Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 August 10

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From today's featured article

Bill McCann (1892–1957) was a decorated soldier of World War I, a barrister, and a prominent figure in the military and ex-service community of South Australia during the interwar period. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force as a private in 1914, and rose through the ranks to be commissioned during the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915. In 1916–1918 he fought on the Western Front in France and Belgium, was wounded twice, and rose to the rank of major. For his gallantry on 10 August 1918 at Crépey Wood, he was made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. Returning home, McCann became a barrister, and was active in returned servicemen's organisations. He was state prices commissioner and deputy Commonwealth prices commissioner from 1938 to 1954. In recognition of his work with the ex-service community, McCann was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935, and a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1956. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Sycamore Gap Tree

... that the Sycamore Gap Tree (pictured) has been featured in a Hollywood blockbuster, a Bryan Adams music video and a TV crime drama?
... that the Russian Liberation Army defected for the second time when it turned against Nazi Germany in the Prague uprising on 6 May 1945?
... that the blazar TXS 0506+056 is the first identified source of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos?
... that in 1965, Benjamin Steinberg, a violinist in the NBC Symphony Orchestra with Arturo Toscanini, started the first racially integrated symphony orchestra in America, the Symphony of the New World?
... that Mexican federal deputy Carlos Hermosillo Arteaga and his wife were found to own six properties worth a total of 14 million pesos in the state of Chihuahua?
... that the University Hospital in Pleven was the first hospital in Bulgaria to perform robot-assisted surgery?
... that the research of 2017 Spinoza Prize winner Eveline Crone has led the Netherlands to extend its juvenile detention age limit from 18 to 23?
... that despite being a crustacean, a parasitic copepod found on a flying fish was described as a "gill-worm" by Hans Severin Holten, the Danish naturalist who discovered it?

In the news

Student protests in Dhaka, Bangladesh

In the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, Saudi armed forces bomb a school bus in Dahyan killing at least 29 children and injuring at least 30 others.
Saudi Arabia expels the Canadian ambassador after receiving criticism of its treatment of rights activists.
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake strikes Lombok, Indonesia, killing more than 250 people after its 6.4 magnitude foreshock killed at least 20 others a week prior.
More than 140 people are injured in road-safety protests (pictured) in Bangladesh.

On this day

August 10

Louvre Pyramid

1755 – The first wave of the Expulsion of the Acadians from the present-day Canadian Maritime provinces by the British began with the Bay of Fundy Campaign at Chignecto.
1793 – The Louvre (Louvre Pyramid pictured), today the world's most visited museum, officially opened in Paris with an exhibition of 537 paintings and 184 objets d'art.
1897 – German chemist Felix Hoffmann discovered an improved way of synthesizing acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin).
1953 – First Indochina War: The French Union withdrew its forces from Operation Camargue against the Viet Minh in central modern-day Vietnam.
1988 – Japanese American internment: The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 became law, authorizing US$20,000 in reparations to each surviving internee.

Madeleine of Valois (b. 1520) · Suzanne Collins (b. 1962) · Jennifer Paterson (d. 1999)

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From today's featured list

Exoplanet Fomalhaut b (Dagon)

Only a small fraction of the 3,800 known exoplanets are located in the vicinity of the Solar System. Of the 400 stars known to be located within 10 parsecs (32.6 light-years), just 26 have been confirmed to have planetary systems. Only eight of these planetary systems are located around stars visible with the naked eye. One of the earliest confirmations for an exoplanet, or planet orbiting a star other than our Sun, was in 1998 for a planet orbiting around Gliese 876 just 15 light-years away. Since then, several closer exoplanets have been discovered, including an exoplanet found in 2016 to orbit Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System just 4.25 light-years away. A system containing six exoplanets has been observed around HD 219134, 22 light-years away. Some of the closest exoplanets have been proposed to have potential for human habitability. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

A three pence note of "Marshall Hole currency", issued in Bulawayo in 1900. Owing to the shortage of small change and circulating coinage in Rhodesia during the Second Boer War, Hugh Marshall Hole, Government Secretary for Matabeleland, authorised the use of small cards bearing a British South Africa Company postage stamp on the obverse, and an official handstamped signature on the reverse. These cards circulated as emergency currency between 1 August 1900 and their withdrawal on 1 October 1900. A total of £20,000 worth of stamps were used, in denominations of 2d, 3d, 4d, 6d, 1/-, 2/-, 2/6, 4/-, 5/- and 10/-.

Banknote: Office of Hugh Marshall Hole (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)

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