Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 September 16

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From today's featured article

Thomas F. Bayard (1828–1898) was a lawyer, politician, and diplomat from Wilmington, Delaware. He served three terms as a US Senator from Delaware and made three unsuccessful bids for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. In 1885, President Grover Cleveland appointed him Secretary of State. Bayard worked with Cleveland to promote American trade in the Pacific while avoiding the acquisition of colonies at a time when many Americans clamored for them. He worked to resolve disputes over fishing and seal-hunting rights in the waters around the Canada–United States border. After four years in private life, he returned to the diplomatic arena as Ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he continued to strive for Anglo-American friendship. This brought him into conflict with his successor at the State Department, Richard Olney, when Olney and Cleveland were demanding more aggressive diplomatic overtures in the Venezuelan crisis of 1895. (Full article...)

Part of the United States presidential election, 1880 series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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Did you know...

Dancers, c. 1763

... that some Ludwigsburg porcelain figures from the 1760s (example pictured) show the lighter dance costumes pioneered by the ballet master Jean-Georges Noverre?
... that a record reward was raised by the local Crime Stoppers in the month-long search for missing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, who was found dead in a cornfield?
... that around one million pilgrims visit the Sanctuary of San Gerardo Maiella in Materdomini, Italy, each year?
... that in 2018, Diede de Groot became the first woman in wheelchair tennis to win both the women's singles and doubles events at Wimbledon?
... that the Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail in Wenatchee, Washington, was funded by a local utility company as part of environmental mitigation for hydroelectric dams?
... that juvenile ladder hornsnails tend to live underwater while the adults mostly live above the high water mark?
... that with the USC Trojans, beach volleyball player Sara Hughes won 103 consecutive matches and 2 NCAA Championships?
... that during the Battle of Neville's Cross, King David II of Scotland was shot twice in the face by arrows and taken prisoner after knocking out the teeth of his captor?

In the news

Hurricane Florence

Hurricane Florence (pictured) makes landfall in North Carolina, United States, killing at least 11 people.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who co-discovered pulsars but was omitted from the related Nobel Prize, receives the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is stabbed during a campaign rally.
The Supreme Court of India strikes down portions of the colonial-era Section 377, thereby making all private consensual sexual acts between adults legal.
An earthquake in the south of Hokkaido, Japan, results in at least forty-one deaths.

On this day

September 16: Battle of Britain Day in Canada (2018); Malaysia Day

Aftermath of the 1920 Wall Street bombing

1920 – A bomb in a horse wagon exploded (aftermath pictured) in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City, killing 38 people and injuring several hundred others.
1940 – Second World War: Italy captured the town of Sidi Barrani, but its invasion of Egypt progressed no further.
1961 – Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, made initial landfall in Muroto, Kōchi, Japan, having decreased in intensity.
1982 – A Lebanese militia under the direct command of Elie Hobeika carried out a massacre in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila, killing at least 460 civilians.
1990 – Construction of the Northern Xinjiang railway was completed between Ürümqi South and Alashankou stations, linking the railway lines of China and Kazakhstan, and adding a sizable portion to the Eurasian Land Bridge.

Philip III of Navarre (d. 1343) · Marian Cruger Coffin (b. 1876) · Ahn Eak-tai (d. 1965)

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Today's featured picture

Mexico is a country in North America, bordered by the United States, Guatemala and Belize, and lying between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced civilizations before first contact with Europeans. From 1521 it was colonized by Spain, becoming an independent state three centuries later. September 16 is the country's independence day, commemorating the Cry of Dolores, a declaration which began the Mexican War of Independence in 1810.

Pictured is the coat of arms of Mexico, which depicts a Mexican golden eagle devouring a rattlesnake while perched on a prickly pear cactus. The eagle and snake motif is rooted in an Aztec legend.

Illustration: Juan Gabino; vectorisation: Alex Covarrubias

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