Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 June 7

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From today's featured article

I-69 near Exit 70

Interstate 69 in Michigan enters that state south of Coldwater and passes the cities of Lansing and Flint in the Lower Peninsula. I-69 is a part of the Interstate Highway System, and will eventually run from the Mexican border in Texas to the Canadian border at Port Huron, Michigan. A north–south freeway from the Indiana–Michigan border to the Lansing area, it changes direction to east–west after running concurrently with I-96. The freeway continues to Port Huron before terminating in the middle of the twin-span Blue Water Bridge while running concurrently with I-94 at the border. There are four related business loops for I-69 in the state, connecting the freeway to adjacent cities. Predecessors to I-69 include the first M-29, US Highway 27 (US 27), M-78 and M-21. The freeway was not included on the original Interstate Highway System planning maps in the mid-1950s, but it was added in 1958 along a shorter route. Michigan built segments of freeway for the future Interstate in the 1960s, and the state was granted additional Interstate mileage in 1968 to extend I-69 north and east to Flint. Later extensions in 1973 and 1987 resulted in the modern highway. The first freeway segment designated as I-69 in Michigan opened in 1967, and the last was completed in 1992, finishing Michigan's Interstate System. US 27 previously ran concurrently with I-69 from the Indiana–Michigan state line north to the Lansing area, but this designation was removed in 2002. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Flame-colored tanager

... that the red-headed, rose-throated and flame-colored tanagers (pictured) are not tanagers but cardinals?
... that Ronald Graham, a star in the original Broadway casts of musicals by Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, and Arthur Schwartz, began his career in radio after winning a national singing contest in 1931?
... that the Dolmen de Soto is one of about 1,650 neolithic burial sites in Andalusia, and assumed to have been built between 4,500 and 5,000 years ago?
... that jelly rolls are sensitive to interest rates?
... that the proverb "speech is silver, silence is golden" has been attributed to "wise men of old", and traced to Arabic texts more than a millennium old?
... that early in her career, Maria Calegari danced principal roles in every ballet performed one weekend by the New York City Ballet?
... that the Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora, passed in 1964, established the first international rules for wildlife conservation in Antarctica?
... that Fontainea venosa is a vulnerable rare plant in Australia?

In the news

Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi

Waddani, led by Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi (pictured), wins the most seats in the Somaliland parliamentary election.
French writer David Diop and American translator Anna Moschovakis win the International Booker Prize for At Night All Blood Is Black.
The container ship X-Press Pearl sinks near Colombo, Sri Lanka, leaking nitric acid and oil and causing a major environmental disaster.
The Iranian Navy's modified Ol-class tanker IRIS Kharg catches fire and sinks in the Gulf of Oman near Jask, Iran.

On this day

June 7: Journalist's Day in Argentina (1810); Queen's Official Birthday in New Zealand (2021); Western Australia Day (2021)

Mosaic of Aelia Eudocia

421 – Roman emperor Theodosius II married Aelia Eudocia (depicted), who later helped to protect Greek pagans and Jews from persecution.
1628 – The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document that set out specific liberties of individuals, received royal assent from King Charles I.
1965 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that a Connecticut law prohibiting the use of contraceptives violated the "right to marital privacy".
1975 – The inaugural edition of the Cricket World Cup, the premier international championship of men's One Day International cricket, began in England.
1981 – The Israeli Air Force attacked and disabled the Osirak nuclear reactor under the assumption that it was about to start producing plutonium to further an Iraqi nuclear-weapons program.

Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (b. 1757)
Knud Rasmussen (b. 1879)
Jean Harlow (d. 1937)

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From today's featured list

Latvia has submitted a variety of films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, an annual award presented at the Academy Awards by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a primarily non-English feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States. Latvia's first submission was The Child of Man in 1992, following the disestablishment of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. Submissions by the country are decided by a jury panel of experts on behalf of the National Film Center of Latvia, and the country has sent a film each year since 2012. After the submission deadline, the Academy selection committee reviews all entries and determines the five nominees for the award. The most recent Latvian submission is Blizzard of Souls (2020). Latvia has entered twelve films for the category, but none have been nominated. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the two sexes of the same species exhibit different characteristics. Differences may include secondary sex characteristics, size, weight, color, or markings, as well as behavioral and cognitive differences. In the butterfly species Colias dimera (also known as the Dimera sulphur), seen here mating in Venezuela, the male on the right is a brighter shade of yellow than the female.

Photograph credit: Paolo Costa Baldi

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