Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 2016
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June 1
Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American model and actress. One of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s, she played stereotypically "dumb blonde" characters that were emblematic of the era's attitudes towards sexuality. She began her career as a pin-up model. After two short-lived film contracts, she was signed by 20th Century-Fox in 1951. The next year, scandalous nude photographs of her were featured in a popular calendar. She became one of the most bankable Hollywood stars with starring roles in comedies such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Disappointed in being typecast and underpaid, Monroe formed her own production company in 1955 and successfully fought for a better contract with Fox. She received critical acclaim for her performances in Bus Stop (1956) and Some Like It Hot (1959), winning a Golden Globe for Best Actress for the latter. Her last completed film was the drama The Misfits (1961). Troubled by mental health and addiction problems, Monroe died of a barbiturate overdose in 1962. She continues to be considered a popular culture icon. (Full article...)
June 2
The red rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia), now extinct, was a flightless rail, found only on Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. A little larger than a chicken, it had reddish, hairlike plumage, dark legs, and a long, curved beak. The wings were small; rail species often became flightless when adapting to isolated islands, free of mammalian predators. It is believed to have fed on invertebrates, and snail shells have been found with damage matching an attack by its beak. Until subfossil remains were described in 1869, scientists only knew the red rail from 17th-century descriptions and illustrations, incorrectly thought to represent several species. It has been suggested that all late 17th-century accounts of the dodo actually referred to the red rail, after the former had become extinct. The last mention of a red rail sighting is from 1693. The species is thought to have been hunted to extinction around 1700 by introduced species and also by humans, who took advantage of red rails' attraction to red coloured cloth to lure them and beat them with sticks. (Full article...)
June 3
No. 77 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force squadron headquartered at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales. It operates F/A-18 Hornet multi-role fighters (pictured) and is controlled by No. 81 Wing. Formed at Pearce, Western Australia, in 1942, the squadron flew P-40 Kittyhawks in the South West Pacific during World War II. After the war, it re-equipped with P-51 Mustangs and deployed to Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. The squadron was about to return to Australia when the Korean War broke out in 1950; it converted to Gloster Meteor jets in 1951 and claimed five MiG-15s and over 5,000 buildings and vehicles destroyed during the war for the loss of almost 60 aircraft. Re-equipped with CAC Sabres, the squadron briefly saw action during the Malayan Emergency in 1959–60. It operated Mirage III supersonic jets from 1969 to 1987, when it converted to Hornets. The squadron supplied aircraft to Diego Garcia in 2001–02 to support the war in Afghanistan, and deployed to the Middle East as part of the military intervention against ISIL in 2015–16. No. 77 Squadron is due to re-equip with F-35 Lightnings in 2021. (Full article...)
June 4
Circinus is a small, faint constellation in the southern sky, first defined in 1756 by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. Its name is Latin for compass, a tool that draws circles. Its brightest star is the slightly variable Alpha Circini, the brightest rapidly oscillating Ap star in the night sky, with an apparent magnitude of 3.19. AX Circini is a Cepheid variable visible with the unaided eye, and BX Circini is a faint star thought to have been formed from two merged white dwarfs. The sun-like star HD 134060 has two small planets, and another, HD 129445, has a Jupiter-like planet. Supernova SN 185 appeared in Circinus in 185 AD and was recorded by Chinese observers. Two novae were observed in the 20th century. The Milky Way runs through the constellation, featuring prominent objects such as the open cluster NGC 5823 and the planetary nebula NGC 5315 (pictured). The Circinus Galaxy, discovered in 1977, is the closest Seyfert galaxy to the Milky Way. The Alpha Circinid meteor showers, discovered the same year, radiate from this constellation. (Full article...)
