Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 April 29

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From today's featured article

Subfossil lemurs are primates from Madagascar, especially the extinct giant lemurs, represented by subfossils (partially fossilized remains) dating from nearly 26,000 to around 560 years ago. Almost all of these species, including the sloth lemurs, koala lemurs and monkey lemurs, were living around 2,000 years ago, when humans first arrived on the island. The extinct species are estimated to have ranged in size from slightly over 10 kg (22 lb) to roughly 160 kg (350 lb). The subfossil sites found around most of the island demonstrate that most giant lemurs had wide distributions. Like living lemurs, they had poor day vision and relatively small brains, and developed rapidly, but they relied less on leaping, and more on terrestrial locomotion, slow climbing, and suspension. Although no recent remains of giant lemurs have been found, oral traditions and reported recent sightings by Malagasy villagers suggest that there may be lingering populations or very recent extinctions. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Cathinka Buchwieser

... that Franz Schubert dedicated compositions to Cathinka Buchwieser (pictured), a soprano who appeared in Vienna as Mozart's Sesto and Elvira, and as Ferdinando Paer's Achille and Leonora?
... that "the errors of many generations" were said to have been "forever buried" in the footnotes of the 1841 travelogue Biblical Researches in Palestine?
... that Berthe Fraser, a French Resistance agent, helped more than 100 Allied airmen and other agents escape during the Second World War?
... that Chinko Nature Reserve in central Africa provides a habitat with the genetic diversity needed to reestablish animal populations in neighbouring regions?
... that Rodney Legg called the National Trust "an elitist club for art connoisseurs"?
... that on the Ramones' 1987 Halfway to Sanity tour, the group was banned from playing at Boston College and attended a student anti-censorship protest instead?
... that larvae of the sea urchin Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus are stimulated to settle on the seabed when they detect traces of certain algae in the water?
... that American baseball player Tyler Kinley's ancestors changed their surname from "McKinley" after the assassination of the 25th President of the United States?

In the news

Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in

At the inter-Korean summit at the Peace House in Panmunjom, the leaders of North and South Korea (pictured) agree to formally end the Korean War later this year.
American comedian Bill Cosby is found guilty of sexual assault in a retrial of a case that was closed as a mistrial in 2017.
Danish entrepreneur Peter Madsen is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Kim Wall.
Serzh Sargsyan resigns as Prime Minister of Armenia, following large-scale protests.
Ten people are killed and fifteen injured after a van was driven at speed along a sidewalk and into pedestrians in Toronto, Canada.

On this day...

April 29: Pesach Sheni (Judaism, 2018)

Replica of HMS Endeavour

1770 – British explorer James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour (replica pictured), the first European ship to land in eastern Australia, reached the coast of Botany Bay near present-day Sydney.
1910 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the People's Budget, the first budget in British history with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth among the British public.
1968 – The controversial musical Hair, a product of the hippie counterculture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, opened at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway, with its songs becoming anthems of the anti-Vietnam War movement.
1992 – The acquittal of policemen who had beaten African-American motorist Rodney King sparked six days of civil unrest in Los Angeles, during which 63 people were killed.
2015 – The ringleaders of the Bali Nine were executed in Indonesia for attempting to smuggle 8.3 kilograms (18 lb) of heroin to Australia.

Thomas Cooper (d. 1594) · Georgia Hopley (b. 1858) · Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman (b. 1882)

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Today's featured picture

An adult and a juvenile olive baboon (Papio anubis) at Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. The most wide-ranging of all baboons, the olive baboon inhabits savannas, steppes, and forests in 25 countries throughout Africa. This highly adaptable species is omnivorous, feeding on a large variety of plants, invertebrates, small mammals, and birds.

Photograph: Charles J. Sharp

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