Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 July 15

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From today's featured article

1930 Viking

In the late 1920s, American automaker General Motors (GM) introduced four brands to supplement its five existing brands of passenger cars. In descending order of price, these were LaSalle, to supplement Cadillac; Viking (example pictured), to supplement Oldsmobile; Marquette, to supplement Buick; and Pontiac, to supplement Oakland. The brands were introduced in an effort to fill gaps in GM's pricing ladder and produce cars that were cheaper to make for its existing divisions. The Great Depression resulted in the failure of most of these brands. Viking and Marquette were each discontinued within two years of their introductions, and LaSalle after slightly more than a decade. Pontiac had the opposite fate; it was Oakland that would be discontinued, while Pontiac would continue until 2010. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Political cartoon depicting Truman and Dewey

... that despite most of the polls and 50 major political writers predicting victory for Thomas E. Dewey, Harry S. Truman won the 1948 presidential election (candidates pictured)?
... that Mahmut Bozteke, whose arms were partially disabled in an accident, started performing Para Taekwondo upon the advice of his physiotherapist, who commented that he can use his legs very well?
... that the Tiféret Israel Synagogue, the oldest in Caracas, Venezuela, was profaned during the 2008–2009 Gaza War?
... that George Case was the co-owner of the slave ship whose crew perpetrated the Zong massacre?
... that many Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters were able to reunite with their kidnapped families after the 2021 Battle of Sambisa Forest?
... that Ludwig Wüllner sang in the U.S. premiere of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder in 1910, conducted by the composer?
... that "I Found a Way", written by Drake Bell and Michael Corcoran, became the theme song for the Drake & Josh show?
... that in his ruling in Miller v. Bonta, Judge Roger Benitez compared AR-15s to Swiss Army knives?

In the news

Sher Bahadur Deuba

In South Africa, protests over the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma result in 72 deaths and 1,200 arrests.
The Supreme Court of Nepal designates Sher Bahadur Deuba (pictured) as prime minister.
The Party of Action and Solidarity wins a majority of seats in the Moldovan parliamentary election.
Anti-government protests occur in Cuba amid food shortages and a surge in COVID-19 infections.
In association football, the Copa América ends with Argentina defeating Brazil in the final.

On this day

July 15

Emil Kraepelin

1815 – Aboard HMS Bellerophon, French emperor Napoleon surrendered to Royal Navy captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, concluding the Napoleonic Wars.
1910 – Emil Kraepelin (pictured) published a new edition of his Textbook of Psychiatry, including for the first time Alzheimer's disease, named after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.
1966 – Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese troops began Operation Hastings to push North Vietnamese forces out of the Demilitarized Zone.
2014 – A Moscow Metro train derailed, killing 24 people and injuring 160 others in the deadliest accident in the metro system's history.

Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps (b. 1793; d. 1884)
Manuel Torres (d. 1822)
Nina Bari (d. 1961)

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Today's featured picture

Calumma crypticum, the blue-legged chameleon, is a species of chameleon found in eastern Madagascar. As with other chameleons, an individual's colour is variable and depends on its surroundings, the ambient temperature, and variations in the level of light. The species is usually quite colourful, with rich browns, blues and greens; the legs are often marked with blue. This C. crypticum individual was photographed in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar, and can be identified as a male by its long snout with a horn-like protrusion.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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