Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 September 8

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Peter Martyr Vermigli (8 September 1499 – 12 November 1562) was an Italian-born Reformed theologian. His early work as a reformer in Catholic Italy and decision to flee for Protestant northern Europe influenced many other Italians to convert and flee as well. English reformer Thomas Cranmer invited him to leave a teaching position at Strasbourg in Alsace to take an influential post at the University of Oxford, where he defended his Eucharistic beliefs against Catholic proponents of transubstantiation in a public disputation. He influenced the Edwardian Reformation, including the Eucharistic service of the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. Forced to leave England on the accession of the Catholic Queen Mary I, he eventually settled in Reformed Zürich, where he taught until his death. He was considered an authority on the Eucharist among the Reformed churches, and engaged in controversies on the subject by writing treatises. His Loci Communes, a compilation of excerpts from his biblical commentaries organized by the topics of systematic theology, became a standard Reformed theological textbook. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Trump and Macron shaking hands

... that Donald Trump's handshake (pictured) with Emmanuel Macron at the Bastille Day celebrations was 29 seconds long?
... that the Kingdom of Bosnia allowed the Ottoman Turks to penetrate deep into their territory before inflicting a heavy defeat on them at the 1388 Battle of Bileća?
... that the mirror suggested by Elsie de Wolfe and added by James Amster to make his Amster Yard look bigger is still in place today?
... that Fantasia's single "Sleeping with the One I Love" was described as "five minutes of slow-burning flame"?
... that Adele Schulenburg Gleeson, an American sculptor active in Missouri and Connecticut, studied sculpture under George Julian Zolnay and Charles Grafly?
... that Wolfgang Fortner composed the chamber opera In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa after Lorca for the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen, where it opened the Festival in 1962?
... that Wilfrid Oulton was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for sinking three U-boats in one month?
... that Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack wrote a book based on an index card?

In the news

Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma (satellite image pictured) crosses the Leeward Islands as the strongest-ever recorded hurricane to make landfall in the Caribbean, killing at least ten people.
Monsoon flooding kills nearly 1,300 people and affects 45 million others in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
North Korea conducts its sixth nuclear test.
The European X-ray free-electron laser is inaugurated in Hamburg, Germany.
The Supreme Court of Kenya rules that the country's presidential election was conducted improperly, nullifying its results and ordering a new election within 60 days.
In boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeats Conor McGregor.

On this day...

September 8

Margaret Gorman

617 – Li Yuan defeated a Sui dynasty army in the Battle of Huoyi, opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang'an and the eventual establishment of the Tang dynasty.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: The French defeated Austrian forces in Bassano, Venetia, present-day Italy.
1921 – In Atlantic City, New Jersey, Margaret Gorman (pictured) was crowned the "Golden Mermaid", the forerunner to the Miss America pageant.
1954 – Eight nations signed an agreement to create the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, a Southeast Asian version of NATO.
1966 – The American science fiction show Star Trek premiered with The Man Trap, launching a media franchise that has since created a cult phenomenon and has influenced the design of many current technologies.

Amy Robsart (d. 1560) · Sabrina Sidney (d. 1843) · Margaret Hodge (b. 1944)

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The Alien film series centers around a character ensemble's struggle for survival against the Aliens, a hostile, endoparasitoid, extraterrestrial species, and against the greedy, unscrupulous megacorporation Weyland-Yutani. The franchise tells the story of humanity's ongoing encounters with Aliens, and is set between the 21st and 24th centuries over several generations. The main series consists of four films, Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992) and Alien: Resurrection (1997), about Ellen Ripley's fight against the Aliens. Ripley is the sole survivor of an Alien rampage on the space freighter Nostromo, which leads her to a series of conflicts with the species and Weyland-Yutani. Ripley's struggle is the plot of the main series. The prequel series, Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), depicts humanity's genesis at the hands of an ancient extraterrestrial race known as the Engineers and the origin story of the Aliens. A deadly mutagen developed by the Engineers is discovered, which is weaponized by the android David 8, to perfect the Alien strain. The evolution of the Aliens is the plot of the prequel series. (Full list...)

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Mary was a 1st-century Galilean Jewish woman of Nazareth, and the mother of Jesus according to the New Testament and the Quran. The gospels of Matthew and Luke describe Mary as a virgin, and Christians believe that she conceived her son while a virgin by the Holy Spirit. The birth of Jesus took place when Mary was already betrothed to Joseph and was awaiting the concluding rite of marriage. Mary has been venerated since Early Christianity, and is considered by millions to be the most meritorious saint of the religion.

Mary is depicted here in The Virgin in Prayer, a 17th century oil painting on canvas by the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato.

Painting: Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato

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