Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 September 5

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The Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago in the US state of Illinois was established during World War II to research the chemistry and metallurgy of the newly discovered element plutonium, as part of the Allied Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb. It developed chemical processes to separate plutonium, and created the first weighable sample. The lab produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction in the Chicago Pile-1 nuclear reactor, which was constructed under the stands of the university's old football stadium, Stagg Field. Another reactor, Chicago Pile-3, the first reactor to use heavy water as a neutron moderator, was built in early 1944. The Metallurgical Laboratory also designed the X-10 Graphite Reactor at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the B Reactor at the Hanford Engineer Works. It became the first of the national laboratories, the Argonne National Laboratory, on 1 July 1946. (Full article...)

Part of the History of the Manhattan Project series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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Did you know...

Raindrop cake

... that raindrop cake (pictured) is a dessert made of water and agar, and has practically no calories?
... that Slovene-American Katka Zupančič wrote children's poetry about the austerity of immigrant life?
... that there are no rules against reverse rotational lifts, in which the woman lifts the man, as competition elements in ice dance?
... that the B&B Carousell, built over 100 years ago, is the last operating carousel in Coney Island?
... that Tosia Altman's blonde hair and fluency in Polish enabled her to pass as a gentile and travel between Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland to organize armed resistance to the Holocaust?
... that the Jordan Misja Artistic Lyceum in Tirana counts among its alumni most Albanian professional artists, as well as the current Prime Minister of Albania?
... that Mary Blair Moody became the first woman to earn an MD from Buffalo Medical College?
... that one of the scientific names in use for the Kimberley death adder was given in honour of actor Burt Lancaster?

In the news

National Museum of Brazil fire

Typhoon Jebi hits Japan, killing at least 16 people and causing extensive damage in the Kansai region.
A fire (pictured) destroys the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.
In Gaelic football, Dublin win the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, defeating Tyrone in the final.
In Indonesia, the Asian Games close, with China leading the medal tally.
An explosion kills Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

On this day

September 5

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme

1697 – War of the Grand Alliance: A French warship captured York Factory, a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company in present-day Manitoba, Canada.
1882 – A group of London school boys led by Bobby Buckle founded Hotspur Football Club so they could continue to play sports during the winter months.
1943 – World War II: American and Australian airborne forces made a landing at Nadzab as part of the New Guinea campaign against Japan.
1975 – Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (pictured), a devotee of Charles Manson, attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.
1977 – NASA launched the robotic space probe Voyager 1, currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth.

Caspar David Friedrich (b. 1774) · Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (b. 1817) · Neerja Bhanot (d. 1986)

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Today's featured picture

Johann Christian Bach (5 September 1735 – 1 January 1782) was a composer of the Classical era, the eighteenth child of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the youngest of his eleven sons. Bach was taught by his father and then, after the latter's death, by his half-brother C. P. E. Bach. Bach moved to Italy in 1754, and then to London in 1762, where he became known as the "London Bach". Bach's compositions include eleven operas, as well as chamber music, orchestral music and compositions for keyboard music. In 1764 Bach met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was eight at the time, and spent five months teaching him composition. He had considerable influence on Mozart, and was later described by scholars as his "only, true teacher".

This portrait of Bach was painted in 1776 by Thomas Gainsborough, as part of a collection started by Bach's former teacher Padre Martini. It now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Painting: Thomas Gainsborough

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