Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 August 15b

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Shaw and Crompton is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, containing the town of Shaw. Formerly known as Crompton, the parish lies at the edge of the South Pennines, 9 miles (14 km) northeast of Manchester. There is evidence of ancient British and Anglian activity in the area, and by the Middle Ages it was a small township, although lacking a lord's manor. Farming was the main industry with some hand-loom woollen weaving until textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution initiated rapid urbanisation. By the late 19th century Crompton had emerged as a densely populated mill town. Imports of foreign cotton led to a decline in textiles in the mid–20th century and the last mill closed in 1989. The borough is mainly suburban, with a population of 21,065 as of 2011. Of the 48 cotton mills, some very large, that have existed in the area, several now serve as home to large distribution companies. (Full article...)

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In the news

Haiti earthquake damage

The Afghan government collapses as the capital city of Kabul falls to the ongoing offensive by the Taliban.
A 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Haiti (damage pictured) kills more than 700 people.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report on the state of knowledge of climate change and its effects.
The Summer Olympics close in Tokyo, Japan.

On this day

August 15: Independence Day in India (1947); National Liberation Day of Korea (1945)

The Wow! signal

718 – Forces of the Umayyad Caliphate abandoned their year-long siege of Constantinople, causing the caliphate to give up its goal of conquering the Byzantine Empire.
1018 – Byzantine general Eustathios Daphnomeles captured and blinded Ibatzes of Bulgaria by means of a ruse, ending the last resistance against Emperor Basil II's conquest of Bulgaria.
1941 – Josef Jakobs became the last person executed at the Tower of London, having been convicted of espionage.
1963 – President Fulbert Youlou was overthrown in the Republic of Congo, after a three-day uprising in the capital.
1977 – The Big Ear radio telescope in Ohio received a strong, apparently extraterrestrial radio signal, which became known as the "Wow! signal" (printout pictured).

Conrad II, Duke of Swabia (d. 1196)
Gerty Cori (b. 1896)
Rick Rypien (d. 2011)

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Today's featured picture

Le Juif polonais (The Polish Jew) is an opera in three acts by Camille Erlanger composed to a French libretto by Henri Caïn. This poster, which advertised the opera's 1900 premiere at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, depicts the innkeeper Mathias, on the occasion of his daughter's wedding, remembering the Jew he had murdered fifteen years earlier. In the third act, he dreams that he is being tried for the murder, he confesses to the attack and admits to the disposal of the body, and dies of a heart attack.

Poster credit: Henri C. R. Presseq; restored by Adam Cuerden

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