Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 July 22

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From today's featured article

Location of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in southern Africa

William Harper (22 July 1916 – 8 September 2006) was a politician, general contractor and Royal Air Force fighter pilot who served as a Cabinet minister in Rhodesia (or Southern Rhodesia) from 1962 to 1968. He signed Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1965. Born into an Anglo-Indian merchant family in Calcutta, he joined the RAF in 1937. He served as an officer throughout the Second World War and was wounded in the Battle of Britain. He emigrated to Rhodesia on retiring from the air force. Entering politics with the Dominion Party in 1958, he became Minister of Irrigation, Roads and Road Traffic in the Rhodesian Front government in 1962. When the Prime Minister Winston Field resigned in 1964, Harper was a front-runner to succeed him, but lost out to Ian Smith. After leading opposition in the Cabinet to some of Smith's negotiations, he was dismissed. He left for South Africa before majority rule began in Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

A 1961 Cameroon banknote from the Salem collection

... that while collecting the banknotes of Africa (Cameroon note pictured), Ibrahim Salem found that "the Dark Continent had some of the most colorful ones"?
... that at the unveiling of Alexander Phimister Proctor's statue of Robert E. Lee in 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called Lee "one of our greatest American gentlemen"?
... that Nozomi Nishida is a member of Walküre, a music group which exists both in real life and in the anime Macross Delta?
... that army general Abdul Haris Nasution considered the 1945 Battle of Semarang the first major battle for the Indonesian nation?
... that Paula R. Pietromonaco found that attachment styles affect how people think and behave during conflict?
... that satellites in a Tundra orbit trace a figure-eight across the sky?
... that Felipe Reinoso served in the Connecticut House of Representatives prior to contesting an open seat in the Congress of the Republic of Peru?
... that the fly Phytobia betulae is just 5 mm (0.2 in) long but the tunnel made by its larva inside a birch tree may reach 17 m (56 ft)?

In the news

Joe and Anthony Russo

Avengers: Endgame (directors Russo brothers pictured) becomes the highest-grossing film, surpassing Avatar.
An arson attack at an animation studio in Kyoto, Japan, kills at least 34 people.
The World Health Organization declares the Ebola outbreak in Congo an international public health emergency.
The European Parliament elects Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission.

On this day

July 22: Feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene (Christianity); Pi Approximation Day

Rock inscribed by Alexander Mackenzie

838 – Arab–Byzantine wars: The forces of the Abbasid Caliphate defeated Byzantine Empire troops, led by Emperor Theophilos himself, at the Battle of Anzen near present-day Dazman, Turkey.
1793 – Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie inscribed his name on a rock (pictured) near Dean Channel after becoming the first recorded person to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico.
1933 – Wiley Post became the first pilot to fly solo around the world, landing after a seven-day, nineteen-hour flight at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York City.
1975 – Stanley Forman took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo Fire Escape Collapse, which spurred action to improve the safety of fire escapes across the United States.
2002 – The Israel Defense Forces dropped a bomb on the home of Salah Shehade, the leader of the military arm of Hamas, killing him, his family and some neighboring civilians, among them seven children.

Sobhuza II (b. 1899) · James Whitcomb Riley (d. 1916) · Harold Larwood (d. 1995)

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From today's featured list

Daniel (front) and Henrik Sedin

The King Clancy Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community. The winner is chosen by "a special panel of representatives" from the Professional Hockey Writers' Association and the NHL Broadcasters' Association. The trophy is named in honour of Francis M. "King" Clancy, a former player for the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs, who later went on to become a coach, referee and team executive. The trophy was first awarded in 1988 and was presented to the NHL by Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard, who called Clancy "one of the greatest humanitarians that ever lived". Five teams have had more than one player win the award. Three members of the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins, have each won the award. Henrik Sedin is the only player who has won it more than once. Henrik and his brother Daniel (both pictured) are the only recipients to have won the trophy jointly. The most recent winner, for the 2018–19 season, is Jason Zucker. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Mary Jackson (1921–2005) was an African American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which was succeeded by NASA in 1958. For most of her career, she worked at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; starting as a computer at the segregated West Area Computing division, she later took advanced engineering classes and, in 1958, became NASA's first black female engineer.

After 34 years at NASA, Jackson had earned the most senior engineering title available. Realizing that she could not earn further promotions without becoming a supervisor, she accepted a demotion to become a manager of the Federal Women's Program in the NASA Office of Equal Opportunity Programs, as well as of the Affirmative Action Program. In this role, she worked to influence both the hiring and promotion of women in NASA's science, engineering and mathematics careers. She was portrayed by Janelle Monáe as a lead character in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. This picture, taken in 1980, shows Jackson working at NASA Langley.

Photograph credit: Langley Research Center; restored by Adam Cuerden

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