Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 September 8

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Wipeout 3 is a racing video game developed by Psygnosis and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation console, first released on 8 September 1999. In this third game in the Wipeout series, players control extremely fast anti-gravity ships in a futuristic setting and use weapons to force other contenders out of the race. Psygnosis hired the British design studio Designers Republic to develop the game's look and feel, wanting a futuristic yet plausible setting. The game's soundtrack was assembled from electronica artists including The Chemical Brothers and Orbital, as well as other performers. Critics praised Wipeout 3's audiovisual presentation, with complaints leveled at the game's unforgiving learning curve and controls. Despite overall positive reception, the game was a financial disappointment. Wipeout 3 Special Edition, featuring additional content, was released in 2000, and the next entry in the series, Wipeout Fusion, was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2002. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

West Point cadets toss their hats.

... that West Point cadets fill their hats with notes and other items for small children to collect after the hat toss (pictured) during their graduation ceremony?
... that former Mexican police chief Gilberto Lerma Plata was ordered to forfeit US$10 billion in drug profits?
... that Zenker's fruit bat often forages in areas of forest where Haumania liebrechtsiana grows, a plant favoured by gorillas and chimpanzees?
... that Chinese Muslim scholar Yu Zhengui worked as a laogai labourer during the Cultural Revolution?
... that the Jewish Democratic Committee and the Romanian Communist Party together sent Romanian Jews to Israel, hoping to make it a communist ally?
... that the African-American conductor Henry Lewis conducted the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra in support of America's cultural diplomacy initiatives after World War II?
... that the Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester ('So-called Left Radical Wind Band') played at demonstrations against nuclear power and far-right politics, and at the Berliner Philharmonie?
... that Claude Ruggieri described pyrotechny as "a dark chaos which one cannot penetrate without the torch of chemistry"?

In the news

Robert Mugabe

The Indian Space Research Organisation loses contact with Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lunar lander approximately 2.1 kilometres (1.3 mi) above the Moon's surface.
Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe (pictured) dies at the age of 95.
A fire aboard a charter boat near Santa Cruz Island in California leaves at least thirty-three people dead and one other missing.
Hurricane Dorian makes landfall in the Bahamas as a Category 5 hurricane, killing at least 30 people and leaving hundreds of others missing.

On this day

September 8: Victory Day in Malta

Severn Bridge

1755 – French and Indian War: Despite being ambushed at the start of the Battle of Lake George, British colonial troops and their Mohawk allies were able to defeat French and Canadien troops and their Indian allies.
1831 – William IV and Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen were crowned king and queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1900 – The Great Galveston hurricane, the deadliest disaster in U.S. history, struck Galveston, Texas, with estimated winds of 135 miles per hour (215 km/h) at landfall, killing at least 6,000 people.
1966 – Queen Elizabeth II opened the Severn Bridge (pictured), suggesting that it marked the dawn of a new economic era for South Wales.
1994 – USAir Flight 427 crashed on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, resulting in 132 deaths and the longest accident investigation in the history of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Sabrina Sidney (d. 1843) · Andrei Kirilenko (b. 1906) · Margaret Hodge (b. 1944)

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Today's featured picture

The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was a hyperactive tropical cyclone season and the costliest on record, with a damage total of at least $282.02 billion (2017 USD). Featuring 17 named storms, 10 hurricanes and 6 major hurricanes, 2017 had the fifth-most named storms since reliable records began in 1851 – tied with 1936 – and the most major hurricanes since 2005. Collectively, the tropical cyclones were responsible for at least 3,364 deaths – the most fatalities in a single season since 2005. Most of the season's damage was due to hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Another notable hurricane, Nate, was the worst natural disaster in Costa Rican history. The names Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate were retired following the season due to the number of deaths and amount of damage they caused. This season is also one of only six years on record to feature multiple Category 5 hurricanes and the only season other than 2007 with two hurricanes making landfall at that intensity. All ten of the season's hurricanes occurred in a row – the greatest number of consecutive hurricanes in the satellite era, and tied for the highest number of consecutive hurricanes ever observed in the Atlantic basin. A hyperactive season, 2017 had the highest accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) since 2005, while a record three hurricanes each had an ACE of over 40: Irma, Jose and Maria.

This picture, taken by the VIIRS instrument on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Suomi NPP satellite on September 8, 2017, shows three hurricanes simultaneously active in the western Atlantic: Katia (left) making landfall in the Mexican state of Veracruz, Irma (center) approaching Cuba, and Jose (right) northeast of the Leeward Islands at peak intensity.

Photograph credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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