to Fowey. The outward voyage was completed without mishap, but the weather had significantly deteriorated when the return trip began late that afternoon. When the vessel failed to return to Mylor the alarm was raised, and air and sea searches began on 1 August. Twelve bodies were eventually recovered, but no further traces of the vessel were found at the time. A subsequent Board of Trade enquiry exposed the laxity with which boat licensing regulations were being administered, and led to stricter enforcement. In 2016 divers found an anchor and other debris in the vicinity of Darlwyne's final sighting, which they stated were in all probability relics from the vessel. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Seielstad's vision of a "giant meteor" strike

... that in 1939, Benjamin Seielstad drew four different versions of the end of the world ("giant meteor" collision pictured) for Popular Science Monthly?
... that in 2018 hundreds of fires were started in Israel by incendiary balloons made from condoms and party balloons, and incendiary kites, launched from the Gaza Strip?
... that Catherine Gayer, who was a coloratura soprano for four decades at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, premiered Nono's Intolleranza 1960 in Venice, and Reimann's Melusine at the Schwetzingen Festival?
... that the time limit in the puzzle game Cloud Kingdoms is calculated in 99 intervals called "manukas"?
... that when Li Lin was a Ph.D. student, he often went to slaughterhouses and wet markets to buy chicken and pig livers for his experiments?
... that the $4 billion World Trade Center Transportation Hub, built after the September 11 attacks, has been described as the world's most expensive train station?
... that Averroes wrote on subjects as diverse as philosophy, Islamic jurisprudence, medicine, and astronomy?
... that the first episode of the first Doctor Who series had to be rerecorded because the TARDIS doors would not close?

In the news

Lombok earthquake damage

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake strikes Lombok, Indonesia, killing at least 16 people (President Joko Widodo surveying damage pictured).
In cycling, Geraint Thomas wins the Tour de France.
Following allegations of sexual misconduct, American Archbishop Theodore McCarrick becomes the first cleric to resign from the College of Cardinals since 1927.
The longest total lunar eclipse in the 21st century occurs.
21st Century Fox shareholders approve the $71.3 billion acquisition by The Walt Disney Company.

On this day

August 1: Lughnasadh/Imbolc (Gaels and neopagans in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres respectively)

Robert Baden-Powell

902 – Led by Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya, the Aghlabids captured the Byzantine stronghold of Taormina, concluding the Muslim conquest of Sicily.
1715 – Introduced during a time of civil disturbance in Great Britain, the Riot Act came into force, authorising authorities to declare any group of twelve or more people to be unlawfully assembled.
1907 – Robert Baden-Powell (pictured) held the first Scout camp at Brownsea Island in Dorset, England, beginning the Scouting movement.
1981 – At one minute past midnight, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles became the first music video broadcast on the American cable television network MTV.
2004 – Nearly 400 people died in a supermarket fire in Asunción, Paraguay, when exits were locked to prevent people from stealing merchandise.

Æthelwold of Winchester (d. 984) · Maria Mitchell (b. 1818) · Alan Moore (b. 1914)

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Today's featured picture

The I-35W Mississippi River bridge was an eight-lane, steel truss arch bridge that carried Interstate 35W across the Saint Anthony Falls of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Once the third-busiest bridge in the state, it suddenly collapsed on August 1, 2007, killing 13 and injuring 145. Rescue of people stranded on the bridge was complete in three hours, while recovery of bodies—involving 75 local, state and federal agencies—took three weeks. An NTSB investigation cited a design flaw as the likely cause of the collapse, noting that a too-thin gusset plate ripped along a line of rivets.

Photograph: Kevin Rofidal, United States Coast Guard; edit: Papa Lima Whiskey

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