June 5
Baleen whales are a widely distributed and diverse parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals. They include 15 species from the families Balaenidae (including right whales), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), Eschrichtiidae (the gray whale), and Balaenopteridae (the rorquals, including the blue whale, the largest animal on earth). Cetaceans were thought to have descended from the extinct mesonychids, but molecular evidence supports their descent from even-toed ungulates. Baleen whales split from toothed whales around 34 million years ago. The meat, blubber, baleen, and oil of baleen whales have traditionally been used by the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. Once relentlessly hunted by commercial industries for these products, cetaceans are now protected by international law, but Japan, Norway and Iceland continue to allow whaling for various purposes. Baleen whales also face threats from marine pollution, ocean acidification, collisions with ships, and entanglement in nets. Sonar can cause strandings and disrupt their communication. They have rarely survived for long in captivity. (Full article...)
June 6
Omaha Beach was one of five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on D-Day, 6 June 1944, during World War II. The untested 29th Infantry Division and nine companies of U.S. Army Rangers assaulted the western half of the beach; the battle-hardened 1st Infantry Division targeted the eastern half. The opposing German 352nd Infantry Division troops, mostly teenagers with no battalion-level training and some Eastern Front veterans, were largely deployed in strongpoints along the coast. The initial assault waves of tanks, infantry, and combat engineer forces were tasked with reducing the coastal defenses to allow larger ships to land. Little went as planned: most landing craft missed their targets, and the defenses were unexpectedly strong. Troops could not clear the heavily defended exits off the beach, delaying later landings. Groups of survivors eventually improvised assaults, scaling the bluffs between the most heavily defended points. By the end of the day, two small isolated footholds had been won, and the original objective of a beachhead 5 miles deep was achieved within days. (Full article...)
June 7
Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption is a 2000 role-playing video game developed by Nihilistic Software. Released by Activision for Microsoft Windows on June 7, 2000, and for Mac OS in 2001, the game is based on White Wolf Publishing's role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade. It follows the vampire Christof Romuald from the Dark Ages of 12th century Prague and Vienna to modern-day London and New York City in search of his humanity and his kidnapped love, the nun Anezka. The player controls Christof and up to three allies in first- and third-person perspectives. Nihilistic took 24 months to complete the game on a budget of US$1.8 million. The game received a mixed critical response; reviewers praised its graphics and multiplayer functionality, but were polarized by the quality of the story and combat. Its high-quality graphics and sound ran poorly on some computer systems. It received the 1999 Game Critics Awards for Best Role-Playing Game. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, set in the same fictional universe, was released in November 2004. (Full article...)
June 8
Paul McCartney (b. 1942) is an English singer-songwriter and composer. Along with John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he was a member of the Beatles, a 1960s rock band that became the top-selling band of all time, and one of the most critically acclaimed. His Beatles song "Yesterday" has been covered by over 2,200 artists, more than any other copyrighted song in history. After the band's break-up, he pursued a solo career and formed Wings with Denny Laine and Linda McCartney, his first wife. Wings' 1977 release "Mull of Kintyre" is one of the all-time best-selling singles in the UK. A two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of the Beatles and as a solo artist) and a 21-time Grammy Award winner, McCartney has written or co-written 32 number one Billboard Hot 100 songs. He has released an extensive catalogue of songs as a solo artist and has composed classical and electronic music. He has supported international charities promoting animal rights, land mine removal, vegetarianism, poverty reduction, and music education. He was knighted for his contributions to music in 1997. (Full article...)
June 9
Sonam Kapoor (born 9 June 1985) is an Indian film star and one of the highest-paid Bollywood actresses. The daughter of actor Anil Kapoor, she studied theatre and arts at the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore. She became an assistant director to Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the film Black (2005), and made her acting debut in the romantic drama Saawariya (2007). She had her first commercial success three years later in the romantic comedy I Hate Luv Storys (2010), followed by a string of commercial failures. The financially successful Raanjhanaa (2013) marked a turning point in her career, earning her several Best Actress nominations. She played a princess in the melodrama Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015)—one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films—and garnered critical acclaim for portraying the titular role in the biographical thriller Neerja (2016), one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films featuring a female protagonist. She is outspoken in support of breast cancer awareness, LGBT rights, and other causes. She has been nominated for four Filmfare Awards. (Full article...)
