Wikipedia:Main Page history/2023 July 19b
From today's featured article
Al-Walid I (c. 674 – 715) was the sixth Umayyad caliph, ruling from October 705 until his death. The eldest son of Caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705), he continued his father's efforts to centralize government, impose a more Arabic and Islamic character on the state, and expand its borders. He heavily depended on al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, his father's powerful viceroy over the eastern half of the caliphate. During his reign, armies commissioned by al-Hajjaj conquered Sind and Transoxiana in the east, while the troops of Musa ibn Nusayr, the governor of Ifriqiya, conquered the Maghreb and Hispania in the west, bringing the caliphate to its largest territorial extent. Al-Walid financed impressive public works, including the Great Mosque of Damascus, the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. He was the first caliph to institute programs for social welfare, and his reign was marked by domestic peace and prosperity. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
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- ... that Glyn Johns (pictured) was the recording engineer for Led Zeppelin's debut album, the Beatles' Get Back Sessions, and the Rolling Stones album Let It Bleed?
- ... that an air traffic controller's confusion of two planes' locations caused sixteen skydivers to drown after they unknowingly jumped over Lake Erie?
- ... that just four days before his death in 2004, David B. McCall received a presidential pardon from George W. Bush for fraud charges dating from the 1990s?
- ... that although more than a thousand used Japanese train cars had previously been imported into Indonesia, the Indonesian government blocked a recent attempt to import more?
- ... that Patricia Banks-Edmiston was prevented from becoming a flight attendant during the 1950s because she was black?
- ... that the 1935 SMU vs. TCU football game, known as the "Game of the Century", was the first football game in Texas to be broadcast nationally?
- ... that Emmanuel Zheng Manuo was the first Chinese student in Europe and the first Chinese Jesuit priest?
- ... that Piri & Tommy's Froge.tour included pole dancing?
In the news
- Flooding and landslides in South Korea (pictured) leave at least 40 people dead and 6 others missing.
- In the United States, actors in the SAG–AFTRA trade union go on strike, joining writers in the Writers Guild of America strike.
- Flooding and landslides in northern India leave at least 100 people dead.
- Czech-French writer Milan Kundera dies at the age of 94.
- In the Netherlands, the governing coalition collapses and Prime Minister Mark Rutte announces his upcoming resignation.
On this day
July 19: Islamic New Year (2023, 1445 AH)
- 998 – Arab–Byzantine wars: After initial Byzantine gains at the Battle of Apamea, a lone Kurdish rider killed Byzantine commander Damian Dalassenos, allowing Fatimid troops to turn the tide of the battle.
- 1843 – SS Great Britain, the first ocean-going ship with both an iron hull and a screw propeller, was launched (pictured) in Bristol, England.
- 1845 – A fire in Manhattan, New York, destroyed 345 buildings, killed 30 people, and caused at least $5 million in damage.
- 1903 – French cyclist Maurice Garin won the first edition of the Tour de France.
- 2014 – Gunmen perpetrated an assault against an Egyptian military checkpoint in the Libyan Desert, killing 22 soldiers.
- Jacopo Tiepolo (d. 1249)
- Margaret Fuller (d. 1850)
- Han Sai Por (b. 1943)
- Galina Prozumenshchikova (d. 2015)
Today's featured picture
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Trifolium hybridum, also known as the alsike clover, is a species of flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae. The stalked, pale pink or whitish flower head grows from the leaf axils, and the trifoliate leaves are unmarked. The plant is up to 40 centimetres (1.3 ft) tall, and is found in fields and on roadsides – it is also grown as fodder (hay or silage). It blooms from spring to autumn. Originating in mainland Europe, it has become established as an introduced plant in the British Isles. This T. hybridum flower was photographed in Keila, Estonia. Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus
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