Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 July 12

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From today's featured article

The National Union of Freedom Fighters (NUFF) was an armed Marxist revolutionary group in Trinidad and Tobago. The group fought a guerrilla campaign to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Eric Williams following the failed 1970 Black Power uprising and a mutiny in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment. NUFF formed from the Western United Liberation Front, a loose grouping of largely unemployed men from the western suburbs of Port of Spain. NUFF drew disaffected members of the National Joint Action Committee, a Black Power organisation, and established a training camp in south Trinidad. In 1972 and 1973 NUFF attacked police posts to acquire weapons, robbed banks, and carried out an insurgent campaign against the government. With improved intelligence capabilities, the government eventually killed or captured most of its leadership. Eighteen NUFF members and three policemen were killed over the course of the insurgency. NUFF was anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist and was notable for the extent to which women played an active role in the organisation, including among its guerrilla fighters. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Branka Veselinović

... that Serbian actress Branka Veselinović (pictured), whose career started in 1938, still performs aged 102?
... that the anti-apartheid anthem "Gimme Hope Jo'anna" was "bastardised" by being adapted as a yoghurt advert song titled "Gimme Yop, Me Mama"?
... that Christa Ludwig, known for fiction for young horse-lovers, received a prize after her novel about Else Lasker-Schüler's late years in Jerusalem was published?
... that the 2014 book Packaged Pleasures investigated the history of consumer culture and how the rise of packaging for products created "transmissible packets of pleasure" for popular consumption?
... that Ian Ang, the co-founder and CEO of the gaming chair company Secretlab, was a StarCraft II champion?
... that Róbert Berény's 1927–1928 oil painting Sleeping Lady with Black Vase was lost until 2009, when it was spotted being used as set dressing in the film Stuart Little?
... that Brigadier General James H. Stratton never saw combat in his thirty-year military career, but he was still shot once?
... that many Broadway stars went to Therapy on Monday nights?

In the news

Dilip Kumar in 1946

Indian actor Dilip Kumar (pictured) dies at the age of 98.
In ice hockey, the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals.
President of Haiti Jovenel Moïse is assassinated and interim prime minister Claude Joseph assumes leadership.
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 crashes on approach to Palana Airport, Russia, killing all 28 people on board.

On this day

July 12

Japanese battleship Kawachi

Japanese battleship Kawachi

927 – King Æthelstan of England secured the submission of four northern rulers: Constantine II of Scotland, Hywel Dda of Deheubarth, Ealdred I of Bamburgh, and Owain ap Dyfnwal of Strathclyde.
1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: A squadron of British ships of the line defeated a larger squadron of Spanish and French vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar.
1918 – An explosion in the ammunition magazine of the Japanese battleship Kawachi (pictured) resulted in the deaths of more than 600 officers and crewmen.
2006 – Hezbollah forces crossed the Israel–Lebanon border and attacked Israeli military positions while firing rockets and mortars at Israeli towns, sparking a five-week war.

Bahlul Lodi (d. 1489)
Josiah Wedgwood (b. 1730)
Elsie de Wolfe (d. 1950)

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From today's featured list

Yuzuru Hanyu

Throughout his career, Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu has won at the Olympics twice (2014 and 2018) and achieved a Super Slam for having won all major competitions in his senior and junior career. He is the first skater in history to successfully land a quadruple loop jump in competition and has broken world records nineteen times—the most times amongst singles skaters since the introduction of the ISU Judging System in 2004. Hanyu is the current world record holder for the men's short program, in addition to the historical world records for the short program, free skating and combined total score. In recognition of his achievements, Hanyu has been awarded numerous accolades. He is the youngest recipient of the People's Honour Award (in 2018) by the prime minister of Japan. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The crested shriketit (Falcunculus frontatus) is a species of bird endemic to Australia, where it inhabits open eucalypt forest and woodland. It has a parrot-like beak that is used for stripping bark off trees in order to access insects and other invertebrates underneath. Males are larger than females in wing length, weight and bill-size, and have black throats, while females have olive-green throats; both sexes have bold black and white markings on the face. This male crested shriketit was photographed in Dharug National Park, New South Wales.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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