June 10
The Coinage Act of 1873 placed the United States firmly on the gold standard, rather than bimetallism, by ending the right of individuals to have silver bullion struck into fully legal tender coins. In 1869, silver was expensive, and not much of it was being presented at the Mint to be struck into coins, but Deputy Comptroller of the Currency John Jay Knox and others foresaw that cheaper ore from the Comstock Lode and elsewhere would soon became available. To replace the outdated Mint Act of 1837, Knox drafted a bill that took nearly three years to pass. It was rarely mentioned during Congressional debates that the bill would end bimetallism, though this was not concealed. The bill was finally signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant. When silver prices dropped in 1876, producers sought to have their bullion struck at the Mint, only to learn that this was no longer possible. The resulting political controversy lasted the remainder of the century, pitting those who valued the deflationary gold standard against those who called the Act the "Crime of '73", believing the free coinage of silver to be necessary for economic prosperity. (Full article...)
June 11
Portrait of Monsieur Bertin is an 1832 oil-on-canvas painting by the French Neoclassicist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. It depicts Louis-François Bertin (1766–1841), a writer, art collector and director of the pro-royalist Journal des débats. Having achieved acclaim as a history painter, Ingres accepted portrait commissions with reluctance, regarding them as a distraction. The painting had a prolonged genesis; he agonised over the pose and made several preparatory sketches. The final work presents Bertin as a personification of the commercially minded leaders of the liberal reign of Louis Philippe I, emanating a restless energy. He is physically imposing and self-assured but his real-life personality shines through – warm, wry and engaging to those who had earned his trust. The portrait is an unflinchingly realistic depiction of aging; Ingres emphasises the furrowed skin and thinning hair of an overweight man who maintains his resolve and determination. Although Bertin's family worried that the painting might be seen as a caricature, it is widely regarded as Ingres' finest male portrait and has been at the Musée du Louvre since 1897. (Full article...)
June 12
James B. Weaver (1833–1912) was a two-time candidate for US president and a congressman from Iowa. After serving in the Union Army in the Civil War, Weaver worked for the election of Republican candidates, as an advocate for farmers and laborers. He switched to the Greenback Party, and with Democratic support, won election to the House in 1878. The Greenbackers nominated Weaver for president in 1880, but he received only 3.3 percent of the popular vote. He was again elected to the House in 1884 and 1886, where he worked for expansion of the money supply and for the opening of Indian Territory to white settlement. As the Greenback Party fell apart, he helped organize a new left-wing party, the Populists, and was their nominee for president in 1892. This time he gained 8.5 percent of the popular vote and won five states. The Populists merged with the Democrats by the end of the 19th century, and Weaver went with them, promoting the candidacy of William Jennings Bryan for president in 1896, 1900, and 1908. Several of Weaver's political goals became law after his death, including the direct election of senators and a graduated income tax. (Full article...)
June 13
The two battleships of the North Carolina class were built shortly before the US entered World War II. North Carolina (launched 13 June 1940) and Washington had 16-inch guns, heavy firepower for their size, but their design sacrificed some speed and armor. North Carolina took part in every major US naval offensive of the Pacific War and was the most highly decorated American battleship of World War II. Washington initially went undetected by the Japanese in the second naval battle of Guadalcanal, a chaotic night engagement, until its main guns hit the battleship Kirishima at close range, sinking the ship the next day. In February 1944, Washington's bow was crushed in a collision with the battleship Indiana, but the damage was repaired in time to join the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June. After the war, both ships helped withdraw American military personnel from overseas deployments. The vessels were laid up in the reserve fleet until the early 1960s, when Washington was scrapped and North Carolina became a permanent museum ship in Wilmington, North Carolina. (Full article...)
