Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 June 6

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From today's featured article

Clement Smythe's 1822 sketch

Smythe's Megalith was a chambered long barrow near the village of Aylesford in the south-eastern English county of Kent. Probably constructed in the fourth millennium BCE, during Britain's Early Neolithic period, it was discovered in 1822, at which point it was dismantled. Built out of earth and at least five local sarsen megaliths, the long barrow consisted of a roughly rectangular earthen tumulus with a stone chamber in its eastern end. Archaeologists have established that the monument was built by pastoralist communities shortly after the introduction of agriculture to Britain from continental Europe. Part of an architectural tradition of long barrows that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, Smythe's Megalith belonged to a regional variant produced near the River Medway, now known as the Medway Megaliths. Several of these still survive: Coldrum Long Barrow, Addington Long Barrow, Chestnuts Long Barrow, Kit's Coty House, the Little Kit's Coty House, and the Coffin Stone. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

That's All, Brother in 2019

... that the pilot of That's All, Brother (pictured), the lead C-47 carrying American paratroopers to Normandy 75 years ago today, named the airplane as a message to Adolf Hitler that his rule would soon end?
... that the first three singles released by Japanese musician Halca were used as closing themes for three different anime series?
... that Dadia is the only European forest in which the four native European species of vulture can be found?
... that the Hanthawaddy commander Smin Bayan is celebrated in Burmese history for driving back a Chinese invasion on behalf of his former enemy, Ava?
... that the Irish novelist Maeve Binchy was inspired to write Silver Wedding after hearing a girl on a bus talk about her parents' horrible marriage?
... that Lydia Manley Henry, the first woman to graduate from the University of Sheffield medical school, was awarded the Croix de Guerre?
... that Kristianstads IK's 1981–82 team included current Columbus Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella?
... that Wilfrid and Arthur married Geoffrey at All Souls, and a master mariner gave away the bride?

In the news

Jordan Henderson

In association football, the UEFA Champions League concludes with Liverpool (captain Jordan Henderson pictured) defeating Tottenham Hotspur in the final.
Brigitte Bierlein is named interim chancellor of Austria, after a parliamentary motion of no confidence dismisses the government of Sebastian Kurz.
James Marape is elected Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, following the resignation of Peter O'Neill.
A river cruiser collides with another vessel and sinks in Budapest, Hungary, killing at least fifteen people.

On this day

June 6

D-Day landing

1513 – War of the League of Cambrai: A Milanese force with Swiss mercenaries defeated the French in Novara, forcing them to withdraw from Milan and Italy.
1749 – A plot by Muslim slaves in Malta to assassinate Manuel Pinto da Fonseca of the Knights Hospitaller was uncovered.
1894 – Colorado Governor Davis Hanson Waite ordered his state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike.
1944 – World War II: The Invasion of Normandy, the largest amphibious military operation in history, began with Allied troops landing on the beaches of Normandy (pictured) in France.
1971 – Hughes Airwest Flight 706 collided with a U.S. Marine Corps F-4B Phantom II near Duarte, California, killing 50 people, the radar intercept officer of the F-4B being the sole survivor.

Regiomontanus (b. 1436) · Patrick Henry (d. 1799) · Lillian Russell (d. 1922)

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Today's featured picture

The Portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria is an oil-on-canvas painting by Flemish artist Sir Peter Paul Rubens, dating to 1606. It was commissioned by Marchese Giacomo Massimiliano Doria of Genoa and depicts his wife, Marchesa Brigida, shortly after their wedding in 1605. Both the Marchese and the Marchesa were members of prominent families: the Doria and the Spinola, respectively. In the painting, the Marchesa is shown in an opulent setting to convey luxury; adorned with jewels, she wears a satin and lace dress, with a broad ruff around her neck. Lighting is used to emphasise the drapery of her bulky wedding gown, while she looks down on the viewer, establishing the necessity to hang the finished portrait above the height of viewers. It has been trimmed several times on each side, removing the garden shown in the background and the lower part of the figure, including the bottom of the Marchesa's floor-length gown. The painting, part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection, now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Painting credit: Peter Paul Rubens

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