Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 July 31

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From today's featured article

Henry W. Sawyer (1918–1999) was an American lawyer, civil rights activist, and Democratic politician. Born in Philadelphia, he served in World War II and attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After graduating, he joined the law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath and remained with them for his entire career. Sawyer worked as a corporate lawyer but is best known for his advocacy of civil liberties, especially in First Amendment cases. In Abington School District v. Schempp and Lemon v. Kurtzman, he successfully argued cases before the Supreme Court of the United States (building pictured) that became the basis for all modern Establishment Clause jurisprudence. He pursued civil rights causes in Philadelphia and in the South during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He also served a four-year term on the Philadelphia City Council, where he worked on civil service reform and the acquisition of public art for the city. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Fire at the UMG warehouse in 2008

... that the 2008 Universal fire (pictured) may have destroyed the audio master tapes of up to half a million songs?
... that Kent Angus, a Canadian businessman and Paul Loicq Award winner, incorporated "discovery pieces" into hockey jerseys for Team Canada and other countries at the 2010 Winter Olympics?
... that Puke Ariki, the name for the combined library and museum in New Plymouth, New Zealand, is Māori for "hill of chiefs"?
... that on June 29, Major General Laura Yeager became the first woman to command an infantry division in the United States Army?
... that John Rutter wrote the text and music of A Clare Benediction for choir and orchestra to honour Clare College, Cambridge, where he had studied?
... that falguera, a plant known from only one valley in Spain, is threatened by rock climbers and by road maintenance?
... that thirty million copies of the university textbook compiled by Xu Zhongyu have been printed?
... that hundreds of stockbrokers protested outside the Bombay Stock Exchange demanding removal of the Big Bull after the market crashed?

In the news

Egan Bernal

In cycling, Colombian Egan Bernal (pictured) becomes the first Latin American to win the Tour de France.
Incumbent President of Tunisia Beji Caid Essebsi dies at the age of 92, and Mohamed Ennaceur is named as his interim replacement.
In a European heat wave, national all-time temperature records are broken in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom.
Theresa May is succeeded by Boris Johnson as the leader of the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

On this day

July 31: Ka Hae Hawaiʻi Day (Flag Day) and Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (Sovereignty Restoration Day) in Hawaii

Reinhard Heydrich

1200 or 1201 – John Komnenos the Fat briefly seized the throne of the Byzantine Empire from Alexios III Angelos, but was later caught that night and executed.
1423 – Hundred Years' War: The English and their Burgundian allies were victorious over the French at the Battle of Cravant near Auxerre, France.
1941 – The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring authorised SS General Reinhard Heydrich (pictured) to handle preparations for "the Final Solution of the Jewish question".
1971 – Apollo program: The first Lunar Roving Vehicle was used during the Apollo 15 mission to the Moon.
2012 – The largest power outage in history occurred across 22 Indian states, affecting more than 620 million people, or about 9 percent of the world's population.

William S. Clark (b. 1826) · Fred Keenor (b. 1894) · Hilary Putnam (b. 1926)

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Today's featured picture

A computer-generated animation showing the cardiac cycle, which is the performance of the human heart from the ending of one heartbeat to the beginning of the next. It consists of two periods: one during which the heart muscle relaxes and refills with blood, called diastole, followed by a period of robust contraction and pumping of blood, known as systole. After emptying, the heart immediately relaxes and expands to receive another influx of blood returning from the lungs and other systems of the body, before again contracting to pump blood to the lungs and those systems. A normally performing heart must be fully expanded before it can efficiently pump again. Assuming a healthy heart and a typical rate of 70 to 75 beats per minute, each cardiac cycle or heartbeat takes about 0.8 seconds to complete.

Animation credit: Doctor Jana

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