June 14
The 2003 Sri Lanka cyclone produced the worst flooding in that country in 56 years. The first storm of the 2003 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, it developed over the Bay of Bengal on May 10 and reached peak maximum sustained winds of 140 km/h (85 mph) on May 13, making it a very severe cyclonic storm according to the India Meteorological Department. In the wake of prolonged precipitation during the first half of May, the stationary cyclone in the central Bay of Bengal produced torrential rains across southwest Sri Lanka, especially in the mountains. A station at Ratnapura recorded 366.1 millimetres (14.41 in)* of rainfall in 18 hours on May 17, including 99.8 mm (3.93 in) in one hour. Flooding and landslides destroyed 24,750 homes and damaged 32,426 others, displacing about 800,000 people. Damage totaled about US$135 million, and there were 260 deaths. The cyclone also produced some rainfall in the Indian Andaman and Nicobar Islands and along India's eastern coast. The storm funneled moisture away from the mainland, possibly contributing to a heat wave that killed 1,900 people. (Full article...)
June 15
Amanita bisporigera is a fungus that produces a deadly poisonous mushroom commonly known as the destroying angel, a name it shares with three other lethal white Amanita species. It is found on the ground in mixed coniferous and deciduous forests of Eastern North America, and rarely in western North America and Colombia. It has a smooth white cap that can reach up to 10 cm (3.9 in) across with crowded white gills, and a stalk up to 14 cm (5.5 in) long with a delicate white skirt-like ring near the top. The bulbous base is covered with a membranous sac-like volva. First described in 1906, A. bisporigera typically bears two spores on the basidia, as the species name suggests. The mushroom produces amatoxins, which inhibit a vital enzyme when eaten, RNA polymerase II. The first symptoms of poisoning appear 6 to 24 hours after consumption, followed by a period of apparent improvement, then by progressive liver and kidney failure, and death after four days or more. The DNA of A. bisporigera has been partially sequenced, and the genes responsible for the production of amatoxins have been determined. (Full article...)
June 16
Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. There are usually no symptoms in the cancer's early stages; by the time of diagnosis, it has often spread to other parts of the body. Symptoms of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, the most common form of pancreatic cancer, may include yellow skin, abdominal or back pain, unexplained weight loss, light-colored stools, dark urine and loss of appetite. It rarely occurs before the age of 40, and more than half of cases occur in those over 70. The risk is lower among non-smokers and people who maintain a healthy weight and limit their consumption of red or processed meat. It can be treated with surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, palliative care, or a combination of these, depending in part on the cancer stage. It is never cured by nonsurgical treatments, though any of these will sometimes improve quality of life, particularly palliative care. It typically has a very poor prognosis: 25% of people live for one year after diagnosis, and 5% for five years. (Full article...)
June 17
Silent Hill 4: The Room is a survival horror video game, the fourth installment in the Silent Hill series developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. It was published by Konami and translated by Jeremy Blaustein. The game and its soundtrack were released in Japan in June 2004, and in North America and Europe the following September, for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows. In 2012, it was released on the Japanese PlayStation Network. Unlike the previous installments, which were set primarily in the town of Silent Hill, this game is set in the fictional town of South Ashfield, and follows Henry Townshend as he attempts to escape from his locked-down apartment. During the course of the game, Henry explores a series of supernatural worlds and finds himself in conflict with an undead serial killer. The fourth installment in the series features an altered gameplay style with third-person navigation and plot elements taken from previous installments. Upon its release, the game received generally positive critical reaction, with mixed reaction to its deviations from the rest of the series. (Full article...)
