Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 July 12

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From today's featured article

Excavation of the stone curtain wall in 2007

Buckton Castle was a medieval enclosure castle and one of the earliest stone castles in North West England, near present-day Carrbrook in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester. It was surrounded by a 2.8-metre-wide (9 ft) stone curtain wall (excavation pictured) and a ditch 10 metres (33 ft) wide by 6 metres (20 ft) deep. It was probably built and demolished in the 12th century, but may never have been completed, and survives only as buried remains, overgrown with heather and peat. In the 16th century, the site may have been used as a beacon for the Pilgrimage of Grace. During the 18th century, the ruins were of interest to treasure hunters following rumours that gold and silver had been discovered at Buckton. The site was used as an anti-aircraft decoy during the Second World War. Between 1996 and 2010 the ruins were investigated by archaeologists and community archaeology volunteers as part of the Tameside Archaeology Survey. The site has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1924. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Tina Strobos in 1941

... that Dutch psychiatrist Tina Strobos (pictured), who rescued over 100 Jewish refugees during World War II, said that her grandmother was the only person she knew who scared the Gestapo?
... that the centenary of the Protestant Church Wilnsdorf in 2013 was celebrated by the same hymn, and a sermon from the same biblical text, employed at its consecration?
... that the Roman Empire reached its greatest extent under Emperor Septimius Severus?
... that in the book The Lucifer Effect, author Philip Zimbardo examines parallels between his 1971 Stanford prison experiment and the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse case in 2003?
... that the Holby City production team worked with Parkinson's UK to create a Parkinson's disease storyline for the character Alex Adams?
... that days after the Kent train station opened, a robbery was foiled there by the station agent armed with an iron poker?
... that Chinese scientist Liu Xinyuan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine?
... that a NIS20,000 offer by Burger Ranch to distribute the Israeli video game series Piposh was turned down by the developers because they were vegetarians?

In the news

Abiy and Isaias sign a joint declaration

Twelve boys and a man trapped in Thailand’s Tham Luang Nang Non cave are rescued.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki sign a declaration (pictured) to end their countries' border conflict.
A train derails in Çorlu, Turkey, killing 24 people and injuring more than 300 others.
Flooding and landslides in western Japan kill at least 195 people.
China and the United States impose additional tariffs on $34 billion of each other's goods.

On this day

July 12

Japanese battleship Kawachi

927 – Æthelstan, King of England, secured the submission of four northern rulers: Constantine II of Scotland, Hywel Dda of Deheubarth, Ealdred of Bamburgh, and Owain ap Dyfnwal of Strathclyde
1843 – Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, proclaimed a revelation recommending polygamy.
1918 – An explosion in the ammunition magazine of the Japanese battleship Kawachi (pictured) resulted in the loss of over 600 officers and crewmen.
1948 – Arab–Israeli War: Israel Defense Forces officer Yitzhak Rabin signed the order to expel Palestinians from the towns of Lod and Ramla.
1971 – The Australian Aboriginal Flag, one of the official flags of Australia, was flown for the first time.

Margaret Theresa of Spain (b. 1651) · Gertrude Bell (d. 1926) · Sanjay Manjrekar (b. 1965)

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Today's featured picture

Echinocereus reichenbachii is a perennial plant and shrub in the cactus family. The species is native to the Chihuahuan Desert and parts of northern Mexico and the southern United States, where it grows at elevations up to 1,500 meters (4,900 ft). One of the smaller Echinocereus species, it reaches 7.5 to 30 centimetres (3.0 to 11.8 in) tall and 4 to 10 centimetres (1.6 to 3.9 in) wide. E. reichenbachii is cold and heat tolerant, and prefers dry, well-drained soils near rock outcroppings.

Photograph: Rationalobserver

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