Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 September 16

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From today's featured article

The Roman withdrawal from Africa in 255 BC was the attempt by the Roman Republic to rescue the survivors of their defeated expeditionary force to Carthaginian Africa (in what is now north-eastern Tunisia) during the First Punic War. A force of 390 warships fought and defeated 200 Carthaginian vessels off Cape Hermaeum (the modern Cape Bon or Ras ed-Dar), north of the town of Aspis. The Carthaginians had 114 of their ships captured, together with their crews, and 16 sunk. Most modern historians assume there were no Roman losses. The Romans landed in Aspis – where the Roman survivors of the previous year's invasion were besieged – sortied, dispersed the besiegers and raided the surrounding country for food. All then re-embarked and left for Italy. While returning the Roman fleet encountered a storm off the south-east corner of Sicily; 384 ships were sunk and more than 100,000 men were lost. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Naga Thein Hlaing

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... that Koenigia islandica is considered the most hardy annual plant in the world?
... that Anthony "Big Tony" Ciulla had to enter the United States Federal Witness Protection Program after he testified in a trial about rigged horse races?
... that the Alfred Fischer Hall, built as the machinery hall for a 1912 coal mine, was the venue for a concert performance of Beethoven's Fidelio in 2021?
... that American historian Donald R. Hickey was referred to as "the dean of 1812 scholarship" by The New Yorker?
... that Greece won the UEFA Euro 2004 Final despite never having previously won a match at a major tournament?
... that the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the probable cause of the 2014 Bedford Gulfstream IV crash was the flight crew's failure to perform the flight-control check before takeoff?
... that the last commanding officer of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, Charlie Aust, described himself as "seedy moustache, glasses and intensely ugly" so soldiers knew how to identify him?

In the news

Inspiration4 crew

SpaceX launches Inspiration4 (crew pictured), the first all-civilian orbital spaceflight.
British tennis player Emma Raducanu wins the US Open, becoming the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam title.
In Gaelic football, Tyrone win the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, defeating Mayo in the final.

On this day

September 16

Mikoyan MiG-31

1776 – American Revolutionary War: American colonists defeated British troops at the Battle of Harlem Heights on the island of Manhattan.
1961 – Typhoon Nancy, which possibly had the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, made landfall in Muroto, Japan.
1975 – The prototype of the Mikoyan MiG-31 (example pictured), one of the fastest combat jets in the world, made its maiden flight.
1979 – Eight people escaped from East Germany to West Germany in a home-made hot air balloon.
2013 – A lone gunman fatally shot twelve people and injured three others at the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C.

Mikhail Kutuzov (b. 1745)
Miriam Benjamin (b. 1861)
Louis Réard (d. 1984)

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Today's featured picture

Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London. Founded in 1840, its living collections include some 27,000 taxa while the herbarium houses over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens. This photograph shows the Davies Alpine House, which opened in 2006. The design of the greenhouse encourages natural airflow, the automatically operated blinds prevent overheating, and the glass is of a special type that allows maximum transmission of ultraviolet light. The structure houses a collection of alpine plants that grow above the tree line in their localities of origin.

Photograph credit: Daniel Case

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