June 18
The Chickasaw Turnpike is a short two-lane toll road in the rural south central region of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It stretches for 13.3 miles (21.4 km) from north of Sulphur to just south of Ada, running southwest-to-northeast through Murray and Pontotoc counties. The first section opened in 1991. The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority owns, maintains, and collects tolls on most of it; a four-mile (6.4 km) segment was transferred to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation in 2011. Originally it was part of a plan to link Ada to the Interstate system and connect southern and eastern Oklahoma with a longer turnpike. It was proposed at the same time as three other turnpikes, which would become the Kilpatrick Turnpike in Oklahoma City, the Creek Turnpike in Tulsa, and the Cherokee Turnpike in eastern Oklahoma. Rural legislators objected to the Kilpatrick and Creek Turnpikes, and moved to block them unless the Chickasaw Turnpike was built. Lightly traveled, the road is used by about 2,000 vehicles per day. It is the only two-lane turnpike in Oklahoma. (Full article...)
June 19
Quatermass and the Pit is a British television science-fiction serial that was transmitted live by BBC Television in December 1958 and January 1959. It was the third and last of the BBC's Quatermass serials, all written by Nigel Kneale. In Knightsbridge, London, a strange skull and an alien spacecraft are discovered; Professor Bernard Quatermass and his newly appointed military superior at the British Experimental Rocket Group, Colonel Breen, join the investigation. The ship and its contents have a powerful and malign influence over many of those who come in contact with it, including Quatermass. He discovers that aliens, probably from Mars, had long ago engineered a human genetic legacy responsible for much of the war and strife in the world. The serial has been cited as an influence on Stephen King and the film director John Carpenter. It featured in the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled by the British Film Institute in 2000, which described it as "completely gripping". The character reappeared in a 1979 ITV production called Quatermass. (Full article...)
June 20
Schmerber v. California (1966) was a landmark US Supreme Court case that clarified whether a search warrant is required before taking blood samples from a suspect, and whether those samples may be introduced into evidence in a criminal prosecution. In a 5–4 opinion, the court held that forced extraction of a blood sample is not compelled testimony and does not violate the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The court also held that search warrants are ordinarily required by the Fourth Amendment for intrusions into the human body, except under exigent circumstances. In 2013, the Supreme Court specified in Missouri v. McNeely that a warrant may be required for a blood sample from someone suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol, even though their blood alcohol level is likely to drop before a warrant can be obtained. Because the court's ruling in Schmerber prohibited the use of warrantless blood tests in most circumstances, some commentators argue that the decision was responsible for the proliferation of breathalyzers to test for alcohol and urine analyses to test for controlled substances in criminal investigations. (Full article...)
June 21
The Mortara case was a controversy precipitated by the Papal States' seizure of Edgardo Mortara, a six-year-old Jewish child, from his family in Bologna, Italy, in 1858. The city's inquisitor, Father Pier Feletti, heard from a servant that she had administered emergency baptism to the boy when he fell sick as an infant, and the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition held that this made the child irrevocably a Catholic. Because the Papal States had forbidden the raising of Christians by members of other faiths, it was ordered that he be taken from his family and brought up by the Church. After visits from the child's father, international protests mounted, but Pope Pius IX would not be moved. The boy grew up as a Catholic with the Pope as a substitute father, trained for the priesthood in Rome until 1870, and was ordained in France three years later. In 1870 the Kingdom of Italy captured Rome during the unification of Italy, ending the pontifical state; opposition across Italy, Europe and the United States over Mortara's treatment may have contributed to its downfall. (Full article...)
June 22
Sons of Soul is the third studio album by American R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!, released on June 22, 1993, by Wing Records and Mercury Records. The group recorded at several studios in California before moving their sessions to the Caribbean Sound Basin studio in Trinidad, where they wrote, recorded, and produced most of the album. They used session musicians and vintage and contemporary recording equipment. Incorporating live instrumentation and elements from funk and hip hop, including samples and scratches, they also paid homage to their musical influences, classic soul artists of the 1960s and 1970s. Lead singer and bassist Raphael Wiggins wrote the music and quirky, flirtatious lyrics for most of the songs. A commercial success, Sons of Soul charted for 43 weeks on the Billboard 200 and was certified double platinum in the US. It was acclaimed by music critics and named the best album of 1993 by The New York Times and Time magazine. With its success, Tony! Toni! Toné! became one of the most popular R&B acts during the genre's commercial resurgence in the early 1990s. (Full article...)
