Wikipedia:Main Page history/2023 February 21
From today's featured article
An unsuccessful attempt was made to pass an amendment to the Constitution of New Jersey in 1927. The legislature twice passed a proposal, subject to a popular vote, intended to increase the length of the terms of its members and the governor, with the text approved by the state attorney general. Then, it was realized that though the legislature intended that members of its lower house, the General Assembly, be elected biennially (once in two years), the text actually read that they were to be chosen "biannually" (twice a year). The press was considerably amused by this. Democrats opposed the amendment as it provided that the governor would be elected at the same time as the U.S. president, something that they felt benefited Republicans. The Democrats' political boss, Jersey City mayor Frank Hague (pictured), spoke against it. On September 20, 1927, the people of New Jersey voted down the proposal, and Assembly members served one-year terms until the state passed a new constitution in 1947. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that the dollar pattern (example pictured) in Turkish Iznik pottery is a variant of the rock-and-wave border pattern adapted from Chinese porcelain?
- ... that Jane Dempsey Douglass became the first woman to head a worldwide communion of churches in 1990?
- ... that the 1968 single "There's a Blind Man Playin' Fiddle in the Street" by Tages was inspired by an old man that could be seen roaming around the streets of Gothenburg, playing a violin?
- ... that Kurnianingrat helped historian George McTurnan Kahin smuggle speeches by leaders of the Indonesian revolution from the Dutch?
- ... that Ethel Barrymore and Luisa Tetrazzini reportedly visited the Lambs Club Building even though women were not allowed to access the clubhouse's upper floors?
- ... that in August 2022, Igor Mangushev spoke on a stage in a Russian nightclub with what he said was the skull of a Ukrainian soldier killed in the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works?
- ... that the Capitol Hill Citizen's motto, "Democracy Dies in Broad Daylight", is intended as a jab at The Washington Post's motto, "Democracy Dies in Darkness"?
- ... that Paul Harvey improvised a viral piano piece using only four notes?
In the news
- Cyclone Gabrielle (flood damage pictured) causes widespread damage and flooding across New Zealand.
- Nikos Christodoulides is elected President of Cyprus.
- In American football, the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl.
- A megadrought and heatwave cause forest fires and a state of emergency in Chile.
- After a derailment of a train carrying vinyl chloride near East Palestine, Ohio, US, residents are evacuated over health concerns from the subsequent controlled burn.
On this day
February 21: Shrove Tuesday (Western Christianity, 2023); Language Movement Day in Bangladesh (1952)
- 1437 – King James I of Scotland was murdered at Perth in a failed coup by his uncle and former ally Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl.
- 1828 – The inaugural issue of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper in a Native American language, was published.
- 1866 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor (pictured) became the first woman to receive a doctorate from a dental college.
- 1929 – In the first battle of the Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong against the Nationalist government of China, a 24,000-strong rebel force led by Zhang Zongchang was defeated at Zhifu by 7,000 NRA troops.
- Raimondo Montecuccoli (b. 1609)
- Goscombe John (b. 1860)
- Helen Hooven Santmyer (d. 1986)
Today's featured picture
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Robert le diable is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer between 1827 and 1831, to a libretto written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. Superficially based on the medieval legend of Robert the Devil, it is regarded as one of the first French grand operas. This illustration depicts the set design by Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri of the opera's third act, known as the Ballet of the Nuns. Painting and lithography credit: Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri; additional lithography by Eugène Cicéri, Philippe Benoist, Adolphe Jean-Baptiste Bayot; restored by Adam Cuerden
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