Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 July 14

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From today's featured article

Roy Inwood (14 July 1890 – 23 October 1971) was a World War I Australian soldier and recipient of the Victoria Cross. Landing at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, in April 1915 with the 10th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force, he fought until being evacuated sick to Egypt in September. He rejoined his unit on the Western Front before the Battle of Mouquet Farm in August 1916. In 1917 he fought in the Battle of Lagnicourt and the Second Battle of Bullecourt. His Victoria Cross was awarded for actions in the Battle of Menin Road, including eliminating a German machine-gun post. In World War II, he volunteered to serve in the Citizens Military Forces, reaching the rank of warrant officer I serving in the Australian Provost Corps and Military Prison and Detention Barracks Service. After the war he returned to work with the City of Adelaide, and on his death he was buried with full military honours in the AIF Cemetery, West Terrace. His medals are displayed in the Adelaide Town Hall. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Orozco's Prometheus

... that abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock considered the greatest painting in North America to be a mural of Prometheus (pictured) at Pomona College by Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco?
... that Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin claimed that he had prevented another Holocaust by bombing an Iraqi nuclear reactor?
... that the languorous voice of television character Paulina de la Mora is seen as a socioeconomic commentary on the Mexican stereotype of high-class young women?
... that the musicologist Ulrike Liedtke, who founded and directed the Rheinsberg Music Academy, became president of the Brandenburg state parliament in 2019?
... that the Guinness World Record for the amateur sport of cherry pit spitting is 28.51 metres (93 ft 6.5 in)?
... that neuroscientist Michela Gallagher's research group showed that the epilepsy drug levetiracetam is a candidate to reduce mild cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer's disease?
... that the 1997 historical drama Balidaan (Sacrifice) was banned in 2005 by King Gyanendra's government for its portrayal of Nepal's communist movement?
... that the first state superintendent of schools for Georgia was a one-armed former dentist?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

NEOWISE over California

Comet NEOWISE (pictured) is visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere.
In the Singaporean general election, Lee Hsien Loong is re-elected Prime Minister as his People's Action Party retains its supermajority.
Bulgaria and Croatia join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism 2, the first major step in their adoption of the euro.
A bus plunges into a reservoir in Anshun, China, killing 21 people and injuring 16.

On this day

July 14: Bastille Day in France (1789); Festino di Santa Rosalia begins in Palermo, Italy

Attack on Joseph Priestley's home

1791 – The Priestley Riots (depicted), targeting religious dissenters such as Joseph Priestley, began in Birmingham, England.
1798 – The Sedition Act became law, making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. government.
1874 – A fire in Chicago destroyed 812 structures and killed 20 people, leading to reforms in the city's fire prevention and firefighting efforts.
1987 – More than 100 mm (3.9 in) of rain fell in a two-and-a-half-hour period in Montreal, causing severe flooding and over C$220 million in damage.
2016 – A man deliberately drove a truck into crowds in Nice, France, resulting in the deaths of 86 people.

Arthur de Gobineau (b. 1816)
Juliette Wytsman (b. 1866)
César Tovar (d. 1994)

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Today's featured picture

Alphonse Bertillon (1853–1914) was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who applied the anthropological technique of anthropometry to law enforcement, creating an identification system based on physical measurements. It was the first scientific system used by police to identify criminals, and was eventually supplanted by fingerprinting. The Bertillon system consisted of five initial measurements – head length, head breadth, length of middle finger, length of left foot, and length of forearm. Along with these measurements, Bertillon used photography, now known as a mug shot, to complete the record. This image shows both sides of an anthropometric data sheet for Bertillon himself.

Photograph credit: Jebulon

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