Wikipedia:Today's featured list/February 2015
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February 2
The Axis order of battle for the invasion of Yugoslavia was made up of the various operational formations of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS, Italian Armed Forces and Hungarian Armed Forces that participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia during World War II, commencing on 6 April 1941. It involved the German 2nd Army, with elements of the 12th Army (armoured cars pictured) and a panzer group combined with overwhelming Luftwaffe support. The Italian 2nd Army and 9th Army committed a total of 22 divisions, and the Royal Italian Air Force had over 650 aircraft available to support the invasion. In total, over 1,500 Axis aircraft were available to support the invasion. Naval forces were limited to a few destroyers of the Royal Italian Navy operating in the Adriatic Sea. (Full list...)
February 6
Various awards and nominations were received by the Spider-Man trilogy directed by Sam Raimi. The series gathered five Academy Award nominations: two for Spider-Man (2002) and three for Spider-Man 2 (2004), with one win for Best Visual Effects in 2005 for Spider-Man 2. The series won five Saturn Awards out of thirteen nominations. The films were nominated for one Annie Award, five British Academy Film Awards, two Grammy Awards, seven Teen Choice Awards and ten Satellite Awards. Other honors came from the Visual Effects Society Awards, which gave the franchise ten nominations and three wins, as well the Taurus World Stunt Awards, which nominated the films for three of their accolades. The American Film Institute named Spider-Man 2 one of the Best Movie Productions of 2004. Kirsten Dunst (pictured) won an Empire Award and two MTV Movie Awards for portraying Mary Jane Watson. (Full list...)
February 9
Thirty-eight United States federal judges were appointed by President George Washington during his presidency, which lasted from April 30, 1789 to March 4, 1797. The first group of Washington's appointments began service two days after Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789 to formally establish the federal judiciary. Washington's last court appointee received his commission twelve days before the end of Washington's presidency. As the first President, Washington was responsible for appointing the entire Supreme Court; he appointed a record ten justices. Since there were no sitting justices at the beginning of Washington's term, he had the unique opportunity to fill the entire body of United States federal judges with his selections. Despite this, Washington appointed only 28 judges to the United States district courts, due to the smaller size of the judiciary at the time. Richard Peters, Jr. (pictured) served for over 36 years, the longest of Washington's appointments. (Full list...)
February 13
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John Betjeman's writing and broadcasting career lasted from 1931 to his death in 1984. In 1931 he became the assistant editor of The Architectural Review, which reflected his deeply-held affection for buildings and their history; the same year he published his first book, Mount Zion, a collection of poems. He began radio broadcasts in 1932, initially about architecture, but widening his subjects until he appeared on panel and game shows, interviews, documentaries and poetry readings, with a whimsical, humorous and avuncular delivery. Much of his output focussed on his concern over the destruction of Victorian and Edwardian architecture to make way for depressing, often faux contemporary developments. He continued to write about architecture and publish poetry throughout his life. In 1969 he was knighted and, in 1972, he succeeded Cecil Day-Lewis as Britain's Poet Laureate. He died in 1984, a unique figure in British poetry. (Full list...)
February 16
More than 100 players have scored three goals (a hat-trick) or more in a single Premier League football match since its inception in 1992. The first player to achieve the feat was Frenchman Eric Cantona, who scored three times for Leeds United in a 5–0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur. Twenty players have scored more than three goals in a match; of these, four players, Andrew Cole, Alan Shearer (pictured), Jermain Defoe and Dimitar Berbatov have scored five. Robbie Fowler holds the record for the quickest Premier League hat-trick, netting three times for Liverpool against Arsenal in 4 minutes 23 seconds. Shearer scored three or more goals eleven times in the Premier League, more than any other player. Fowler has scored nine hat-tricks; Thierry Henry and Michael Owen have scored eight hat-tricks each. Five players have each scored hat-tricks for three different clubs. The Dubious Goals Committee has sometimes decided after a match that players have not scored hat-tricks because one of the goals was incorrectly credited to them. (Full list...)
February 20
There are 12 English Heritage properties in the county of Somerset. English Heritage (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its best known role is as the steward of over 400 significant historical and archaeological sites. The English Heritage sites in Somerset range from Neolithic sites such as Stanton Drew stone circles and Stoney Littleton Long Barrow through medieval castles and religious sites such as Farleigh Hungerford Castle (pictured) and Cleeve Abbey to the most recent, Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument, which was erected in 1720. Many of the buildings in Somerset that are English Heritage properties are listed buildings or scheduled monuments; six of the twelve have both designations. (Full list...)
February 23
The Academy Award for Best Actor is presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Emil Jannings receiving the award for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire body of eligible voting members of the Academy. In the first three years of the awards, actors were nominated as the best in their categories. The system was later replaced by one in which an actor is nominated for a specific performance in a single film. Since its inception, the award has been given to 78 actors. Daniel Day-Lewis (pictured) has received the most awards in this category with three Oscars. Spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier were nominated on nine occasions, more than any other actor. (Full list...)
February 27
The timeline of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season (map pictured) covers a below-average season, featuring the fewest hurricanes since 1982. Although Tropical Storm Andrea formed on June 5, the season officially began on June 1 and ended on November 30, dates that conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones develop in the Atlantic basin. The season produced fifteen tropical or subtropical cyclones, of which fourteen intensified into tropical or subtropical storms; two became hurricanes, but none further intensified into major hurricanes, the first such occurrence since the 1994 season. Despite the slow season, Mexico was impacted by numerous tropical cyclones, the worst being Tropical Storm Fernand and Hurricane Ingrid. The former moved ashore in late August, killing 14 and causing millions in damage, while the latter moved ashore in mid-September, killing 23 and causing $1.5 billion (2013 USD) in damage. Only one tropical storm, Andrea, made landfall on the United States during the 2013 season. (Full list...)