Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 July 11

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From today's featured article

Istiodactylus was a pterosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous. The first fossil of the genus was discovered on the Isle of Wight in England. More specimens were later found, including a species from China, I. sinensis, which possibly belongs to a different genus. Istiodactylus (from Greek for "sail finger") was a large pterosaur; estimates of its wingspan range from 4.3 to 5 metres (14 to 16 ft) long. Its skull was about 45 centimetres (18 in) long, and was relatively short and broad for a pterosaur. The front of the snout was low and blunt, and bore a semicircle of 48 interlocked teeth. It had very large forelimbs, with a wing-membrane distended by a long wing-finger, but the hindlimbs were very short. It was a scavenger that may have used its distinctive teeth to sever morsels from large carcasses. The wings may have been adapted for soaring, which would have helped it find carcasses. Istiodactylus is known from the Wessex Formation and the younger Vectis Formation. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

A Blue Line train on the Steel Bridge

... that Portland's MAX Blue Line (train pictured) was built as a result of freeway revolts in the 1970s?
... that Pema Dhondup studied filmmaking at the University of Southern California so he could use the medium to tell the story of his "lost generation" of Tibetan youth?
... that endometriosis, a condition in which tissue from the womb occurs in unusual locations, can cause bleeding into the chest during menstrual periods?
... that Liu Housheng co-founded the Plum Blossom Award, the highest award for Chinese opera?
... that a clay tablet at the National Museum of Iraq, dated to c. 1770 BCE, shows a calculation that uses the Pythagorean theorem—twelve centuries prior to the birth of Pythagoras?
... that Gustave A. Mueller of the Homeopathic Hospital of Pittsburgh was described in his 1912 obituary as a leading specialist in the treatment of the eye, ear, nose, and throat?
... that flyways used by migrating wetland birds have traditional staging points where they can rebuild their energy reserves?
... that French-born Joe Bertony, who twice escaped from Nazi concentration camps, played a key part in the construction of the Sydney Opera House?

In the news

Megan Rapinoe

In association football, the FIFA Women's World Cup concludes with the United States (Golden Ball winner Megan Rapinoe pictured) defeating the Netherlands in the final.
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement becomes operational.
Iran announces an increase in uranium enrichment beyond the limit set in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
An airstrike on a migrant center outside Tripoli, Libya, kills at least 53 people and injures 130 others.

On this day

July 11

Statue of Yagan

1302 – Flemish infantry defeated a large French army near Kortrijk at the Battle of the Golden Spurs.
1833 – Noongar warrior Yagan (statue pictured), wanted for leading attacks on white colonists in Western Australia, was killed, becoming a symbol of the unjust and sometimes brutal treatment of the indigenous peoples of Australia by colonial settlers.
1921 – Former President of the United States William Howard Taft was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, making him the only person to ever hold both positions.
1943 – The bloodiest day of a massive ethnic cleansing operation took place, where units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army attacked and burned various Polish villages in the Volhynia region of present-day Ukraine.
1991 – Shortly after takeoff from King Abdulaziz International Airport, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 caught fire and crashed, killing all 261 people on board.

Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (b. 1866) · Boris Grigoriev (b. 1886) · Pedro Rodríguez (d. 1971)

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Today's featured picture

The Catalan Atlas is a medieval map in the Catalan language, created in 1375. Described as "the zenith of medieval map-work", it is the earliest known chart to use a compass rose. It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Abraham Cresques, a Jewish book illuminator described by a contemporary as a master of mappae mundi. It has been in the royal library of France (now the Bibliothèque nationale de France) since the time of King Charles V. The atlas originally consisted of six vellum leaves, each about 64.5 by 50 cm (25.4 by 19.7 in), folded vertically and painted in various colours including gold and silver. This picture is a montage of eight pages (four leaves) of the atlas, depicting Europe, northern Africa and Asia.

Map credit: Abraham Cresques

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