Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 March 20

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From today's featured article

Luis Miguel

Aries is the ninth studio album by Mexican recording artist Luis Miguel (pictured). Released by WEA Latina in 1993, it features pop ballads and dance numbers with R&B influences. "Ayer" and "Hasta Que Me Olvides", two of the album's three singles released for sale, topped the US Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. "Hasta el Fin" and "Tú y Yo" were released as promotional singles, both peaking at number four on that chart. Aries stayed at number one on the US Billboard Latin Pop Albums for 19 weeks. It sold over one million copies in Mexico, and over two million copies worldwide through 2000. Upon its release, the album received mixed reviews from music critics; they were divided on the dance tunes and ballads, although Miguel's vocals and the album's arrangements garnered positive reactions. The Aries Tour promoted the record in Latin America and the United States. Miguel received several accolades for the album, including the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Riccarton House

... that neither William nor John Deans, pioneers of Canterbury, New Zealand, lived to move from their 1843 cottage to the 1856 homestead (pictured) built on their estate?
... that television station KTVE in Longview, Texas, broadcast the 1954 World Series without permission, and was ordered to cease and desist by the NBC network?
... that at the age of 11, Gabrielle Reidy made her first appearance at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin?
... that the Washington Hall hotel was destroyed during the Battle of Atlanta as part of General Sherman's scorched-earth policy?
... that an erotic manga series by Milk Morizono received complaints from the police, parent–teacher associations, housewife groups, and politicians?
... that the 1985 British Open was the first ranking snooker tournament not to feature a British player in the final?
... that J. Havens Richards, the president of Georgetown University, successfully petitioned Harvard Law School to admit the graduates of some Catholic colleges?
... that the first football match held after the renovation of Milltown stadium in Northern Ireland was abandoned due to a floodlight failure?

In the news

Coronavirus pandemic

Edwin Catmull

Edwin Catmull (pictured) and Pat Hanrahan are awarded the Turing Award for their work on computer-generated imagery.
Paleontologists announce the identification of the fossilized skull of Asteriornis maastrichtensis, the oldest evidence of modern birds, dating to the Mesozoic era.
The World Health Organization recognises the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic.

On this day

March 20: Nowruz in Iran, Central Asia, the Baháʼí Faith, and Zoroastrianism (2020)

Bust of Maximinus Thrax

235 – Maximinus Thrax (bust pictured) acceded to the throne of the Roman Empire as a so-called barracks emperor, who gained power by virtue of his command of the army.
1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States, was published.
1942 – World War II: After being forced to flee the Philippines for Australia, U.S. Army general Douglas MacArthur announced, "I came through and I shall return."
1987 – The antiretroviral drug zidovudine (AZT) became the first treatment approved by the Food and Drug Administration for HIV/AIDS.
1993 – The Troubles: Two children were killed by the second of two bomb attacks by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Warrington, England.

Maurice Csák (d. 1336) · Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (b. 1870) · Dorothy Campbell (d. 1945)

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Barry Sheene

The Barry Sheene Medal is an annual award honouring the achievements of a driver in the Supercars Championship, an Australian touring car series. Tony Cochrane, the chairman of the championship's organising body Australian Vee Eight Supercar Company, instigated the award in 2003. The medal is named after the two-time Grand Prix motorcycle world champion and motor racing television commentator Barry Sheene (pictured). It is presented to the driver adjudged to have displayed "outstanding leadership, media interaction, character, personality, fan appeal and sportsmanship throughout the season". The inaugural recipient was the Stone Brothers Racing driver Marcos Ambrose in 2003. He won his first drivers' championship title that year. Ambrose claimed a second championship title the following year and earned a second medal win. Since then, four drivers have won the award more than once: Craig Lowndes, Jamie Whincup, Scott McLaughlin and David Reynolds. Lowndes has the most victories of any competitor, collecting the award five times. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Portugalösers were a specific denomination of large gold coins, worth ten ducats, which were based on Portuguese coinage, and generally minted beginning in the 1550s for commemoration, sale, or by commission to institutions or individuals.

This picture shows a 1679 half-portugalöser coin, equivalent to five ducats, minted in Hamburg, then a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. The obverse (left) depicts a panorama of the city with the Port of Hamburg in the foreground, while the reverse (right) depicts an allegory of peace. The inscriptions on the coin, in German, read 'Lord, may thy kindness be with us just as we have hoped for' on the obverse, and 'God loves our praise so graciously that he gives unto war first resistance then peace' on the reverse. This coin is now in the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Coin design credit: Free Imperial City of Hamburg; engraved by Johann Christoph Retke; photographed by the National Numismatic Collection

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