Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 August 26
From today's featured article
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The Old Head coinage were British coins struck and dated between 1893 and 1901, with a portrait by Thomas Brock of an aged Queen Victoria (example shown). It replaced the Jubilee coinage, struck since 1887, which had been widely criticised. In 1891, a committee was appointed to consider the matter, and recommended replacements. Some coins continued with their old reverse designs, with Benedetto Pistrucci's design for the sovereign extended to the half sovereign, and others gained new ones, created either by Brock or by Edward Poynter. The issue became the first to bear, as part of the monarch's royal titles, IND IMP, abbreviated Latin for 'Empress of India'. The issue originally consisted only of gold and silver coins, but in 1895, the Brock head of Victoria was placed on the bronze coinage (the penny and its fractions) as well. They continued to be struck until Victoria's death in 1901 caused a change in the obverse design; starting in 1902, the coinage bore the head of her successor, Edward VII. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
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- ... that William George Carlile Kent (pictured) was court-martialled for disobeying deposed Governor William Bligh's order to destroy Sydney?
- ... that the Acoustic Atlas at Montana State University Library helped to create a public domain archive of sounds from Yellowstone National Park?
- ... that in 1836, a jury ignored the judge's advice and found Daniel Arnoldi guilty of assaulting a black man?
- ... that in Crippled, author Frances Ryan describes a disabled British woman who was unable to afford heating or her specialist meals due to an austerity programme that began in 2010?
- ... that amateur astronomer A. O. Granger expanded his home to include the largest observatory and telescope in the southeastern United States?
- ... that in the concert Songbird Sings the Classics, Regine Velasquez paid homage to the music of Burt Bacharach, Leonard Bernstein, Michel Legrand, Henry Mancini, and Barry Manilow?
- ... that Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo dancer George Verdak was awarded an honorary doctorate by Butler University?
- ... that the Scilly Boys' idea to try and beat the transatlantic rowing record was started while they were at the pub?
In the news
- William Ruto (pictured) is elected President of Kenya.
- In Giza, Egypt, a church fire spreads to a nursery, killing 41 people, including at least 18 children.
- Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, is critically injured after a stabbing at a speech in the United States.
- A mass fish kill occurs in the river Oder in Poland and Germany.
On this day
August 26: Heroes' Day in Namibia; Women's Equality Day in the United States
- 683 – Second Fitna: The Battle of al-Harra was fought between Umayyad forces and the rebel defenders of Medina at a lava field northeast of the city.
- 1346 – Hundred Years' War: English forces established the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights at the Battle of Crécy (depicted).
- 1928 – At a cafe in Paisley, Scotland, a woman found the remains of a snail in her bottle of ginger beer, giving rise to the landmark civil action case Donoghue v Stevenson.
- 1955 – Pather Panchali, the first film in The Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, was released and went on to win many Indian and international film awards.
- 1966 – The South African Defence Force launched an attack against SWAPO guerrilla fighters at Omugulugwombashe, starting the South African Border War.
- James Franck (b. 1882)
- Katherine Johnson (b. 1918)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams (d. 1958)
From today's featured list
One hundred and twelve cardinal electors participated in the papal conclaves of August and October 1978, which were respectively convened to elect a pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, to succeed Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul I following their respective deaths on 6 August and 28 September 1978. According to the apostolic constitution Romano Pontifici eligendo, which governed the vacancy of the Holy See, only cardinals who had not passed their 80th birthday on the day on which the conclave began were eligible to participate. The cardinal electors entered the Sistine Chapel to begin the first conclave on 25 August. On 26 August, after four ballots over two days, they elected Cardinal Albino Luciani, Patriarch of Venice, who took the papal name John Paul I (pictured, left). After his death 33 days into his papacy, the cardinal electors again entered the Sistine Chapel to begin the second conclave on 14 October. On 16 October, after eight ballots over three days, they elected Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, Archbishop of Kraków, who took the papal name John Paul II (pictured, right). (Full list...)
Today's featured picture
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The white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) is a species of bee-eater widely distributed in sub-equatorial Africa. Like other bee-eaters, it is a richly coloured, slender bird, but with a distinctive black mask, white forehead, square tail, and a bright red throat, with a length of 23 centimetres (9 in). This white-fronted bee-eater was photographed on the Linyanti River in Namibia. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
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