Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 October 28

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From today's featured article

The Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) was a flightless bird that was endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Rodrigues. With the extinct dodo of Mauritius, it formed a subfamily of the pigeons and doves. The male solitaire was much larger than the female and his plumage was a darker grey-brown. Both sexes had a black band at the base of the hooked beak and a long neck. They were territorial, using bony knobs on their wings in combat. The female laid a single egg that was incubated by both sexes. Their diet included fruits and seeds. The solitaire was first described in detail by François Leguat, the leader of French Huguenot refugees who were marooned on Rodrigues in 1691–1693, but little else was known about the bird until the first of thousands of subfossil bones were found in 1786. Hunted by humans and introduced animals, the solitaire was extinct by the late 18th century. A former constellation was named after it. (This article is part of a featured topic: Raphinae.)

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Did you know ...

New York Public Library Main Branch

... that the New York Public Library Main Branch (pictured), whose stacks contain an estimated 2.5 million volumes, uses "book trains" to carry books to patrons?
... that Jack Roxburgh introduced legislation on this day in 1964 to declare ice hockey Canada's national game, after disproving the myth that lacrosse held that distinction?
... that despite a name meaning "strong-smelling durian", Durio graveolens has been described as odorless?
... that Zhang Lianzhong was the first commander of the Chinese navy who had served at sea?
... that KSKI AM initially broadcast from a lodge at the Sun Valley ski resort?
... that Turkish correspondent Pelin Ünker is the only journalist in the world sentenced for writing about the Paradise Papers investigation?
... that Japan National Route 279's course in Aomori Prefecture follows an ancient pilgrimage path to Mount Osore, a destination believed to be a gate to the underworld in Japanese mythology?
... that Lisa Daugaard went to college at the age of twelve?

In the news

Yurisbel Gracial

At least sixty-seven people are killed in protests and inter-ethnic clashes in Ethiopia's Oromo Region and surrounding areas.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi kills himself during a US raid in Idlib, Syria.
Thirty-nine people are found dead in a refrigerated lorry in Grays, England.
In baseball, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks defeat the Yomiuri Giants to win the Japan Series (MVP Yurisbel Gracial pictured).

On this day

October 28: Feast day of Saint Jude the Apostle (Western Christianity)

Tutankhamun's mask

1664 – The Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot, the forerunner to the Royal Marines, was established at the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company in London.
1891 – The Mino–Owari earthquake, the strongest known inland earthquake in Japan's history, caused widespread damage and over 7,200 deaths.
1919 – The U.S. Congress passed the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, reinforcing Prohibition in the United States.
1925 – The funerary mask of Tutankhamun (pictured), possibly originally made for Queen Neferneferuaten, was uncovered for the first time in 3,250 years.
1971 – Prospero, the only British satellite launched on a British rocket to date, lifted off from Launch Area 5B at Woomera, South Australia.

Margaret I of Denmark (d. 1412) · Kanō Jigorō (b. 1860) · Carlos Guastavino (d. 2000)

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From today's featured list

The recording career of Russian pianist and composer Daniil Trifonov initially focused on the music of Frédéric Chopin. Trifonov's first three albums, recorded in 2010 and released in 2011, exclusively consisted of works of Chopin. His next album, Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1, released in 2012, included a performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. In February 2013, Trifonov signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon (DG). His first album for DG, The Carnegie Recital, is a live recording of a recital he had given in Carnegie Hall that month. Trifonov's 2016 album for DG, Transcendental, consisting of the complete piano études of Franz Liszt, reached the number one position in the Specialist Classical Albums Chart in the United Kingdom in October 2016. It was designated one of "The Best Classical Music Recordings of 2016" by The New York Times, and won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Francis Bacon (28 October 1909 – 28 April 1992) was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his emotionally charged raw imagery and fixation on personal motifs. Best known for his depictions of popes, crucifixions and portraits of close friends, his abstracted figures are typically isolated in geometrical cages which give them vague 3D depth, set against flat, nondescript backgrounds. Bacon said that he saw images "in series", and his work, which numbers around 590 extant paintings along with many others he destroyed, typically focuses on a single subject for sustained periods, often in triptych or diptych formats. His output can be broadly described as sequences or variations on single motifs, including the 1930s Picasso-influenced bio-morphs and Furies, the 1940s male heads isolated in rooms or geometric structures, the 1950s screaming popes, the mid-to-late 1950s animals and lone figures, the early 1960s crucifixions, the mid to late 1960s portraits of friends, the 1970s self-portraits, and the cooler more technical 1980s paintings.

This picture is an oil-on-board portrait of Bacon painted by Irish portrait artist Reginald Gray in 1960. The painting is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Painting credit: Reginald Gray

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