Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 March 27

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From today's featured article

Coalhouse Fort is an English artillery fort built in the 1860s to guard the lower Thames from seaborne attack. It stands at Coalhouse Point in Essex on the north bank of the river, at a location near East Tilbury that was vulnerable to raiders and invaders. It was the last in a series of fortifications dating back to the 15th century and was the direct successor to a smaller mid-19th century fort on the same site. It was initially a front-line fortification, supported by Shornemead Fort and Cliffe Fort on the Kent shore. Over time, as batteries and forts further downriver became the front line of the Thames defences, its main weapons were replaced with smaller quick-firing guns intended for use against fast-moving surface and aerial targets. Its last military use was as a training facility after the Second World War. Decommissioned in 1949, the fort fell into dereliction, despite its historical and architectural significance. Its restoration has been funded in part by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Warner Bros. film studio, which used it as a location for the opening scenes of the 2005 film Batman Begins. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Gorteria diffusa flowerhead

... that dark spots on the flowers of Gorteria diffusa (pictured) are thought to resemble bee flies to attract other bee flies?
... that when the English surgeon Frances Ivens joined the military hospital at Royaumont in France during the First World War, she had no experience in treating men?
... that a sculpture of the god Neptune on one of the parapets of the University of Washington's Gerberding Hall represents the academic disciplines of oceanography and fisheries science?
... that Lady Camilla Bloch has spoken out against those who call her father a murderer?
... that dimension stone from the Sulphur Mountain Formation has been used extensively in buildings around Banff, Alberta?
... that Danielle Herrington, cover model for the 2018 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, booked her first swimsuit shoot four months after moving to New York City to pursue modelling?
... that in the aftermath of the Gajda Affair, the government of Czechoslovakia moved to disenfranchise the army's officer corps?
... that during the American Civil War, Barney Prine made money by running races against fellow soldiers in the 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment?

In the news

March for Our Lives protesters

More than 20 countries announce the expulsion of Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
At least 64 people die in a shopping centre fire in Kemerovo, Russia.
March for Our Lives rallies are held across the United States and worldwide in support of tighter gun control (protesters in Washington, D.C. pictured).
The Boat Race is held in London, with Cambridge winning both the men's and the women's events.

On this day...

March 27

Ball-and-stick model of sildenafil

1850 – San Diego, the first European settlement in what is now California, was incorporated as a city.
1899 – Philippine–American War: For the only time during the course of the war, Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo personally led troops against the U.S. in the Battle of Marilao River.
1941 – Encouraged by the British Special Operations Executive, a group of pro-Western Serb-nationalist Royal Yugoslav Air Force officers planned and conducted a coup d'état after Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers.
1958 – First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev also took over the role of Premier.
1998 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug sildenafil (chemical structure pictured), better known by the trade name Viagra, for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.

Rosa Campbell Praed (b. 1851) · Kick Kelly (d. 1926) · Mariah Carey (b. 1969 or 1970)

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Today's featured picture

Virgin of the Rocks is a title given to two paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, which depict the Madonna and Christ Child with the infant John the Baptist and an angel in a rocky setting. The version generally considered the prime version hangs in the Louvre in Paris; the other, shown here, is held by the National Gallery in London. Although the paintings are similar in many ways, they differ in the gaze and right hand of the angel. as well as the colours, the lighting, the flora, and the way sfumato is used.

Painting: Leonardo da Vinci

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