Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 December 31

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From today's featured article

Turbinellus floccosus, the shaggy chanterelle, is a cantharelloid mushroom of the fungus family Gomphaceae native to Asia and North America. It was known as Gomphus floccosus until 2011, when it was found to be only distantly related to the genus's type species, G. clavatus, and transferred to Turbinellus. The orange-capped vase- or trumpet-shaped mushrooms may reach 30 cm (12 in) high and 30 cm (12 in) wide. The lower and outer surfaces are covered in wrinkles and ridges rather than gills or pores, and are pale buff or yellowish to whitish. T. floccosus forms symbiotic relationships with the roots of various conifers in woodlands across Eastern Asia, from North Korea to Pakistan, and in North America, more frequently in the west. The mild-tasting mushrooms are consumed locally in northeastern India, Nepal and Mexico, but can cause gastrointestinal symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Mekong Bobtail

... that Mekong Bobtails (example pictured) were among 200 royal cats given to Nicholas II of Russia by King Chulalongkorn of Siam in the 19th century?
... that John Moutoussamy is the only African-American to have designed a high-rise building—which featured "colorful walls and psychedelic carpets"—in the Chicago Loop?
... that the first owners of radio station KSTO fled Guam after running up a debt of $60,000 in less than seven months of operation?
... that the Indian Air Force has launched two mobile air combat games, Guardians of the Skies and A Cut Above, to reach out to youth?
... that the 1988 opening of New York City's Archer Avenue lines, expected to lessen congestion, ended up slashing ridership at Parsons Boulevard station by half?
... that Miley Cyrus gained over 2.3 million likes on the video-sharing platform TikTok when she danced and lip-synced with Cody Simpson to "Stupid" by Ashnikko?
... that the Fatimid Caliphate prepared their conquest of Egypt in 969 through a long and patient propaganda effort, resulting in it being swift and almost unopposed?
... that computer scientist Odest Chadwicke Jenkins taught a robot to do the Cabbage Patch by demonstrating the dance?

In the news

Jamal Khashoggi

Bek Air Flight 2100 crashes near Almaty, Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 people and injuring 54 others.
A court in Saudi Arabia sentences five people to death for the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi (pictured).
In the Netherlands, the supreme court upholds a ruling that the government must meet established emissions reduction milestones, creating the first legal precedent on the impact of climate change on human rights.

On this day

December 31

Parliament Hill, Ottawa

1225 – Lý Chiêu Hoàng, the only empress regnant in Vietnam's history, married Trần Thái Tông to establish the Trần dynasty, with both the bride and groom seven years of age.
1857 – Queen Victoria selected Ottawa (Parliament Hill pictured), then a small logging town, to be the capital of the British colony of Canada.
1907 – New York City held its first annual ball drop event in Times Square as part of New Year's Eve celebrations.
1999 – Panama assumed full control of the Panama Canal Zone from the United States, in accordance with the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties, concluding a 20-year transition period.

Ahmad Maymandi (d. 1032) · Henri Matisse (b. 1869) · Henry Gerber (d. 1972)

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Today's featured picture

Beech Grove I, by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (1862–1918), is an oil-on-canvas painting dated 1902. It is part of a collection of about 300 paintings held by the Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden, Germany.

Klimt, one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement, is best known for his opulent, symbol-laden portraits of the Viennese bourgeoisie, but his landscapes represent an important aspect of his career. For many years he travelled each summer through the Austrian and Italian countryside, painting and sketching as he went. In this work, he captures shafts of light illuminating the bare trunks of young beech trees above a litter of leaves on the forest floor.

Painting credit: Gustav Klimt

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