Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 December 10

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From today's featured article

Stephen F. Austin

The Convention of 1833, a political gathering of settlers in Mexican Texas, was one in a series of unsuccessful attempts at political negotiation that eventually led to the Texas Revolution. It followed the Convention of 1832, whose resolutions had not been addressed by the Mexican government. Delegates met in San Felipe de Austin to draft a series of petitions, with the volatile William H. Wharton presiding. Although the convention's agenda largely mirrored that of the Convention of 1832, delegates also agreed to pursue independent statehood for the province, which was at the time part of the state of Coahuila y Tejas. Under the guidance of Sam Houston, former governor of the US state of Tennessee, a committee drafted a state constitution to submit to the Mexican Congress. Stephen F. Austin (pictured) journeyed to Mexico City to present the petitions to the government. Frustrated with the lack of progress, in October Austin wrote a letter encouraging Texans to form their own state government. This letter was forwarded to the Mexican government, and Austin was imprisoned in early 1834. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Bacon Super T-6 in faux-Russian markings

... that the Bacon Super T-6 (pictured) was described as looking like the result of "an illicit hangar affair between a T-33 and a T-6"?
... that Johann Balthasar König, the church musician of the Katharinenkirche and director of music in Frankfurt, published a hymnal with 1,913 melodies?
... that Bill Gates plans to build a "smart city" near Phoenix, Arizona?
... that Ireland national rugby union team player Dr. Claire McLaughlin gained the nickname "McSwaplin" owing to her swapping medical shifts in order to play rugby?
... that the mushrooms of Austroboletus olivaceoglutinosus have a fruity smell?
... that Sir John Minsterworth, who joined the French army during the Hundred Years' War, was later returned to England and hanged, drawn and quartered in 1375 for "wilful support" of the enemy?
... that one of the greatest mountain ranges in China is made up of multiple individual tectonic blocks, dividing north and south China?
... that Ghanaian academic Kwesi Yankah wrote the title song for the Free SHS policy?

In the news

Cyclone Ockhi

The Parliament of Australia passes legislation to allow same-sex marriage.
Halszkaraptor, a duck-like dinosaur genus thought to have been semiaquatic, is described from a Mongolian fossil.
U.S. President Donald Trump announces that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Cyclone Ockhi (satellite image shown) strikes India and Sri Lanka, killing at least 39 people and leaving hundreds of others missing.

On this day...

December 10: Human Rights Day

Selma Lagerlöf

1508 – The Papal States, France, Aragon and the Holy Roman Empire formed the League of Cambrai, an alliance against the Republic of Venice.
1861 – Forces led by Nguyễn Trung Trực, an anti-colonial guerrilla leader in southern Vietnam, sank the French lorcha L'Esperance.
1909 – Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (pictured) became the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1979 – The Kuomintang (KMT) dictatorship of Taiwan arrested a large number of opposition leaders who had organized pro-democracy demonstrations, an incident credited with ending the KMT's rule in 2000.
1989 – At the first open pro-democracy demonstration in Mongolia, journalist Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announced the formation of the Mongolian Democratic Union, which would be instrumental in ending Communist rule four months later.

Michael IV the Paphlagonian (d. 1041) · Olivier Messiaen (b. 1908) · Diane Schuur (b. 1953)

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Today's featured picture

Intentional camera movement is a photography technique in which a camera is moved during the exposure for a creative or artistic effect. This causes the image points to move across the recording medium, producing an apparent streaking in the resulting image. The image shown here depicts a bluebell wood on Ashridge Estate in Hertfordshire, England; the intentional camera movement along the vertical plane has created an impressionistic effect.

Photograph: Colin

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