Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 September 16

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From today's featured article

Taylor Swift performing
"Style"

"Style" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift (pictured) for her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). It was written and produced by Max Martin, Shellback, and Ali Payami, with additional writing by Swift, and released to US radio stations as the album's third single. Musically, "Style" incorporates disco, funk, and pop rock. The song garnered generally positive reviews from critics, many of whom deemed it the album's highlight. It earned an APRA Music Award nomination for International Work of the Year and appeared on year-end lists of Pitchfork and The Village Voice. "Style" peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, becoming 1989's third consecutive Hot 100 top-ten single, and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia and Canada. Swift included "Style" on regular set lists for two of her world tours: The 1989 World Tour (2015) and the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018). (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Hokitika Clock Tower

... that the Hokitika Clock Tower (pictured) on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island serves the unusual dual purpose of a war memorial and a town clock?
... that mercury pressure gauges as tall as 23 metres (75 ft) have been built to measure very high pressures?
... that when Bertha Park High School opened, all pupils were provided with iPads, but had to lock their own phones in lockers?
... that Sarika Kale, a kho kho player who has struggled financially for years, won ₹51,000 for her performance as captain of the India national team at the Third Asian Kho-Kho Championship?
... that Theodore Roosevelt considered a portion of the Northwest Branch Trail to be one of his favorite places?
... that the Latvian Boy Scout handbook, written in 1933 by Valdemārs Klētnieks, was destroyed by communists during the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940?
... that prior to the release of his album Restoration in August 2020, Lecrae decided to leave Columbia Records to be independent again?
... that Melati Suryodarmo went viral after dancing on butter?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Portal

Yoshihide Suga

Yoshihide Suga (pictured) becomes Prime Minister of Japan, replacing Shinzo Abe.
Astronomers report the detection of phosphine, a possible signature of organic life, in the atmosphere of Venus.
In tennis, Naomi Osaka wins the Women's Singles and Dominic Thiem wins the Men's Singles at the US Open.

On this day

September 16: Malaysia Day (1963)

Italian tanks during the invasion of Egypt

1701 – James Francis Edward Stuart, nicknamed the "Old Pretender", became the Jacobite claimant to the English and Scottish thrones.
1920 – A bomb in a horse-drawn wagon exploded in front of 23 Wall Street in New York City, killing 38 people and injuring several hundred others.
1940 – Second World War: Italian forces captured the town of Sidi Barrani, but their invasion of Egypt (tanks pictured) progressed no further.
1990 – Construction of the Northern Xinjiang railway was completed between Ürümqi South and Alashankou, linking the railway lines of China and Kazakhstan, and adding a sizeable portion to the Eurasian Land Bridge.
2007 – Seventeen Iraqi civilians were shot and killed by Blackwater guards in Baghdad.

Pandulf Verraccio (d. 1226)
Nadia Boulanger (b. 1887)
Karen Muir (b. 1952)

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Today's featured picture

Graziella is an 1852 novel by the French author Alphonse de Lamartine. It tells of a young French man who falls in love with the eponymous character, a fisherman's granddaughter, during a trip to Naples, Italy; they are separated when he must return to France, and Graziella dies soon afterwards. The novel received popular acclaim; an operatic adaptation had been completed by the end of the year, and the work influenced paintings, poems, novels, and films. This 1878 oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Jules Joseph Lefebvre shows Graziella sitting on a rock, fishing net in hand, gazing over her shoulder at a smoking Mount Vesuvius in the distance. The painting is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Painting credit: Jules Joseph Lefebvre

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