Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 August 25

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From today's featured article

Arthur C. Clarke

Tales of Wonder was a British science fiction magazine launched in 1937 with Walter Gillings as editor, published by a subsidiary of William Heinemann. Gillings was able to attract some good material, and included many reprints from US science fiction magazines. Arthur C. Clarke (pictured) made his first professional sale to Tales of Wonder, with two science articles. Gillings also published William F. Temple's first story, some early material by John Wyndham, and "The Prr-r-eet" by Eric Frank Russell. American writers who appeared in the magazine included Murray Leinster, Jack Williamson, Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, and S. P. Meek. With the advent of World War II, paper shortages and Gillings's call-up into the army made it increasingly difficult to continue, and the sixteenth issue, dated Spring 1942, was the last. Tales of Wonder was the first British science fiction magazine aimed at an adult market, and its success made it apparent that a British science fiction magazine could survive. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Averroes by Andrea di Bonaiuto da Firenze (14th century)

... that Andalusian philosopher Averroes (pictured) theorized that all human beings share a single intellect, and Thomas Aquinas wrote a treatise to refute this theory?
... that Altars of the World was the final recipient of the Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film before the award was retired?
... that one of the financers of the Spire, a residential building in Seattle, joined the project as a result of a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping?
... that Ülo Nugis was the first Estonian politician to publicly call for Estonia to join NATO, even while Soviet troops were still present in the Baltic nation?
... that the ancestors of the grey cuckooshrike most likely spread to Africa from the Australo-Papuan region?
... that Serge Blanc was the first to record Leonard Bernstein's Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" in France?
... that the single road bridge to Great Island in Cork Harbour is more than 200 years old?
... that in 1964, a school teacher survived for nine months after surgeon Keith Reemtsma transplanted chimpanzee kidneys into her?

In the news

Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison (pictured) replaces Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister of Australia, after a change of Liberal party leadership.
N. K. Jemisin wins the Hugo Award for Best Novel for a third consecutive time for The Stone Sky.
Former UN Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kofi Annan dies at the age of 80.
The Asian Games open in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia.
Former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee dies at the age of 93.

On this day

August 25: Independence Day in Uruguay (1825)

Rings of Neptune

1758 – Seven Years' War: Prussian forces engaged the Russians at the Battle of Zorndorf in present-day Sarbinowo, Poland.
1875 – Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, completing the journey in approximately 21 hours and 40 minutes.
1941 – Second World War: Soviet, British and other Commonwealth armed forces invaded Iran to secure oil fields and ensure Allied supply lines for the USSR.
1989 – The Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Neptune and provided definitive proof of the existence of the planet's rings (pictured).
2001 – American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company were killed when their overloaded aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport in the Bahamas.

Gennadius of Constantinople (d. 471) · Karl Friedrich Bahrdt (b. 1741) · Velma Caldwell Melville (d. 1924)

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Today's featured picture

A gold coin, issued by the Second Mexican Empire in 1866, in the denomination of 20 pesos. It depicts Maximilian I of Mexico (r. 1864–67) on its obverse, with the coat of arms of Mexico on its reverse. Mexico still uses the peso as its currency, although the original peso was replaced in 1993 with the new peso, which had 1000 times the value of its predecessor.

Photograph: National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History

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