Wikipedia:Main Page history/2023 May 16
From today's featured article
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"Paint It Black" is a song by the Rolling Stones (pictured), recorded in 1966 and released as a single in May. Two months later, London Records included it as the opening track on the American version of the band's studio album Aftermath. The song's unconventional instrumentation includes a prominent sitar, a Hammond organ, and castanets. Reviews at the time were mixed. Some music critics believed the sitar was used to attempt to copy the Beatles; others criticized its experimental style and doubted its commercial potential. Retrospectively, however, it is considered a turning point in the band's development; Pitchfork called it "rock's most nihilistic hit to date". It spent 11 weeks (including 2 at number one) on the US Billboard Hot 100, and 10 weeks (including 1 at the top) on the UK Record Retailer chart. A 2007 re-issue spent 11 weeks on the UK Singles Chart. Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2018, the song is ranked 213th on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that American aviator John Moisant crashed his plane twice before participating in the 1910 International Aviation Meet at Belmont Park (pictured)?
- ... that the casualties suffered at the Battle of Plum Point Bend were very light given the amount of ordnance expended?
- ... that Jalen Redmond received the offer of a college athletic scholarship before having even played in a high-school football game?
- ... that the Church of St. Jacob, which had been used for centuries by Prussian Lithuanians in Klaipėda, was demolished by soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces using tanks in 1959?
- ... that Ruth Northway is the United Kingdom's first professor of learning disability nursing?
- ... that the Japanese destroyer Teruzuki was sunk by a single torpedo to the stern?
- ... that Angel Aquino received two nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the 2014 Gawad Urian Awards?
- ... that Whistling Dick was "of rather modest proportions"?
In the news
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- Loreen (pictured) of Sweden wins the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Tattoo".
- In cycling, Annemiek van Vleuten wins La Vuelta Femenina.
- In horse racing, Mage wins the Kentucky Derby.
- King Charles III and Queen Camilla are crowned at Westminster Abbey in London.
- The World Health Organization ends its designation of the COVID-19 pandemic as a global health emergency.
- Eighteen people are killed in two separate shootings in Belgrade, Serbia, at an elementary school and in two nearby towns.
On this day
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- 1426 – Mohnyin Thado captured Sagaing to become King of Ava.
- 1605 – After a scuffle in which one cardinal received broken bones, the papal conclave elected Camillo Borghese as Pope Paul V.
- 1929 – The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.
- 1960 – American physicist Theodore Maiman operated the first working laser at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
- 1975 – Japanese climber Junko Tabei (pictured) became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- John Komnenos Vatatzes (d. 1182)
- Margaret Ursula Jones (b. 1916)
- Janet Jackson (b. 1966)
Today's featured picture
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Alsace–Lorraine, now known as Alsace–Moselle, is a historical region located in modern day France. It was created by the German Empire in 1871, after it had seized the region from France in the Franco-Prussian War with the Treaty of Frankfurt and forced France to pay an indemnity of five billion francs. Anger in the French Third Republic about the loss of the territory was one of the contributing factors that led to World War I, and the region reverted to France in 1918 as part of the Treaty of Versailles and Germany's defeat in the war. This oil-on-canvas painting, titled The Geography Lesson or The Black Spot, was painted around 1887 by Albert Bettannier. It depicts a school teacher showing pupils a map of France in which Alsace–Lorraine is coloured black, portraying French resentment of the loss of the region to Germany. The painting is in the collection of the German Historical Museum in Berlin. Painting credit: Albert Bettannier
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