Wikipedia:Today's featured list/July 2023
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July 3
The 2013 American computer-animated comedy film Despicable Me 2 won eight awards from fifty-three nominations. It was directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin, and stars the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, and Ken Jeong. The film follows Gru (Carell) as he is recruited by agent Lucy Wilde (Wiig), who is investigating a theft of the mutagen called PX-41, stolen from the Arctic Circle. During their investigations, they extract Eduardo Pérez / El Macho (Bratt), a supervillain with the goal of causing world domination after faking his death. The film garnered a Golden Globe nomination at the 71st ceremony. Despicable Me 2 won one of ten nominations at the 41st Annie Awards. At the 86th Academy Awards, the film received two Oscar nominations, including Best Animated Feature, and Best Original Song for "Happy", composed by Pharrell Williams (pictured). (Full list...)
July 7
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There are 40 female chess players who hold the title of Grandmaster (GM), the highest title awarded by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). To be awarded the GM title, modern regulations typically require players to achieve a FIDE rating of 2500 and have a GM-level performance at three tournaments. Such a performance is called a norm, and a GM norm corresponds to a performance rating of at least 2600. Nona Gaprindashvili was the first woman to become a GM in 1978, largely by virtue of being the first woman to achieve a GM norm a year earlier. Susan Polgar and her younger sister Judit Polgár (pictured) both became GMs in 1991. Susan was the first to achieve the title through a complete set of standard norms, while Judit became the youngest GM in history overall, breaking Bobby Fischer's record. China has the most female GMs, and seven countries have had multiple female GMs. Every female GM is from Europe or Asia except Irina Krush of the United States. (Full list...)
July 10
The Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book is an award given annually to a book published for young adult readers in the field of science fiction or fantasy. The name of the award was chosen because a lodestar is "a star that guides or leads, especially in navigation, where it is the sole reliable source of light—the star that leads those in uncharted waters to safety." The nomination and selection process is administered by the World Science Fiction Society, and the award is presented at the Hugo Award ceremony at the annual World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, although it is not itself a Hugo Award. In the five years the award has been given, 22 authors have had works nominated. Each year has seen a different winner: the 2018 award was given to Nnedi Okorafor, the 2019 award to Tomi Adeyemi, the 2020 award to Naomi Kritzer, the 2021 award to Ursula Vernon under the alias T. Kingfisher, and the 2022 award to Naomi Novik (pictured). Vernon has had works nominated three times (as Kingfisher), and six other authors have been nominated twice. (Full list...)
July 14
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2013 action-adventure game The Last of Us garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with particular praise for its story, sound and music, graphical and artistic design, and the performances. Players assume control of Joel (Troy Baker), escorting the young Ellie (Ashley Johnson) across a post-apocalyptic United States. At the 10th British Academy Video Games Awards, The Last of Us received ten nominations and went on to win five awards: Best Game, Action & Adventure, Audio Achievement, Performer, and Story. The game led the 17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards with thirteen nominations and ten awards, including Game of the Year. At the 14th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, it won Game of the Year, Best Design, and Best Narrative. The game received seven nominations at the Spike VGX, with Baker winning the award for Best Voice Actor and Johnson winning the award for Best Voice Actress. (Full list...)
July 17
There have been 75 finals in the Coppa Italia since its establishment in 1922. The Coppa Italia is an annual football cup competition in Italy, open to all Serie A and Serie B clubs, as well as four teams from Serie C. There have been 41 single-match finals, one of which was replayed after the initial game ended in a goalless draw. On 30 occasions, the final two teams played two matches on a home-and-away basis. On four occasions, a final group of four teams played a double round-robin tournament to determine the winner. As of 2023, 16 teams have won the competition at least once. On 11 occasions, the winning team also won Serie A in the same season, thus making a domestic double. Inter Milan are the only team to win Serie A, the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Champions League in the same year, which occurred in 2010. Juventus hold the record for the most wins (14) and most appearances in the final (21). (Full list...)
July 21
The Japanese sports anime television series Yuri on Ice had a total of 12 episodes. The series first premiered on TV Asahi on October 6, 2016, and finished airing on December 22, 2016. It was produced by MAPPA, directed by Sayo Yamamoto and written by Mitsurou Kubo. The character designs were by Tadashi Hiramatsu, and the music was composed by Taro Umebayashi and Taku Matsushiba. The series revolves around the relationships between Japanese figure skater Yuri Katsuki, also known as Yuri K., his idol, Russian figure-skating champion Victor Nikiforov, and up-and-coming Russian skater Yuri Plisetsky, also known as Yuri P. The series was made available for streaming by Crunchyroll shortly after its broadcast in Japan, and then Funimation provided an English dub of the series, starting on October 24, 2016. (Full list...)
July 24
There are eighteen families in Saxifragales, Vitales and Zygophyllales, three orders of flowering plants. Along with the COM clade, the nitrogen-fixing clade and the malvids, they constitute the superrosids, a group of around 150 related families, including the rose family. The order Saxifragales includes fruit-bearing shrubs, woody vines, succulents, aquatics, and many ornamental trees and garden plants, including stonecrops, currants and witch-hazels. Peonies are bred by horticulturists and widely cultivated in temperate gardens. Cercidiphyllum japonicum (tree pictured), the largest tree species native to Japan, is used to make boards for the game of Go. Vitales and Zygophyllales include trees, shrubs, vines and herbaceous plants. (Full list...)
July 28
There are eighty Grade II* listed buildings in North Somerset, a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. In the United Kingdom, the term listed building refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance; Grade II* structures are those considered to be "particularly significant buildings of more than local interest". The oldest in North Somerset are Norman churches. From the Middle Ages onward there are more churches and some manor houses, such as Tyntesfield, Clevedon Court and Leigh Court, with their ancillary buildings. More recent entries include Birnbeck Pier (pictured), which was designed by Eugenius Birch and opened in 1867, and the Waterworks at Blagdon, which were completed in 1905. (Full list...)
July 31
Kapil Dev, a retired Indian cricketer, took 24 five-wicket hauls during his international career. In cricket, a five-wicket haul occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. Dev represented India in Test and One Day International (ODI) cricket between 1978 and 1994. With 23 five-wicket hauls in Tests, he has the third-highest number of international five-wicket hauls among Indian cricketers as of 2012, after Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. His first five-wicket haul came in 1979, against England during the first Test of India's tour. In Tests, Dev was most successful against Pakistan and Australia, with seven five-wicket hauls against each of them. He took his only five-wicket haul in ODIs against Australia during the 1983 Cricket World Cup. (Full list...)