Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 December 4

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From today's featured article

Kalākaua dollar

The Kalākaua coinage is a set of silver coins of the Kingdom of Hawaii dated 1883. They were designed by Charles E. Barber, Chief Engraver of the United States Bureau of the Mint, and were struck at the San Francisco Mint. The issued coins are a dime, quarter dollar, half dollar, and dollar (pictured). No immediate action had been taken after the 1880 act authorizing the coins, but King Kalākaua was interested, and government officials saw a way to get out of a financial bind by getting coins issued in exchange for government bonds. The coins entered circulation in early 1884. After legal maneuvering by the business community in Honolulu, who feared inflation of the currency in a time of recession, the government agreed to use over half of the coinage as backing for paper currency. The coins were more eagerly accepted after the economy picked up in 1885. In 1903, after Hawaii became a territory, Congress called in the coins, replacing them with US currency. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Kevin Beattie

... that the footballer Kevin Beattie (pictured) was described by former England manager Bobby Robson as the best England player he had ever seen?
... that French explorer Théodore Monod discovered more than 2,000 brass ingots from the 11th or 12th centuries at the Ma'adin Ijafen archaeological site in Mauritania?
... that American businesswoman and suffragist Anna Shelton was driven to eschew traditional women's roles because of a bigamy scandal involving her sister's husband, a Fort Worth mayor?
... that instead of meeting the blockade runner MV Alsterufer at a fixed rendezvous point in the Atlantic Ocean, the German torpedo boat T23 encountered two British cruisers?
... that palaeontologist Lü Junchang identified the pterosaur genus Darwinopterus, and "Mrs. T", a pregnant female discovered with her egg?
... that in 1346, a French army more than 15,000 strong besieged Aiguillon for five months, but failed to cut its supply lines?
... that Andreas Bauer has appeared in bass roles such as Mozart's Sarastro, Verdi's Philip II of Spain, and Wagner's Marke, but also as Bluebeard and Ibn-Hakia?
... that Cameron's Seafood Market ships thousands of dollars of crab meat each month to former National Basketball Association star Gilbert Arenas?

In the news

Asteroid 101955 Bennu

The sample-return spacecraft OSIRIS-REx arrives at the asteroid 101955 Bennu (pictured).
Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush dies at the age of 94.
Magnus Carlsen defeats Fabiano Caruana to retain the World Chess Championship.
NASA's InSight successfully lands on Mars.
Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko declares martial law after Russian forces seize three ships in the disputed Kerch Strait near Crimea.

On this day

December 4

Dianne Feinstein

1829 – Sati, the Hindu funeral custom of widows immolating themselves, was prohibited in part of British India after years of campaigning by Ram Mohan Roy.
1893 – First Matabele War: A patrol of British South Africa Company soldiers was ambushed and annihilated by more than 3,000 Matabele warriors.
1909 – The Montreal Canadiens, the oldest professional ice hockey club in the world, were founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association.
1971 – Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Navy launched a successful attack against the Pakistan Navy at Karachi, sinking three ships with no casualties.
1978 – Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein (pictured) became San Francisco's first female mayor.

Maerten de Vos (d. 1603) · Jesse Burkett (b. 1868) · Benjamin Britten (d. 1976)

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Today's featured picture

The McClure Tunnel is a tunnel in Santa Monica, California, which connects Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1) with the western terminus of the Santa Monica Freeway (Interstate 10). It is 400 feet (120 m) long. The first tunnel on the site was constructed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1886. This featured in a brief 1898 film called Going Through the Tunnel, which showed the ocean view appearing to the left as the passenger emerges from the western portal. The rail tunnel was demolished and replaced with the current road tunnel, which opened in 1936. It was named after local newspaper publisher Robert E. McClure in 1979.

Photograph: Steve Lyon

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