Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 March 23

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Naruto is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of a young ninja, Naruto Uzumaki, who seeks to gain recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the leader of his village. The series is based on two one-shot manga by Kishimoto: Karakuri (1995) and Naruto (1997). It was serialized in Shueisha's magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1999 to 2014, and released in book form in 72 volumes. An anime television series of 220 episodes was produced by Pierrot and Aniplex; it ran in Japan from 2002 to 2007, and its English adaptation aired on Cartoon Network from 2005 to 2009. Naruto: Shippuden, a sequel to the original series, premiered in Japan in 2007 and ended in 2017 after 500 episodes. The English adaptation was broadcast on Disney XD from 2009 to 2011, and on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block beginning in 2014. Pierrot has also developed eleven movies and eleven original video animations. Naruto is the fourth best-selling manga series ever. (Full article...)

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Idol Rock

... that although the Brimham Rocks (example pictured) were shaped naturally by erosion, Hayman Rooke conjectured that the extraordinary shapes of some stones could have been carved in part by druids?
... that J. Hunter Guthrie, president of Georgetown University, disbanded the university's football program because he considered it unprofitable and inconsistent with a Catholic university's mission?
... that despite being known as the Kerry lily, the perennial plant has a much wider distribution outside Ireland?
... that Papuan-born Silas Papare, who originally held pro-Dutch views, became pro-republican after World War II and founded the Indonesian Irian Independence Party?
... that 21 West Street in New York City is possibly the first commercial building in the U.S. to have windows wrapping around the corners?
... that the manga series A Man and His Cat was initially self-published, with entries posted weekly on the author's Twitter account?
... that Gerry Culliton was banned from hurling after being seen playing rugby, and later represented Ireland in rugby internationally?
... that a 2020 documentary about Pepe the Frog raises the question of whether Pepe can be redeemed?

In the news

Coronavirus pandemic

Edwin Catmull

Edwin Catmull (pictured) and Pat Hanrahan receive the Turing Award for their work on computer-generated imagery.
Paleontologists announce the discovery of Asteriornis maastrichtensis, the oldest definitive species of modern bird, which lived at the end of the Mesozoic era.
The World Health Organization recognises the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic.

On this day

March 23

Eleftherios Venizelos

1862 – American Civil War: General Stonewall Jackson of the Confederate States Army suffered a rare defeat at the First Battle of Kernstown, but was still able to prevent the Union Army from reinforcing the Peninsula campaign.
1889 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the Ahmadiyya Islamic religious movement in British India.
1905 – About 1,500 Cretans, led by Eleftherios Venizelos (pictured), met at the village of Theriso to call for the island's unification with Greece, beginning the Theriso revolt.
1977 – British journalist David Frost began a series of interviews with former U.S. president Richard Nixon, starting with the Watergate scandal.
1991 – The Sierra Leone Civil War began with the invasion of the Revolutionary United Front, with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia, in an attempt to overthrow President Joseph Saidu Momoh.

Jahanara Begum (b. 1614) · Hovhannes Tumanyan (d. 1923) · Moses Malone (b. 1955)

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Julia Roberts

American actress Julia Roberts's film career began with her debut in the 1987 direct-to-video feature Firehouse. She made her breakthrough the following year by starring in the coming-of-age film Mystic Pizza (1988). For her role in the comedy-drama Steel Magnolias (1989), she received the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Roberts's next role was with Richard Gere in the highly successful romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. During the late 1990s, she played the lead in the romantic comedies My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Notting Hill (1999), and Runaway Bride (1999). Roberts was the first actress to earn $20 million for playing an environmental activist in Steven Soderbergh's biographical film Erin Brockovich. Her performance garnered her the Academy Award for Best Actress, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Drama. (Full list...)

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NASA space-flown Gemini medallions were mission-specific commemorative medallions which were approved by NASA and carried aboard the mission spacecraft into orbit. Gemini 10 was a mission in the Gemini program. The craft was launched on June 18, 1966, and astronauts John Young and Michael Collins spent three days in low Earth orbit. Gemini 10 was designed to achieve rendezvous and docking with an Agena target vehicle, and an extravehicular activity, and these objectives were successfully achieved.

Fliteline medallions were made for each of the crewed Gemini flights, being prepared for the astronauts at their request. It is unclear who prepared these early medallions, only that each individual box containing a medallion bore the word "Fliteline".

Photograph credit: Heritage Auctions Commissioned by NASA astronaut office

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