June 23
Len Hutton (23 June 1916 – 6 September 1990) was a Test cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England as an opening batsman. Marked out as a potential star from his teenage years, Hutton made his debut for Yorkshire in 1934 and by 1937 was playing for England. He set a record in 1938 for the highest individual innings in a Test match, scoring 364 runs against Australia, a milestone that stood for nearly 20 years. During the Second World War, he received a serious arm injury from which he never fully recovered. In 1946, he assumed a role as the mainstay of England's batting; the team depended greatly on his success for the remainder of his career. In 1952, he became the first professional cricketer of the 20th century to captain England in Tests; under his captaincy in 1953, England won the Ashes for the first time in 19 years. As a batsman, Hutton was cautious and built his style on a sound defence. He remains statistically among the best batsmen to have played Test cricket, and was knighted for his contributions to the game in 1956. He went on to be a Test selector, a journalist and broadcaster, an engineering firm director and, in 1990, the Yorkshire team's president. (Full article...)
June 24
Horse-flies are large flies of the family Tabanidae that feed mainly on nectar. The males have weak mouthparts; only the females bite animals, including humans, to obtain enough protein from the blood to produce eggs. For this they use a stout stabbing organ and two pairs of sharp cutting blades to bite, and a spongelike part to lap up the blood that flows from the wound. They can transfer blood-borne diseases from one animal to another. They can also reduce growth rates in cattle and lower the milk output of cows if suitable shelters are not provided. Horseflies prefer to fly in sunlight, avoiding dark and shady areas, and are inactive at night. They are found all over the world except for some islands and the polar regions. The larvae are predaceous and grow in semiaquatic habitats. Horse-flies have appeared in literature since Aeschylus in Ancient Greece wrote about them driving people to madness. Gadflies (horse-flies and botflies) are mentioned in Shakespeare's plays King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra. (Full article...)
June 25
The forged diaries of Adolf Hitler are a series of sixty volumes of journals created by Konrad Kujau (pictured) between 1981 and 1983. They were purchased in 1983 for 9.3 million Deutsche Marks (US$3.7 million) by the West German news magazine Stern through one of their journalists, Gerd Heidemann. Stern sold serialisation rights to several news organisations, including The Sunday Times. In April 1983, at a press conference to announce the forthcoming publication, several historians—including two who had previously authenticated the diaries—raised questions over their validity, and subsequent forensic examination quickly confirmed they were forgeries. As Stern's scoop began to unravel, it became clear that Heidemann, who had an obsession with the Nazis, had stolen a significant proportion of the money provided. Kujau and Heidemann both spent time in prison for their parts in the fraud, and several newspaper editors lost their jobs. The scandal has been adapted for the screen twice: as Selling Hitler (1991) for the British ITV channel, and the following year as Schtonk!, a German film. (Full article...)
June 26
Seacology is a nonprofit charity headquartered in Berkeley, California, that focuses on preserving island ecosystems and cultures. It originated with the work of ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox in the village of Falealupo in Samoa. When the villagers were being pressured to sell logging rights to their rainforest in 1988 to build a new school, Cox and his wife offered to help secure funds in return for an agreement with the villagers to protect their forest. Cox and the village chief, Fuiono Senio (both pictured), later received the Goldman Environmental Prize for their efforts. As demand increased for similar projects on other islands, Cox, along with Bill Marré and Ken Murdock, founded Seacology in 1991. By 2016, the nonprofit had initiated 200 projects globally, helping to preserve 1,116 square miles (2,890 km2) of marine habitat and 946.7 square miles (2,452 km2) of terrestrial habitat. The organization fosters ecotourism, and has helped raise emergency funds following destructive tsunamis. It was featured in the music video "What About Now" by the American rock band Daughtry. (Full article...)
