Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 July 16

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K-25 gaseous diffusion plant

K-25 was the Manhattan Project codename for the program that produced enriched uranium for atomic bombs using the gaseous diffusion method at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in the United States. When the production facility was built in 1944, the four-story gaseous diffusion plant (pictured) was the world's largest building, with over 152,000 square metres (1,640,000 sq ft) of floor space. At the height of construction, over 25,000 workers were employed on the site. Slightly enriched uranium from the S-50 thermal diffusion plant in the form of the highly corrosive uranium hexafluoride was fed into the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant; its product in turn was fed into the Y-12 electromagnetic plant. The enriched uranium was used in the Little Boy atomic bomb used in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Production of enriched uranium ended in 1964, gaseous diffusion ceased in 1985, and demolition of the facility was completed in 2017. (This article is part of a featured topic: History of the Manhattan Project.)

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Did you know ...

Embassy of the Philippines, Kuala Lumpur

... that the chancery of the Embassy of the Philippines (pictured) in Kuala Lumpur was formerly the home of Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first prime minister of Malaysia?
... that Fred Sargeant was one of the gay rights activists who proposed the first Christopher Street Liberation Day—now the NYC Pride March—to commemorate the Stonewall riots?
... that according to one Korean creation narrative, there was a time when noodles grew on shrubs and rice cakes grew on leaves?
... that when one president of the General Union of Public Sector and Transport Workers tried to negotiate with the Nazi government, the other planned to resign in protest?
... that the Emilio López Zamora dam in Ensenada, Baja California, almost overflowed on March 4, 1978?
... that among the 444 songs in the hymnal Cantate!, published by the pedagogue Heinrich Bone in 1847, was his "Komm, Schöpfer Geist, kehr bei uns ein" ("Come, Holy Spirit, visit us")?
... that to bypass censorship in Poland, some authors turned to self-censorship, Aesopian language, and the Polish underground press?
... that at the 2005 World Snooker Championship, a player turned up without his cue stick and with a hangover?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

NEOWISE over Ukraine

Several major Twitter accounts are compromised to promote a bitcoin scam.
Comet NEOWISE (pictured) is visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere.
In the Singaporean general election, the People's Action Party retains its supermajority with Lee Hsien Loong remaining as the country's prime minister.
Bulgaria and Croatia join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism 2, the first major step in their adoption of the euro.

On this day

July 16

Haile Selassie on a 1930
Time magazine cover

1377 – The ten-year-old Richard II was crowned King of England.
1769 – Spanish friar Junípero Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the first Franciscan mission in the Alta California region of New Spain.
1931 – Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie (pictured) signed the nation's first constitution, intended to officially replace the Fetha Nagast, which had been the supreme law since the Middle Ages.
1950 – Korean War: A Korean People's Army unit massacred thirty-one U.S. Army prisoners of war.
2007 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 M_W struck Niigata Prefecture, Japan, causing a leak of radioactive gases from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant.

Sarah Allen (d. 1849)
Albert Kesselring (d. 1960)
Gareth Bale (b. 1989)

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Today's featured picture

Francesco Alidosi (1455–1511) was an Italian cardinal and condottiero. He accompanied Giuliano della Rovere to France in 1494, and continued to serve him when della Rovere became Pope Julius II. Alidosi was elected the bishop of Mileto in 1504, and was transferred to the see of Pavia in 1505. He exerted much influence over the pope, who put great trust in him; however, he also made many enemies. In 1510, he was accused of high treason, but persuaded the pope that Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, was in fact the guilty party. The duke was infuriated and had Alidosi killed by his troops.

This oil-on-panel painting, entitled Portrait of a Cardinal, was painted by Italian Renaissance artist Raphael around 1510; the identity of the sitter is uncertain, but may be Alidosi. The work is in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.

Painting credit: Raphael

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