Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 March 15

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From today's featured article

Alloxylon pinnatum, the Dorrigo waratah, is a tree of the family Proteaceae found in warm-temperate rainforest of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales in eastern Australia. It has shiny green leaves that are either lobed and up to 30 cm (12 in) long, or spear-shaped and up to 15 cm (5.9 in) long. The prominent pinkish-red flower heads with 50 to 140 individual flowers appear in spring and summer. These are followed by rectangular woody seed pods, which bear two rows of winged seeds. Known for many years as Oreocallis pinnata, it was transferred to the new genus Alloxylon by Peter Weston and Mike Crisp in 1991; the genus contains four species previously classified in Oreocallis that are found in Australasia. The tree's terminal tubular flowers indicate that it is pollinated by birds. Classified as "near threatened" under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992, the Dorrigo waratah has proven difficult to keep alive in cultivation. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Liberty County Jail

... that Liberty County Jail (pictured) in Hinesville, Georgia, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was once described by the state governor as a "rotten, filthy rathole"?
... that Frieda Caplan, a pioneer of the specialty-produce industry in the U.S., introduced the kiwifruit to the American market?
... that Dubarry Park hosted the Irish rugby union team's home matches in the Six Nations Under 20s Championship between 2005 and 2015?
... that Haraguchi Kensai led the Imperial Japanese Army's 13th Division in the invasion of Sakhalin?
... that Ohio television station WSWO-TV went off the air the same week that its owner was arrested for stealing equipment from other stations?
... that for more than a decade, wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya's father travelled daily from his village to Delhi to deliver milk and fruits to him?
... that a new wireless-charging standard for electric vehicles guides the driver over the charging spot by triangulating the charger's signal?
... that Nikolai Moskvitelev, a former officer in the Soviet Air Defence Forces, was still flying in old age – including a Sukhoi Su-30 on his 80th birthday, and a Yakovlev Yak-52 just before his 90th?

In the news

Outbreak of COVID-19 as of 13 March 2020

The World Health Organization recognises the coronavirus outbreak (map pictured) as a pandemic, while the Italian government implements a national quarantine.
In cricket, the Women's T20 World Cup concludes with Australia defeating India in the final.
Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara win the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

On this day

March 15: Ides of March

Nicholas II of Russia

856 – Byzantine emperor Michael III overthrew his mother Theodora's regency to assume power for himself.
1311 – In the Battle of Halmyros, the Catalan Company defeated the forces of Walter V, Count of Brienne, taking control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in present-day Greece.
1917 – Russian Revolution: Tsar Nicholas II (pictured) was forced to abdicate in the February Revolution, ending three centuries of Romanov rule.
1956 – The musical My Fair Lady, based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, debuted at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway in New York City.
1990 – Iraqi authorities hanged Iranian freelance reporter Farzad Bazoft on charges of spying for Israel.

Albert of Schwarzburg (d. 1327) · Johan Vaaler (b. 1866) · Lauren Ebsary (b. 1983)

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Today's featured picture

Jaroslava Muchová (15 March 1909 – 9 November 1986) was a Czech painter, the daughter of painter Alphonse Mucha and the sister of writer and translator Jiří Mucha. Her father created this pencil drawing of her, on beige paper highlighted with white paint, probably around 1920. She sat for him on numerous occasions, and may have been bored by the experience, judging by the finger-tapping in this sketch. She studied ballet as a child, but eventually followed in the footsteps of her father, assisting him in his project of twenty monumental canvases known as The Slav Epic, depicting the history of all the Slavic peoples of the world. After World War II, she was instrumental in restoring these canvases, which had been wrapped and hidden away to prevent them being seized by the Nazis.

Drawing credit: Alphonse Mucha

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