Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 March 31

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HMS Victorious

The 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement is a bilateral treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom on nuclear weapons co-operation. It allows the two countries to exchange nuclear materials, technology and information, and was signed on 3 July 1958, after the British hydrogen bomb programme successfully tested a thermonuclear device. While the US has nuclear co-operation agreements with other countries, including France and other NATO countries, this agreement is by far the most comprehensive. Exemplifying the Anglo-American Special Relationship, it allowed American nuclear weapons to be supplied under Project E. The treaty has proved mutually beneficial, and paved the way for the Polaris Sales Agreement and the Trident nuclear programme submarines, including HMS Victorious (pictured), all of which use American missiles with British nuclear warheads. The most recent renewal of the treaty extended it to 31 December 2024. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Maria Josep Colomer i Luque

... that Maria Josep Colomer i Luque (pictured) became Catalonia's first female pilot at 17 years old, and had flown thousands of Republicans out of Francoist Spain by the end of the Spanish Civil War?
... that Mount Hampton in Antarctica was last active over 10 million years ago, but may still emit steam?
... that the visual style of African-American artist Henry Speller, who was also an accomplished blues musician, was described as "blues aesthetic"?
... that the CEO of CEPI, a key organisation in the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, has called the disease "the most frightening" that he has ever encountered in his career?
... that Lluest-wen Reservoir was once dubbed "the wettest place in Wales"?
... that rivals Furman and Wofford played the first college football game in South Carolina on December 14, 1889?
... that Irish folklorist Bríd Mahon wrote the first of her hundreds of radio scripts for Radio Éireann as a child, discussing the history and music of County Cork?
... that Klingons are positively Shakespearean?

In the news

Coronavirus pandemic

NATO member states

North Macedonia becomes a member of NATO (map of member states pictured).
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 31: Cesar Chavez Day in various U.S. states (1927)

Cartoon of the riot during Schoenberg's concert

1146 – French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux preached a sermon to a crowd at a council in Vézelay, with King Louis VII in attendance, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade.
1913 – Arnold Schoenberg conducted the Vienna Concert Society in a concert of expressionist music that so shocked the audience that they began to riot (depicted).
1930 – To avoid government censorship, Hollywood movie studios instituted their own set of industry censorship guidelines, popularly known as the Hays Code.
1970 – Nine Japanese communists armed with samurai swords and pipe bombs hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 351 en route from Tokyo to Fukuoka.

Anne Hyde (d. 1671) · Pieter Burman the Elder (d. 1741) · Liz Claiborne (b. 1929)

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Today's featured picture

Shoeless Joe Jackson (1887–1951) was an American outfielder who played Major League Baseball in the early 1900s. He is remembered for his performance on the field and for his association with the Black Sox Scandal, in which members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series. Jackson played for three Major League teams during his twelve-year career, briefly playing for the Philadelphia Athletics and the minor league New Orleans Pelicans before joining the Cleveland Naps for five years and finishing his career with the Chicago White Sox. He played left field for most of his career, and currently has the third-highest career batting average in major league history. He always denied being part of the match fixing scandal and subsequent events have cast doubts on his involvement.

This picture shows Jackson holding his baseball bat, Black Betsy, during his time with the Cleveland Naps in 1913.

Photograph credit: Charles M. Conlon

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