Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 March 29

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Francis Willughby (1635–1672) was an English ornithologist and ichthyologist, and an early student of linguistics and games. At Trinity College, Cambridge, he was tutored by the mathematician and naturalist John Ray, who became a lifetime friend and colleague. Willughby, Ray, and others including John Wilkins were advocates of a new way of studying science, relying on observation and classification, rather than the received authority of Aristotle and the Bible. Willughby and Ray undertook journeys to gather information and specimens in England, Wales, and continental Europe, visiting museums, libraries and private collections as well as studying local animals and plants. After Willughby's early death, Ray completed the works they had jointly planned, publishing books on birds, fish and invertebrates that included innovative ways of classifying animals. Carl Linnaeus relied on Willughby and Ray's books in his Systema Naturae, the basis of binomial nomenclature. (Full article...)

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In the news

Coronavirus pandemic

Joseph Lowery

North Macedonia becomes a NATO member state.
The 2020 Summer Olympics are postponed for one year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Igor Matovič becomes Prime Minister of Slovakia following elections in February.

On this day

March 29: Boganda Day in the Central African Republic (1959); Martyrs' Day in Madagascar (1947)

Viking siege of Paris

845 – Viking expansion: Viking raiders, possibly led by the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok, plundered and occupied Paris (depicted), holding the city for a large ransom.
1911 – The M1911 pistol, developed by American firearms designer John Browning, became the standard-issue sidearm in the United States Army.
1982 – Queen Elizabeth II granted royal assent to the Canada Act 1982, which ended any remaining constitutional dependence of Canada on the United Kingdom by a process known as "patriation".
2010 – Islamist Chechen separatists detonated two bombs on the Moscow Metro, killing 40 people and injuring 102 others.

Santorio Santorio (b. 1561) · Gottfried van Swieten (d. 1803) · Anna Louise Strong (d. 1970)

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Today's featured picture

The brown rock chat (Oenanthe fusca) is a species of bird in the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. With a length of about 17 cm (7 in), the species is larger than the somewhat similar-looking Indian robin. The overparts are a uniform rufous brown, with the wings and tail a slightly darker shade than the rest of the body, while the underparts grade into a dark greyish-brown vent area. They feed mostly on insects picked up from the ground; individuals may forage late into the evening to capture insects attracted to lights.

The brown rock chat is distributed widely across central and northern India, in rocky habitats and around old buildings. This picture shows an individual photographed at the temple complex in Bateshwar, Uttar Pradesh.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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