Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 March 7

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From today's featured article

Henry Wrigley (1892–1987) was an air vice marshal in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). A pioneering flyer and aviation scholar, he piloted the first trans-Australia flight from Melbourne to Darwin in 1919, and afterwards laid the groundwork for the RAAF's air power doctrine. During World War I, he joined the Australian Flying Corps and saw combat with No. 3 Squadron on the Western Front, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross; he later commanded the unit and published a history of its wartime exploits. He was awarded the Air Force Cross for his 1919 cross-country flight. He was a founding member of the RAAF in 1921. In 1936, he was promoted to group captain and took command of RAAF Station Laverton. Raised to air commodore soon after the outbreak of World War II, he became Air Member for Personnel in November 1940. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire the next year. He served as Air Officer Commanding RAAF Overseas Headquarters, London, from 1942 until his retirement from the military in 1946. His writings on air power were collected and published posthumously as The Decisive Factor in 1990. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

USS Santa Olivia

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... that cell isolation techniques can be used to help study individual living cells from tissue normally discarded during open heart surgery?
... that the British government's Transforming Infrastructure Performance report aims to save the construction industry £15 billion per year?
... that Green Bay Packers running back Devante Mays played for two different community colleges before transferring to Utah State?
... that when the stiff-footed sea cucumber eviscerates, it gets rid of the parasitic sea snail which lives attached to its gut?
... that while his parents wanted him to serve in the church, Albert Methfessel pursued his interest in music, becoming a key figure in German folk and male voice singing in the 19th century?
... that nearly US$700 million was allocated to the process of downgrading Interstate 895 in New York City from a freeway to a boulevard?
... that Prince Edmund Batthyany-Strattmann was a wet bob at Eton?

In the news

USS Lexington (CV-2) in 1941

The wreck of USS Lexington (pictured) is discovered in the Coral Sea.
The Shape of Water wins four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Guillermo del Toro, at the Academy Awards.
At least 25 people die in a fire at a drug rehabilitation clinic in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Attacks at multiple locations in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, leave at least 28 people dead and 50 others injured.
At least 31 people are killed and about 300 others are injured by an earthquake in Papua New Guinea.

On this day...

March 7

Silver leaf disc of Sol Invictus

321 – Emperor Constantine I decreed that Sunday, the day honoring the sun god Sol Invictus (disc pictured), would be the Roman day of rest.
1277 – Étienne Tempier, Bishop of Paris, promulgated a condemnation of 219 philosophical and theological propositions that were being discussed at the University of Paris.
1850 – In support of the Compromise of 1850, United States Senator Daniel Webster gave his "Seventh of March" speech, which was so unpopular among his constituency he was forced to resign.
1900 – The German ocean liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse became the first ship to send a wireless telegraph message to an onshore receiver.
1968 – Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam began Operation Truong Cong Dinh to sweep the area surrounding the Mekong Delta town of Mỹ Tho to root out Viet Cong forces in the area.

Ludwig Mond (b. 1839) · Boris Kustodiev (b. 1878) · E. Pauline Johnson (d. 1913)

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Today's featured picture

A set of lettering guides, ranging from 2.5 to 7 mm. Such guides are templates, consisting of a sheet of plastic or other material with carved alphabet letters and other shapes, used to write uniform characters in a drawing nameplate. Although since superseded in many areas by computers, for decades they were essential for lettering nameplates and helping illiterate or semi-illiterate people improve their handwriting.

Photograph: Lucasbosch

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