Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 February 26

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From today's featured article

Theatrical release poster of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a German silent horror film, first released on 26 February 1920. It was directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. Considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema, it tells the story of an insane hypnotist (Werner Krauss) who uses a somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) to commit murders. The film features a dark and twisted visual style. The sets have sharp-pointed forms, oblique and curving lines, and structures that lean and twist in unusual angles. The film's design team, Hermann Warm, Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig, recommended a fantastic, graphic style over a naturalistic one. With a violent and insane authority figure as its antagonist, the film expresses the theme of brutal and irrational authority. Considered a classic, it helped draw worldwide attention to the artistic merit of German cinema and had a major influence on American films, particularly in the genres of horror and film noir. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Oscar Pfaus

... that Abwehr agent and Nazi propagandist Oscar Pfaus (pictured) once served in the U.S. Army?
... that 2019 concerts in the 19th-century Bergkirche in Wiesbaden, Germany, included Pärt's Passio and Handel's Messiah?
... that Dorothy Doolittle, winner of the inaugural Chicago Marathon, was later an assistant coach for the U.S. team at the 1992 Summer Olympics?
... that in a Europe-wide study, the boreal ensign scale was found to be the most common scale insect present in soil?
... that Chun Chik-yu, a descendant of Hawaiian chiefs, served as governor of Guangdong province in China?
... that the Band of the National Police of Peru has the oldest music library in the country?
... that in 2016, Alice Dearing became the first British swimmer to win a gold medal at the World Junior Open Water Championships?
... that Vint Cerf performed a striptease in a three-piece suit during the Protocol Wars?

In the news

Hosni Mubarak

Twenty one people are killed and more than 189 are injured in riots in North East Delhi as part of the Citizenship Amendment Act protests.
Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak (pictured) dies at the age of 91.
American former film producer Harvey Weinstein is convicted of two felony sex crimes.
Shootings in Hanau, Germany, leave eleven people dead and five others wounded.

On this day

February 26: Ash Wednesday (Western Christianity, 2020); First day of Ayyám-i-Há (Baháʼí Faith, 2020)

Takahashi Korekiyo

1266 – Wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines: Manfred, King of Sicily, was killed in the Battle of Benevento against the forces of Charles of Anjou.
1606 – Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon made the first recorded European landing in Australia, although he believed that he was on New Guinea.
1936 – Imperial Japanese Army troops attempted a coup d'etat, occupying parts of Tokyo, and killing several politicians, including Finance Minister Takahashi Korekiyo (pictured).
1995 – Barings Bank, the oldest merchant bank in London, collapsed after its head derivatives trader in Singapore, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million while making unauthorized trades on futures contracts.

Lorenzino de' Medici (d. 1548) · Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (d. 1806) · Joseph Wapner (d. 2017)

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Today's featured picture

The Cape ground squirrel (Xerus inauris) is a medium-sized rodent native to South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They live in social groups of up to three adult females and several sub-adults. The species mainly inhabits arid or semi-arid areas, preferring velds and grasslands with compact soil, and can also be found in scrub, on floodplains and in agricultural areas. Males live independently, only joining groups when there is a female in estrus. Ever alert to danger, they can drive off predators such as snakes by engaging in mobbing behavior.

This picture shows two Cape ground squirrels photographed in the Namib desert near Solitaire, Namibia.

Photograph credit: Hans Hillewaert

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