Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 August 2

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From today's featured article

Interstate 68 (I-68) is a 112.9-mile (181.7 km) Interstate highway in the U.S. states of West Virginia and Maryland, connecting Interstate 79 in Morgantown to Interstate 70 in Hancock, and is also part of the Appalachian Development Highway System. In Maryland, it parallels the historic National Road between Keysers Ridge and Hancock. A road cut at one of the many mountain ridges it crosses, Sideling Hill, exposes geological features that have become a tourist attraction. From 1965 until the freeway's construction was completed on August 2, 1991, its segments were designated as U.S. Route 48. It crosses Allegany, Garrett, and Washington counties in Maryland, and Preston and Monongalia counties in West Virginia. The two largest cities connected by the highway are Morgantown and Cumberland, Maryland. Although the freeway serves no major metropolitan areas, it connects western Maryland and northern West Virginia and provides an alternative to the Pennsylvania Turnpike for westbound traffic from Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. US 219, US 220 and US 40 overlap in part with I-68. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Flag of Southern Rhodesia

... that the colour of the Flag of Southern Rhodesia (pictured) was chosen to match the RAF ensign to protest British treatment of Southern Rhodesia?
... that Henri Negresco founded the Hotel Negresco, which was used to aid victims of the 2016 Nice truck attack?
... that Frank Sinatra and the Tommy Dorsey Band's 1943 number one single "In the Blue of Evening", was later re-recorded as a tribute to Dorsey by Sinatra?
... that physicists Justin Khoury and Amanda Weltman proposed an explanation for the existence of dark energy when the latter was 24 years old?
... that the Irish horse McKinlaigh won an Olympic silver medal while competing for the United States?
... that career military leader Kamal Jit Singh has commanded both an armoured brigade of T-90s in India and a United Nations peacekeeping team in Angola?
... that Audition has been described as an influence on "torture porn"?

In the news

Solar Impulse 2

American skydiver Luke Aikins performs a 25,000 feet (7,600 m) free fall from an aircraft and lands on a ground net.
A hot air balloon catches fire and crashes near Lockhart, Texas, United States, killing 16 people.
Solar Impulse 2 (pictured) becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth, completing a 16-month voyage.
At least 19 people are killed and 26 others are injured in a stabbing incident at a disabled care home in Sagamihara, Japan.
In cycling, Chris Froome wins his third Tour de France title.

On this day...

August 2: Day of the Republic in Macedonia

The Leonardo da Vinci

216 BC – Second Punic War: Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal defeated a numerically superior Roman army, near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy.
1610 – English sea explorer Henry Hudson sailed into what is now known as Hudson Bay, thinking he had made it through the Northwest Passage to reach the Pacific Ocean.
1830 – His hand forced by the recent July Revolution, Charles X of France abdicated the throne in favor of his grandson, Henry.
1916 – An explosion sank the Italian dreadnought Leonardo da Vinci (pictured), which was blamed on Austro-Hungarian saboteurs.
1985 – Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashed in Dallas, Texas, US, due to a microburst, resulting in 137 deaths.

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Today's featured picture

Wah-ro-née-sah (The Surrounder), an Otoe chief, as painted by George Catlin in c. 1832. He was described by Catlin as "quite an old man; his shirt made of the skin of a grizzly bear, with the claws on".

Painting: George Catlin

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