Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 April 11

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From today's featured article

Satellite Science Fiction was an American science fiction magazine, published from October 1956 to April 1959 by Leo Margulies' Renown Publications. It was edited initially by Sam Merwin, then Margulies, and finally Frank Belknap Long. In addition to a handful of short stories, initially each issue ran a full-length novel, including the original version of Philip K. Dick's first novel The Cosmic Puppets, and well-received work by Algis Budrys and Jack Vance, though the quality was not always high. Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and L. Sprague de Camp were among the short story contributors. Sam Moskowitz wrote a series of articles on the early history of science fiction for Satellite; these were later to be revised as part of his book Explorers of the Infinite. In 1958 Margulies tracked down the first magazine publication of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine from 1894–1895, and reprinted a short excerpt from it that had been omitted by every subsequent printing. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

American Adolf Hitler propaganda stamp

... that the German philatelic writer Wolfgang Baldus is a specialist in the forged and propaganda stamps of the Second World War, such as the American Adolf Hitler skull stamp (pictured)?
... that the Indian Creek mushroom can be distinguished from chanterelles by its staining dark purple when cut or bruised?
... that the Dutch-Belgian composer Oscar van Hemel created two operas, one of them about a prostitute?
... that Mawjoudin Queer Film Festival, the first queer film festival in North Africa, does not disclose its location due to security concerns?
... that journalist Roman Sushchenko was named by the European Parliament as one of 30 Ukrainian citizens illegally detained or imprisoned in Russia?
... that the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act protected more than 1.3 million acres (5,300 km²) of wilderness and created four U.S. national monuments?
... that Mr Justice Orr granted the wife of British spy George Blake a decree nisi for divorce on the grounds that a conviction for treason can amount to cruelty?
... that John Wozniak took less than an hour to write Marcy Playground's only hit, "Sex and Candy", in his bedroom at 4 a.m.?

In the news

Supermassive black hole M87*

The Event Horizon Telescope publishes the first direct image of a black hole (shown).
In basketball, the Virginia Cavaliers defeat the Texas Tech Red Raiders to win the NCAA Division I Men's Championship.
In rowing, the women's and men's crews of Cambridge defeat Oxford in their respective Boat Races.
In Iran, widespread flooding since late March kills at least 70 people.

On this day

April 11

The Concertgebouw

1809 – Napoleonic Wars: A hastily assembled Royal Navy fleet launched an assault against the main strength of the French Atlantic Fleet, which resulted in political turmoil in both England and France.
1888 – The Concertgebouw (pictured) in Amsterdam, considered one of the world's finest concert halls, was inaugurated.
1921 – Emir Abdullah established the first centralised government in the recently created British protectorate of Transjordan.
1963 – Pope John XXIII issued Pacem in terris ("Peace on Earth"), the first papal encyclical addressed to "all men of good will", rather than only to Catholics.
2001 – In a FIFA World Cup qualifying match, Australia defeated American Samoa by a score of 31–0, the largest ever in an international football match.

Edward Wightman (d. 1612) · Ferdinand Lassalle (b. 1825) · Kurt Vonnegut (d. 2007)

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Today's featured picture

Self-Portrait with Two Pupils is a 1785 self-portrait painting by French artist Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. It depicts the artist with two of her pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet and Marie-Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond. Born in Paris on 11 April 1749, Labille-Guiard grew up in a neighbourhood of artists and, on her own initiative, began painting and receiving training from them. She began to take students of her own in 1780. They were all female and she was an advocate for women's involvement in painting. Labille-Guiard spent considerable time planning Self-Portrait with Two Pupils—she produced a chalk study during this period in which she was investigating the closeness and the effect of the light on the students' heads. The finished painting is almost life-size and it has been speculated that the artist and one of the pupils are looking at a mirror. In this case Labille-Guiard is actually painting the very painting the observer sees. The painting is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Painting: Adélaïde Labille-Guiard

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