Wikipedia:Today's featured list/August 2013
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August 5
The first instalment of The Flashman Papers by George MacDonald Fraser was published in 1969. The series of novels and short stories centre on the exploits of the fictional protagonist Harry Flashman, a cowardly British soldier and cad who is placed in a series of real historical incidents between 1839 and 1894. While the incidents and much of the detail in the novels have a factual background, Flashman's actions in the stories are either fictional, or Fraser uses the actions of unidentified individuals and assigns them to Flashman. During the course of Fraser's novels, Flashman goes from his expulsion from school into the army. Although he is a coward who tries to run away from any danger, he is involved in a number of notable military episodes from the 19th century, often taking actions that cause or affect subsequently infamous events. Flashman is a minor character in the 1857 novel by Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days; a bully who is expelled from Rugby School for drunkenness. The character was then developed by Fraser, and appeared in a total of eleven novels and one collection of short stories featuring the character. Although chronology of the main series finishes in 1894, Flashman lives on until 1915 and he is also found in his late 80s in another Fraser book, Mr American. (Full list...)
August 12
More than 100 companies have been acquired by computer software and web search engine company Google. On average, Google has acquired more than one company per week since 2010. Google's largest acquisition was the purchase of Motorola Mobility, a mobile device manufacturing company, for $12.5 billion. Like Google itself, most of the firms acquired by Google are based in the United States, and, in turn, most of these are based in or around the San Francisco Bay Area. Many Google products originated as services provided by companies that Google has since acquired. For example, Google's first acquisition was the Usenet company Deja News, and its services became Google Groups. Similarly, Google acquired Dodgeball, a social networking service company, and eventually replaced it with Google Latitude. Other acquisitions include web application company JotSpot, which became Google Sites; Voice over IP company GrandCentral, which became Google Voice; and video hosting service company Next New Networks, which became YouTube Next Lab and Audience Development Group. (Full list...)
August 19
The Citra Award for Best Leading Actress is an Indonesian film award given at the Indonesian Film Festival to actresses for their achievements in lead roles. This award was first given in 1955 to two actresses from competing studios: Fifi Young of Persari and Dhalia of Perfini. Initially given sporadically, this Citra Award has been granted annually since 1973, although a decline in the Indonesian film industry meant no awards were given between 1993 and 2003. The actress with the most wins to date is Christine Hakim (pictured), with six; she has cited her win in Teguh Karya's Cinta Pertama as convincing her to pursue a career in acting. Dian Sastrowardoyo became the first actress with multiple nominations in a single year, earning a win for Ada Apa dengan Cinta? and a nomination for Pasir Berbisik in 2004. The current holder is Acha Septriasa, who won the prize for the film Test Pack: You're My Baby. (Full list...)
August 26
The best-selling single of the 1960s in the United Kingdom was "She Loves You" by The Beatles (pictured). Released on 23 August 1963, "She Loves You" spent six weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart and sold more than 1.89 million copies, approximately 140,000 more than its nearest rival, "I Want to Hold Your Hand", also by The Beatles. An additional 12 singles also sold over a million copies in the UK by the end of the decade. The best-selling single by a female artist was Cilla Black's version of "Anyone Who Had a Heart", which became the UK's 27th highest-selling record of the 1960s. The biggest-selling song not to top the singles chart was Acker Bilk's 1961 instrumental "Stranger on the Shore" – it sold more than 1.13 million copies and peaked at number two, being kept off the top by "The Young Ones" by Cliff Richard & The Shadows. During the 1960s, sales of singles in the UK were monitored by several magazines, including New Musical Express, Record Retailer, Melody Maker and Disc. (Full list...)