Wikipedia:Today's featured list/April 2020
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April 3
Between 1889 and 1949, the French Navy built a series of battleships, comprising pre-dreadnought, dreadnought, and fast ships (example pictured), ultimately totaling thirty-four vessels: twenty-three pre-dreadnoughts, seven dreadnoughts, and four fast battleships. Another seven – five dreadnoughts and two fast battleships – were cancelled in various stages of construction (one of which was converted into an aircraft carrier while being built) and seven more were cancelled before work began. The first battleship construction program followed a period of confusion in strategic thinking in France over the optimal shape of the fleet. At the time, the French naval command consisted of competing factions, with one that favored building fleets of capital ships, continuing the program of traditional ironclad warships that had dominated the fleet in the 1860s and 1870s. The other major faction preferred the Jeune École doctrine, which emphasized the use of cheap torpedo boats to destroy expensive capital ships. During the period, naval construction decisions often depended on the minister of the Navy in office at the time. (Full list...)
April 6
The Masters Tournament Par-3 contest is a golf competition that precedes the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. The first Par-3 contest was held 60 years ago, before the 1960 tournament, and was won by three-time Masters champion Sam Snead (pictured). The contest takes place in a single round on a nine-hole, par-27 course in the northeast corner of Augusta National Grounds, which was designed in 1958 by George Cobb and club founder Clifford Roberts. Snead became the tournament's first multiple winner when he triumphed in the 1974 event. Seven players, Snead, Isao Aoki, Jay Haas, Sandy Lyle, David Toms, Pádraig Harrington and Tom Watson, have each won the tournament on more than one occasion. No winner of the Par-3 contest has gone on to win the Masters in the same year. (Full list...)
April 10
As of 2019, Denmark has ten sites inscribed on the list of World Heritage Sites, and a further four on the tentative list. Selected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Heritage Sites are places of importance to cultural or natural heritage as described in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in 1972. Denmark ratified the convention on 25 July 1979, making its historical sites eligible for inclusion on the list. The first site in the country to be added to the list was the Jelling Mounds, Runic Stones and Church (pictured), inscribed at the 18th Session of the World Heritage Committee in 1994. Further sites were added in 1995, 2000, 2004, 2009, 2014, 2017, and 2018. Three sites, Kujataa, Aasivissuit – Nipisat, and Ilulissat Icefjord, are located in Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Of the ten sites, seven are cultural and three are natural. (Full list...)
April 13
The 26th Lo Nuestro Awards were presented by the American network Univision, honoring the best Latin music of 2013 in the United States. The ceremony took place on February 20, 2014, at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. The Lo Nuestro Awards were presented in 33 categories, with the ceremony televised by Univision and hosted by Mexican singer Ninel Conde and Cuban-American actor William Levy. American singer Prince Royce (pictured) earned three awards, including Artist of the Year, while American artist Marc Anthony received the highest number of accolades, at five. Multiple winners also included deceased Mexican-American performer Jenni Rivera, Puerto Rican singers Tito El Bambino and Olga Tañón, Mexican-American norteño artist Gerardo Ortíz, and American rapper Pitbull. (Full list...)
April 17
Game of Thrones, an American fantasy-drama television series, has received many awards and nominations throughout its run. Of 786 nominations, the series has won 290 awards. The show, created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and originally airing on the American premium television network HBO, is an adaptation of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels. The show has received eight Golden Globe Award nominations (with one win), ten Writers Guild of America Award nominations, eight Producers Guild of America Awards (with one win), and eight Directors Guild of America Awards (with two wins). The ensemble cast has been nominated seven times for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Peter Dinklage (pictured), who portrays Tyrion Lannister, has won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. The series holds the Emmy Award record for most wins for a scripted television series, with 59 wins. (Full list...)
April 20
The Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award is awarded by the Commissioner of Baseball, the chief executive of Major League Baseball (MLB), to a group or person who has made a "major impact on the sport". It is not an annual award; rather, the Commissioner presents it at his discretion. The trophy is a gold baseball sitting atop a cylindrical silver base, created by Tiffany & Co. The award has been presented fourteen times: eleven times to players, once to a team, and twice to a non-player. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were the first to receive the award, for their parts in the 1998 MLB home run record chase. The most recent recipient is Derek Jeter (pictured), who was honored in 2014, the final year of his career, for being "one of the most accomplished shortstops of all-time". The 2001 Seattle Mariners won the award as a team for posting a 116–46 record one season after losing Alex Rodriguez to the Texas Rangers. Roberto Clemente, the 2006 awardee, is the only player to receive the award posthumously. (Full list...)
April 24
The freshwater islands in Scotland include those within freshwater lochs and rivers – including tidal areas, so the islands may not always be surrounded by freshwater. It has been estimated that there are at least 31,460 freshwater lochs in Scotland and that 1.9 per cent of the land surface is covered by freshwater. The distribution has a north-west to south-east gradient, with the highest concentrations occurring on the islands of the Outer Hebrides. The more notable freshwater islands include Lochindorb Castle Island, Loch Leven Castle Island (pictured), St Serf's Inch, and Inchmahome, each of which has had a role to play in Scottish history. Inchmurrin, the largest freshwater island in the British Isles, is in Loch Lomond, which contains thirty or more other islands. Various names are used repeatedly. "Inch" or Innis is a Scots word that can mean 'island' (although it is also used for terra firma surrounded by marsh). Similarly, Eilean is the Gaelic for 'island'. A common suffix for offshore islands in the north of Scotland is "-holm", derived from the Old Norse holmr, meaning a 'small and rounded islet'. (Full list...)
April 27
The 2018 American computer-animated superhero film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse garnered a variety of awards and nominations. The film was produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel Entertainment, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Many of its accolades were in the Best Animated Feature category. At the 91st Academy Awards, the film won Best Animated Feature. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, and the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film. At the 46th Annie Awards, it received seven nominations including Best Animated Feature, and Best Writing in a Feature Production, and won in all its categories. The film won the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Animated Motion Picture. At the 17th Visual Effects Society Awards, it won four awards including Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature. (Full list...)