Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 February 14

From today's featured article

Paxillus involutus, the common roll-rim, is a fungus widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere; it has also been unintentionally introduced to Australia, New Zealand, and South America. The brownish fruit body grows up to 6 cm (2.4 in) high. It has a funnel-shaped cap up to 12 cm (5 in) wide with a distinctive in-rolled rim and decurrent gills close to the stalk. Genetic testing suggests that the fungus may be a species complex rather than a single species. A common mushroom of deciduous and coniferous woods and grassy areas in late summer and autumn, P. involutus is symbiotic with the roots of many tree species, reducing the trees' intake of heavy metals and increasing their resistance to pathogens. Previously considered edible and eaten widely in Eastern and Central Europe, the mushroom has been found to be dangerously poisonous; in 1944, it killed the German mycologist Julius Schäffer. It can trigger the immune system to attack red blood cells with potentially fatal complications, including acute renal and respiratory failure. (Full article...)

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Lenten rose

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Cyclone Gita

Cyclone Gita (satellite image pictured) strikes Tonga, becoming the strongest storm to hit the nation in over 60 years, and causes extensive damage.
Saratov Airlines Flight 703 crashes in Russia, killing all 71 people on board.
A bus accident kills 19 people in Hong Kong.
The Winter Olympics open in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The SpaceX launch vehicle Falcon Heavy makes its maiden flight, carrying Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload.

February 14: Valentine's Day ; Ash Wednesday (Western Christianity, 2018)

The Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth

1779 – American Revolutionary War: A militia force of Patriots decisively defeated and scattered a Loyalist militia force that was on its way to British-controlled Augusta, Georgia.
1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, was founded in London.
1943 – World War II: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army launched a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
1990 – The Voyager 1 space probe took an iconic photograph of Earth that later became famous as Pale Blue Dot (pictured).
2008 – Steven Kazmierczak opened fire into a crowded lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, killing 5 and injuring 21.

John Wilkins (b. 1614) · Margaret E. Knight (b. 1838) · Adnan Saidi (d. 1942)

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Venus Consoling Love is a painting completed by François Boucher in 1751. It depicts a mythological scene, where Venus, the goddess of love, is about to disarm Cupid by taking away his arrows. Venus is depicted as a young, charming, and supple woman, in accordance with French Rococo's beauty ideals. Once owned by Madame de Pompadour, the chief mistress of Louis XV, the painting is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

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