Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 July 8

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From today's featured article

Percy Grainger (8 July 1882 – 20 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early 20th century. Grainger left Australia in 1895 to study at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. Between 1901 and 1914 he was based in London, where he established himself first as a society pianist and later as a concert performer, composer and collector of original folk melodies. He met many of the significant figures in European music, forming friendships with Frederick Delius and Edvard Grieg, and became a champion of Nordic music and culture. In 1914, Grainger moved to the United States, where he took citizenship in 1918. He experimented with music machines that he hoped would supersede human interpretation. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual, the piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune "Country Gardens". (Full article...)

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In the news

Nawaz Sharif

China and the United States impose additional tariffs on $34 billion of each other's goods.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (pictured) is sentenced to ten years in prison on corruption charges.
Twelve boys and a man trapped in Thailand’s Tham Luang Nang Non cave are found alive after nine days missing, with rescue operations ongoing.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador is elected President of Mexico.
The Japanese sample-return spacecraft Hayabusa2 arrives at the asteroid 162173 Ryugu.

On this day

July 8

Soapy Smith

1663 – King Charles II of England granted John Clarke the Rhode Island Royal Charter, described by one historian as "the grandest instrument of human liberty ever constructed."
1879 – Led by George W. De Long, the ill-fated Jeannette Expedition departed San Francisco to reach the North Pole by pioneering a route through the Bering Strait.
1898 – American con artist and gangster Soapy Smith (pictured) was killed in Skagway, Alaska, when an argument with fellow gang members turned into an unexpected gunfight.
1962 – Following student protests at Rangoon University, Burmese General Ne Win ordered the demolition of the school's Students Union building.
2014 – In response to the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers, Israel launched a military operation in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Alberto Bolognetti (b. 1538) · Käthe Kollwitz (b. 1867) · Sky Ferreira (b. 1992)

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MS Birka Stockholm is a cruise ship owned by Birka Line, operated under their Birka Cruises brand. She was built in 2004 by Aker Finnyards at Rauma, Finland. She has a capacity of 1,800 passengers, and sails the Baltic Sea during the summer months.

Photograph: Arild Vågen

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