Wikipedia:Today's featured list/March 2021
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March 1
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British actor David Niven's entertainment career began in 1932, where he was an uncredited extra in There Goes the Bride. Niven went on to appear in nearly a hundred films. His film credits include critical successes such as A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Bishop's Wife (1947), Carrington V.C. (1954), and Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Niven received two Golden Globe Awards for his performances in The Moon Is Blue (1953) and Separate Tables (1958); the latter performance also earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Niven also starred in the American television anthology series Four Star Playhouse (1952–1956), which earned him an Emmy nomination at the 7th Primetime Emmy Awards. (Full list...)
March 5
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Various academic works have been generated from the life and work of American singer Madonna. According to critic Paul Northup, writing in Third Way, "eminent authors and academics have pored over her tirelessly since she burst onto the pop scene in the early Eighties". Many authors have written more than one book about Madonna and these have been published in multiple languages other than English, including German, French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian. According to journalist Annalee Newitz, "the academics in the fields of theology to queer studies have written literally volumes about what Madonna's fame means for gender relations, American culture, and the future". Biographies released about the singer include Madonna: An Intimate Biography (2002) by J. Randy Taraborrelli, Madonna (2001) by Andrew Morton, Madonna: Like an Icon (2007) by Lucy O'Brien, Life with My Sister Madonna (2008) by her brother Christopher Ciccone, and Madonna: Bawdy and Soul (1997) by Karlene Faith. Various academic essays and dissertations, as well as analysis of the singer, have given rise to the term "Madonna studies", denoted by author Robert Miklitsch as a "political-cultural" phenomenon. (Full list...)
March 8
The Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award is an annual award honoring the achievements of a female individual from the world of disabled sports. Established with the aid of disability advocate and former United States Paralympic soccer player Eli Wolff, the accolade's trophy, designed by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan, is presented to the disabled sportswoman adjudged to be the best at the annual ESPY Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award was first bestowed as part of the ESPY Awards in 2005 after the non-gender specific Best Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award was presented the previous three years (all won by sportsmen). The inaugural winner of the Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award at the 2005 ceremony was American swimmer Erin Popovich, who is affected by achondroplasia. Fellow swimmer Jessica Long (pictured) has the most victories of any other sportswoman, collecting the award three times at the 2007, 2012 and 2013 awards with one further nomination at the 2009 ceremony. (Full list...)
March 12
Stupas in Nepal date back to the Licchavi period. A stupa is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as śarīra – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. Swayambhunath (pictured) is one of the oldest-known buildings in the country, and was likely built in the 5th century. It was built in Swayambhu, Kathmandu, where the land was declared as sacred to Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), by Ashoka the Great, the 3rd emperor of the Maurya dynasty, in the 3rd century BCE. Ashoka's daughter Charumati, who married a Nepali prince, built Charumati Stupa in the 4th century. Boudhanath is one of the holiest sites in Nepal; it was closed for 18 months after the April 2015 Nepal earthquake, which completely destroyed the top part of the stupa. The World Peace Pagoda was built by Japanese Buddhists for about US$1 million; near the stupa is the gravestone of a monk who was murdered by an anti-Buddhist group while the building was being built. The Ramagrama stupa contains relics of the Buddha and it remains untouched in its original form. (Full list...)
March 15
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American singer and songwriter Billie Eilish has released one studio album, three extended plays and one live album. In November 2015, at the age of 13, Eilish uploaded "Ocean Eyes" to SoundCloud, which would become an instant hit, and lead to her being signed to Darkroom and Interscope Records the following year. Her debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, was issued in March 2019, and featured the globally successful and her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "Bad Guy", for which a remix with Justin Bieber was eventually released. Further singles to aid the record included "You Should See Me in a Crown", "When the Party's Over", "Bury a Friend" and "Wish You Were Gay". From late 2019 to early 2021, Eilish released several commercially successful singles—"Everything I Wanted", "No Time to Die", "My Future", "Therefore I Am" and "Lo Vas a Olvidar"—with the latter being a collaboration with Rosalía for the television series Euphoria. (Full list...)
March 19
A codon table can be used to translate a genetic code into a sequence of amino acids. The standard genetic code is traditionally represented as an RNA codon table, because when proteins are made in a cell by ribosomes, it is messenger RNA that directs protein biosynthesis. The mRNA sequence is determined by the sequence of genomic DNA. It can also be represented in a DNA codon table. The DNA codons in such tables occur on the sense DNA strand and are arranged in a 5′-to-3′ direction. Different tables with alternate codons are used depending on the source of the genetic code, such as from a cell nucleus, mitochondrion, plastid, or hydrogenosome. There are 64 different codons in the genetic code and the tables; most specify an amino acid. Three sequences, UAG, UGA, and UAA, known as stop codons, do not code for an amino acid but instead signal the release of the nascent polypeptide from the ribosome. (Full list...)
March 22
Canadian-American motion-picture actress Mary Pickford started her film career in the United States in 1909, having begun acting on stage in 1900. During the silent-film era, she became one of the first great celebrities of the cinema and a popular icon known to the public as "America's Sweetheart". Initially with the Biograph Company, she moved to the Independent Motion Picture Company in 1911, then briefly to the Majestic Film Company later that same year, followed by a return to Biograph in 1912. After appearing in over 150 short films during her years with these studios, she began working in features with Zukor's Famous Players Film Company, a studio that eventually became part of Paramount Pictures. By 1916, Pickford's popularity had reached the point that she was awarded a contract making her a partner with Zukor and allowing her to produce her own films. Following the release of Secrets (1933), Pickford retired from acting in motion pictures, but remained active as a producer for several years afterwards. (Full list...)
March 26
There are 277 municipalities in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, including 3 cities, 269 towns, and 5 Inuit community governments, which collectively cover only 2.2 percent of the territory's land mass but are home to 89.6 percent of its population. Newfoundland and Labrador is the ninth-most populous province in Canada, with 519,716 residents recorded in the 2016 Canadian census, and is the seventh-largest in land area, with 370,514 km2 (143,056 sq mi). The towns were created by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador in accordance with the Municipalities Act, 1999, whereas the three cities were each incorporated under their own acts. Inuit community governments were created in accordance with the 2005 Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement Act. St. John's (pictured) is Newfoundland and Labrador's capital and its largest municipality by population and land area. Tilt Cove is its smallest municipality by population, and Brent's Cove is its smallest municipality by land area. (Full list...)
March 29
The Leverhulme Medal is awarded by the Royal Society (headquarters pictured) every three years "for an outstandingly significant contribution in the field of pure or applied chemistry or engineering, including chemical engineering". It was created in 1960 after a donation by the Leverhulme Trust to mark the 300-year anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Society, and is accompanied by a 2000-pound gift. Since its creation, it has been awarded 21 times, and unlike other Royal Society medals such as the Royal Medal, it has never been awarded to the same person multiple times. Citizens of the United Kingdom have won the medal 19 of the 21 times. Two Leverhulme Medal winners have also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Archer John Porter Martin, who won the medal in 1963 for "his distinguished and fundamental discoveries in chromatography and its application" and the Nobel Prize in 1952, and Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, who won the medal in 1960 for "his outstanding contributions to physical chemistry" and the Nobel Prize in 1956. Anne Neville became the first woman to receive the award in 2016. (Full list...)