June 27
The 2010 Sylvania 300 was an American stock car racing competition held at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon on September 19. The 300-lap race was the twenty-seventh in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as well as the first in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ended the season. Clint Bowyer (pictured) of the Richard Childress Racing team won the race; Denny Hamlin finished second and Jamie McMurray came in third. Brad Keselowski started at the pole position, but was quickly passed by Tony Stewart. Many participants in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, including Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, and Hamlin, were in the top ten for most of the race, although some encountered problems in the closing laps. Stewart was leading the race with two laps remaining but ran out of fuel, giving the lead, and the win, to Bowyer. There were twenty-one lead changes and eight cautions during the race. It was Bowyer's first win in the 2010 season, and the third of his career. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, ahead of Toyota and Ford. Attendance was 95,000, and the television audience was 3.68 million. (Full article...)
June 28
After he slapped two soldiers, US Lieutenant General George S. Patton was sidelined from combat command by General Dwight Eisenhower and Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall. On 3 August 1943, during the Sicily Campaign of World War II, Patton struck, kicked and berated a soldier he found at an evacuation hospital with no apparent injuries, for being "gutless"; in fact, the soldier had malaria with a temperature of 102.2 °F (39.0 °C). Patton struck another soldier complaining of "nerves" at another hospital seven days later and threatened him with a pistol for being a "whimpering coward"; in fact, the soldier had been begging to rejoin his unit. Both soldiers suffered from what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Patton's actions were suppressed in the news until journalist Drew Pearson publicized them. Congress and the general public expressed both support and disdain. Patton was removed from combat command for almost a year, but did take a decoy command in Operation Fortitude to mislead German agents as to the location of the planned invasion of Europe. His later successes commanding the US Third Army largely rehabilitated his reputation. (Full article...)
June 29
Robert of Jumièges (died 1052–1055?) was the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury. He had served as prior of the Abbey of St Ouen at Rouen in Normandy, before becoming abbot of Jumièges Abbey (pictured), near Rouen, in 1037. He was a friend and advisor to the king of England, Edward the Confessor, who appointed him Bishop of London in 1044, and then archbishop in 1051. Robert's time as archbishop lasted only about eighteen months. He had already come into conflict with the powerful Earl Godwin of Wessex, and had made attempts to recover lands lost to Godwin and his family. He also refused to consecrate Spearhafoc, Edward's choice to succeed Robert as Bishop of London. The rift between Robert and Godwin culminated in Robert's deposition and exile in 1052, and he died at Jumièges shortly after. Robert commissioned significant building work at Jumièges and was probably involved in the first Romanesque building in England, the church built in Westminster for Edward the Confessor, now known as Westminster Abbey. Robert's treatment by the English was used as one of the justifications of William the Conqueror for his invasion of England. (Full article...)
June 30
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. In its historical boundaries, on the north side are shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials; the south side holds the Royal Opera House (also called Covent Garden), the Drury Lane theatre, the London Transport Museum, and other cultural and entertainment venues. Its central square (pictured) is a popular shopping and tourist site. The area was originally the "garden of the Abbey and Convent", with orchards for Westminster Abbey, around 1200. In 1630 the 4th Earl of Bedford commissioned Inigo Jones to design the Italianate arcaded square, which served as a prototype for other estates as London grew. A small open-air market and its neighbourhood fell into disrepute as taverns, theatres and brothels opened up; the gentry moved away, and rakes, wits and playwrights moved in. Charles Fowler's neo-classical building was erected in 1830 to cover and organise the market. Further buildings were added: the Floral Hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market. The central building reopened as a shopping centre in 1980 with cafes, pubs, small shops and a craft market. (Full article...)