Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 September 5

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From today's featured article

Richard Nixon in 1950

In the 1950 United States Senate election in California, Republican Richard Nixon (pictured) defeated Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas in a campaign characterized by accusations and name-calling. Democratic incumbent Sheridan Downey withdrew during the primary election campaign, after which publisher Manchester Boddy joined the race; both attacked Douglas as a leftist. Nixon and Douglas won the primaries, and at the time of the Red Scare, tried to paint each other as sympathetic to communism; Nixon had more success doing so. Democrats were slow to rally to Douglas, and some even endorsed Nixon, who defeated Douglas by almost 20 percentage points in the November 7 election. Though Nixon was later criticized for his tactics in the campaign, he defended his actions and stated that Douglas was too far to the left for California's voters. The campaign gave rise to two lasting political nicknames, "the Pink Lady" for Douglas and "Tricky Dick" for Nixon. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Aleksei Grishin on a Belarusian stamp

... that Aleksei Grishin (depiction shown) put his 2010 Winter Olympics gold medal—Belarus' first gold in the Winter Olympics—up for auction to raise money for another person's surgery?
... that the dark and fatalistic humour of Canadian comedians has been attributed to the dangers of Canada's climate and geography?
... that David Morgan, the most successful British fighter pilot in the Falklands War, had a hole in the heart that was only discovered after he applied to join the military?
... that psychoanalyst Carl Jung could afford to build his mansion on Lake Zürich (now the C. G. Jung House Museum) after his wife Emma inherited her father's fortune?
... that themes of British band Everything but the Girl's 1985 album Love Not Money include sexism, social and economic stratification, and The Troubles in Northern Ireland?
... that Kihaule's mouse shrew is named after the medical-entomological technician who collected the type specimen from the Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania?
... that Chen Jiayong was the first Chinese scientist to have a satellite named after him?
... that US Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory accused the United States Guards of imposing a "reign of terror" in Butte, Montana?

In the news

Dive boat MV Conception aflame

A fire aboard a charter boat (pictured) near Santa Cruz Island in California leaves at least thirty-three people dead and one other missing.
Hurricane Dorian makes landfall in the Bahamas as a Category 5 hurricane, killing at least 20 people.
Brazil's National Institute for Space Research announces that it has detected more than 80,000 wildfires in the country since January, at least 40,000 of which have occurred in the Amazon rainforest.

On this day

September 5

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle

917 – Liu Yan declared himself emperor, establishing the Southern Han state in southern China, at his capital of Panyu (present-day Guangzhou).
1807 – Gunboat War: The Royal Navy concluded their bombardment of Copenhagen and captured the Dano-Norwegian navy, leading to the term "Copenhagenization".
1905 – Under the mediation of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard near Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
1921 – Popular American comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (pictured) attended a party during which a woman was fatally injured; although he was eventually acquitted of manslaughter, the trial's scandal derailed his career.
1943 – World War II: American and Australian airborne forces landed at Nadzab as part of the New Guinea campaign against Japan.

Nap Lajoie (b. 1874) · Archie Jackson (b. 1909) · Rochus Misch (d. 2013)

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Today's featured picture

Mammillaria spinosissima, also known as the spiny pincushion cactus, is a species of flowering plant in the cactus family Cactaceae, endemic to the central Mexican states of Guerrero and Morelos, where they grow at elevations of approximately 1,600 to 1,900 metres (5,200 to 6,200 ft). The species was described in 1838 by James Forbes, gardener of the Duke of Bedford. Botanist David Hunt collected a specimen in 1971, when he located one near Sierra de Tepoztlan, Mexico. The cylindrical and elongated plants grow up to 30 centimetres (12 in) tall and 10 centimetres (3.9 in) wide. They reach full height after five to ten years. The spines are red-brown or white, with cream-colored radials and pink, funnel-shaped flowers that grow in a ring around the apex of the stem to approximately 2 centimetres (0.79 in) long. It grows low to the ground in solitary or in clusters, and its flowers produce generally bright red berries that are club-shaped, smooth, and juicy. This picture shows an M. spinosissima cactus of the 'rubrispina' ('Super Red') variety.

Photograph credit: Rationalobserver

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