Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 August 16

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From today's featured article

Judd Trump

The 2019 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 April to 6 May at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 43rd consecutive year the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible, and the 20th and final ranking event of the 2018–19 season. The winner of the title was Judd Trump (pictured), who defeated John Higgins 18–9 in the final to claim his first World Championship, completing the Triple Crown. Defending champion Mark Williams lost 9–13 to David Gilbert in the second round. The tournament featured 100 century breaks, the highest number ever recorded at an official snooker event. The final match alone included 11 centuries, the most ever scored in the final of a ranking event. Higgins compiled the highest break, a 143, in his semifinal win over Gilbert. Shaun Murphy defeated Luo Honghao in the first round 10–0, the first whitewash at the World Championship since 1992. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Life reconstruction of Ankylorhiza tiedemani

... that the forward-facing incisors of the extinct dolphin Ankylorhiza (restoration pictured) may have been used for ramming their prey, similar to a hunting method used by modern orcas?
... that the comic opera Scalia v. Ginsburg is based on the friendship of the two U.S. Supreme Court justices and their shared love of opera?
... that in the 1700s, Helen Hope turned a Scottish moor into a wood and named it after her eldest son?
... that Monika Rice's "What! Still Alive?!" has been described as a "disturbing narrative of violence, hostility, and indifference" towards Holocaust survivors in Poland?
... that whilst making his record break of 499,135, English billiards player Tom Reece was in play for 85 hours and 49 minutes without his opponent taking a turn?
... that in 2014, the government of Bangladesh removed 2,367 former communist guerrilla fighters from the official listing of freedom fighters, but this move was overruled by the High Court?
... that after throwing himself on the mercy of King Peter of Castile, Sultan Muhammad VI of Granada was killed by the Castilian king himself?
... that WILS-TV in Lansing, Michigan, featured a singing weather girl and pianist dressed appropriately for the next day's forecast?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Joshua Cheptegei

Ugandan athlete Joshua Cheptegei (pictured) sets a new 5000 metres world record.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates agree to establish diplomatic relations.
Pro-democracy protests intensify in Belarus after the contested reelection of incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab of Lebanon, and his cabinet, resign in the wake of the explosions in Beirut that killed at least 200 people.

On this day

August 16

Elvis Presley

1513 – War of the League of Cambrai: English and Imperial forces defeated French cavalry, forcing them to retreat.
1896 – A group including George Carmack and Skookum Jim Mason discovered gold near Dawson City, Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
1920 – The Battle of Radzymin, one of the bloodiest and most intense battles of the Polish–Soviet War, concluded with a Polish victory.
1946 – Widespread riots between Hindus and Muslims took place in Calcutta as a result of the All-India Muslim League's call for an independent Pakistan.
1977 – American singer and actor Elvis Presley (pictured) was found dead in his home in Memphis, Tennessee.

Ranavalona I (d. 1861)
Robert Bunsen (d. 1899)
Saif Ali Khan (b. 1970)

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Today's featured picture

The 15th-century St. Joan of Arc Chapel was initially built in the village of Chasse-sur-Rhône, France. Originally called the Chapelle de St. Martin de Seyssuel, it is said to have been the place at which Joan of Arc prayed in 1429 after she had met King Charles VII of France. The present name was given to the chapel when Gertrude Hill Gavin, the daughter of an American railroad magnate, had the derelict building dismantled, transported to America and rebuilt beside her French Renaissance–style château in Brookville, New York, in 1927. The chapel was undamaged when the château burned down in 1962, and was later given to Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, once more being transported stone by stone.

Photograph credit: Leroy Skalstad

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