Wikipedia:Main Page history/2023 September 4b
From today's featured article
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The Rhodesia Information Centre (RIC) represented the Rhodesian government in Australia from 1966 to 1980. As Australia did not recognise Rhodesia's independence it operated on an unofficial basis. The centre's activities included lobbying politicians, spreading propaganda supporting white minority rule in Rhodesia and advising Australian businesses on how they could evade the United Nations sanctions that had been imposed on the country. These activities violated United Nations Security Council resolutions. The RIC had little impact, with Australian media coverage of the Rhodesian regime being almost entirely negative and the government's opposition to white minority rule in Rhodesia hardening over time. The Australian government made several attempts to force the centre to close, all of which were unsuccessful. The Zimbabwean government shut the centre in May 1980 after the end of white minority rule and later established an official embassy in Australia. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that in 1968, actor Ludovic Antal (pictured) recited a Romanian nationalist poem in front of tourists from Soviet Moldavia, causing them to flee for their bus for fear of a "provocation"?
- ... that a public TV station in Texas held an eight-hour telethon before it even began broadcasting?
- ... that Governor Lauk Shein of Bassein fled the city along with "ten elephant loads of gold and silver", but could not outrun the pursuing Hanthawaddy troops?
- ... that C/1990 K1 (Levy) was the first comet observed by the Hubble Space Telescope, but only short exposures were obtained as the telescope was not yet able to track Solar System bodies?
- ... that the pastor of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral made Nicholas Russo celebrate Mass in the basement of the church because Russo was Italian?
- ... that Nicola Griffith's novella Spear examines how the Roman conquest made Britain an ethnically diverse society?
- ... that Major League Baseball pitcher Charlie Gray was billed as his team's pitcher "of six fingers and six toed fame" and called "a freak" by the Sporting Life?
- ... that "the first rule of the Dunning–Kruger club is you don't know you're a member of the Dunning–Kruger club"?
In the news
- In Johannesburg, South Africa, a residential fire (damage pictured) kills 77 people.
- In Gabon, President Ali Bongo Ondimba is deposed by a military coup shortly after his re-election.
- A business jet crashes in Tver Oblast, Russia, killing Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine others.
- Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 lands near the lunar south pole, carrying the Pragyan rover.
On this day
- 476 – Germanic leader Odoacer captured Ravenna and deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus, marking the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
- 1800 – French Revolutionary Wars: Facing starvation and a death rate of 100 soldiers per day, the French garrison in Malta surrendered to British forces, ending a two-year siege.
- 1843 – The state wedding of Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies and Emperor Pedro II of Brazil took place at the Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro.
- 1977 – The Golden Dragon massacre took place in Chinatown, San Francisco, leaving five dead and spurring police to end Chinese gang violence in the city.
- 2010 – A magnitude-7.1 earthquake (damage pictured) struck the Canterbury Region of New Zealand, causing two deaths and up to NZ$40 billion in damages.
- Maria of Castile (d. 1458)
- Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (d. 1588)
- Konstantin Kalser (b. 1920)
- Yoani Sánchez (b. 1975)
From today's featured list
There are seventy-two extant dasyuromorphs, species in Dasyuromorphia, an order of mammals comprising most of the Australian carnivorous marsupials. Members include quolls, dunnarts, the numbat, the Tasmanian devil (example pictured), and the thylacine. They are found in Australia and New Guinea, generally in forests, shrublands, and grasslands, but also inland wetlands, deserts, and rocky areas. The seventy-two extant species of Dasyuromorphia are divided into two families: Dasyuridae, containing seventy-one species divided between the thirteen genera in the subfamily Dasyurinae and the four genera in the subfamily Sminthopsinae; and Myrmecobiidae, containing the numbat. There is additionally the family Thylacinidae, containing the extinct thylacine. (Full list...)
Today's featured picture
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The Large Plane Trees, also known as Road Menders at Saint-Rémy, is an oil-on-canvas painting by Vincent van Gogh. Painted in 1889 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, the painting depicts roadworks underneath autumn trees with yellow leaves. The painting is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art in the U.S. state of Ohio. Van Gogh also painted a second version of the scene, titled The Road Menders, which is part of The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Analysis of the paintings has shown that The Large Plane Trees was created first, with The Road Menders being a copy with virtually identical outlines. Painting credit: Vincent van Gogh
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