Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 August 12

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From today's featured article

Statue of Nyuserre Ini
in his youth and old age

Nyuserre Ini was a pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, the sixth ruler of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. The younger son of Neferirkare Kakai and queen Khentkaus II and the brother of the short-lived king Neferefre, Nyuserre probably lived in the second half of the 25th century BCE and reigned for more than two decades. He was succeeded by Menkauhor Kaiu, who could have been his nephew and a son of Neferefre. Nyuserre built three pyramids for himself and his queens and completed a further three for his father, mother and brother, all in the necropolis of Abusir. His temple dedicated to the sun god Ra was named Shesepibre or "Joy of the heart of Ra"; it is the largest such temple that survives from the Old Kingdom. He also completed the Nekhenre, the Sun Temple of Userkaf in Abu Gorab, and the valley temple of Menkaure in the Giza necropolis. The state-sponsored funerary cult established at Nyuserre's death lasted until the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Diagram of an ice hockey rink

... that hockey executive Cecil Duncan helped introduce the centre red line of an ice hockey rink (pictured) to allow more passing and create excitement?
... that the song and visual images in the music video for "Bola Maya" express the pain of those who lose their loved ones in foreign lands?
... that in 1992, Leo J. O'Donovan was ordered by a Vatican ecclesiastical court to revoke the funding of an abortion-rights group at Georgetown University?
... that the Central Industrial Security Force Act was amended after the 2008 Mumbai attacks to provide the force with a mandate to secure private enterprises?
... that the statue A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020 was inspired by a raised fist at a Black Lives Matter protest?
... that when the wealthy Abbasid prince Muhammad ibn Sulayman died in 789, government agents found vast quantities of spoilt food in his palace, and dumped it on the street outside?
... that the actors of The Last of Us Part II could improvise their performances and were allowed up to 20 or 30 takes?
... that Japan's Naki Sumo Crying Baby Festival has showdowns between infants in the arms of sumo wrestlers?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Alexander Lukashenko

Pro-democracy protests erupt in Belarus amidst the contested reelection of incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko (pictured).
Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his cabinet resign in the wake of the explosions in Beirut that killed 220 people.
An Air India Express aircraft overruns the runway at Calicut International Airport in Kerala, India, killing 18 people on board.
The incumbent Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance coalition claims a landslide victory in the parliamentary election.

On this day

August 12

Quagga mare at London Zoo

1883 – The last known quagga (example pictured), a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at the Natura Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
1914 – World War I: Belgian troops were victorious at the Battle of Halen, but were ultimately unable to stop the German invasion of the country.
1945 – An official administrative history of the Manhattan Project, written by American physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth, was released to the public just days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
1969 – Riots erupted in the Bogside area of Derry and spread across much of Northern Ireland.
1990 – Near Faith, South Dakota, American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found one of the most complete discovered skeletons of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Cecil B. DeMille (b. 1881)
Percy Mayfield (b. 1920)
Mario Balotelli (b. 1990)

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Today's featured picture

Lietava Castle is an extensive ruined castle in the Súľov Mountains of northern Slovakia. It was built some time in the 13th century, most likely as an administrative and military centre. It occupies a strategic position alongside the Amber Road, a trade route along which amber and other goods were transported southwards from the Baltic Sea. Originally a four-storey tower, it was expanded and reconstructed under a succession of owners, before being abandoned in the seventeenth century. The ruins contain handsome fireplaces, wall inscriptions, coats of arms, and renaissance portals, which attest to its previous grandeur.

Photograph credit: Vladimír Ruček

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