Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 2017
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June 1
Monnow Bridge (Welsh: Pont Trefynwy) in Monmouth, Wales, is the only remaining fortified river bridge in Great Britain with its gate tower standing on the bridge. It crosses the River Monnow 500 metres (1,600 ft) above its confluence with the River Wye. According to tradition, construction of Monnow Bridge began in 1272 to replace a Norman timber bridge. Through the medieval era, the English Civil War, and the Chartist uprising, the bridge played a significant role in defending Monmouth. It also served as a toll gate, a gaol, a munitions store, a lodge, an advertising hoarding, and a focus for celebrations. Built predominantly of Old Red Sandstone, the bridge was significantly reconstructed in the 18th and 19th centuries. It then also became a popular subject for artists such as Turner. In the 20th century, it suffered damage from accidents and heavy traffic. After a new road bridge was built downstream in 2004, use of the Monnow Bridge was restricted to pedestrians. Its historical and architectural importance are reflected in its status as a Scheduled Monument and a Grade I listed building. (Full article...)
June 2
R. V. C. Bodley (1892–1970) was a British Army officer, author and journalist. After studying at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Bodley was commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He served with them during the First World War, where he was given the rank of lieutenant colonel and command of a battalion. After witnessing the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, he grew disillusioned with the military and went to live in the Sahara as a nomad for seven years, at the suggestion of T. E. Lawrence. In 1927 he wrote a successful book on his travels, Algeria From Within, the first of his 18 books. After leaving the Sahara he traveled Asia, and was one of few Westerners allowed access to Japan's South Pacific Mandates during the 1930s. Bodley moved to the United States in 1935, where he worked as a screenwriter, and was hired by Charlie Chaplin in 1936. He re-enlisted in the British Army at the outbreak of the Second World War and was sent to Paris to work for the Ministry of Information. He later returned to the United States, where he was an advisor to the Arabic desk of the United States Office of War Information. (Full article...)
June 3
The Demi-Virgin is a three-act play written by Avery Hopwood (pictured). Producer Albert H. Woods staged it on Broadway, where it was one of the most successful plays of the 1921–22 season. The play is a bedroom farce about former couple Gloria Graham and Wally Deane, both movie actors, whose marriage was so brief that the press speculated about whether Gloria was still a virgin. Because it contained suggestive dialog and the female cast wore revealing clothes, the production was considered highly risqué at the time. The script alluded to a contemporary scandal involving actor Fatty Arbuckle, and one scene featured actresses stripping as part of a card game. Reviewers generally panned the play as unfunny and vulgar. A magistrate ruled the play was obscene, and obscenity charges were brought against Woods, but a grand jury declined to indict him. Woods promoted the controversy to increase ticket sales. The play had no long-term literary impact and was never published, but it did stimulate arguments over censorship of theatrical performances. (Full article...)
June 4
The Oceanides ([Aallottaret] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), Op. 73, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (pictured). The piece, which refers to the nymphs in Greek mythology who inhabited the Mediterranean Sea, premiered on 4 June 1914 at the Norfolk Music Festival in Connecticut with Sibelius conducting. Praised upon its premiere as "the finest evocation of the sea ... ever ... produced in music", the tone poem, in D major, consists of two subjects, said to represent the playful activity of the nymphs and the majesty of the ocean. Sibelius gradually develops this material over three informal stages: a placid ocean, then a gathering storm, and finally a thunderous wave-crash. As the tempest subsides, a final chord sounds, symbolizing the mighty power and limitless expanse of the sea. Stylistically, many commentators have described The Oceanides as impressionistic. It is one of Sibelius's most revised works. A derived suite and an early version of the piece were performed for the first time in 2002, by Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. (Full article...)
June 5
The Jupiter trojans are a large group of asteroids that share the orbit of the planet Jupiter around the Sun. The first one discovered, 588 Achilles, was spotted in 1906 by German astronomer Max Wolf. By convention they are named after mythological figures from the Trojan War. Around 1 million of them are larger than 1 km in diameter. No firm evidence of any specific compound on their surface has been obtained, but it is thought that they are coated in tholins, organic polymers formed by the Sun's radiation. They are clustered in elongated, curved regions around Jupiter's two stable Lagrangian points: L4, lying 60° ahead of the planet in its orbit, and L5, 60° behind. Jupiter trojans are thought to have been drawn into their orbits during or before the migration of the giant planets. Mars and Neptune also have trojans, and the first Earth trojan was discovered in 2010. (Full article...)
Part of the Jupiter featured topic.
June 6
Sandra Morgan (born 6 June 1942) is a former freestyle swimmer for Australia who won gold in the 4×100-metre freestyle relay at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. At the age of 14 years and 6 months, she became the youngest Australian to win an Olympic gold medal, a record that still stands. Morgan's selection for the race raised controversy because of her inexperience in top-level racing and her history of false starts. In her only individual event, she came sixth in the 400-metre freestyle. In 1957, she won the 110-, 220-, and 440-yard treble at the Australian Championships in the absence of her main rivals. She was selected in the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games as a relay swimmer, winning gold in the event. Since her retirement from competitive swimming in 1960, she has taught disabled children to swim and participated in Olympic educational programs and torch relays. She is also an ambassador for Australia Day and has appeared on television as part of her work with Christian groups. (Full article...)
June 7
The Virgin and Child Enthroned is a small oil-on-oak panel painting dated c. 1433, usually attributed to the Early Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden, and closely related to his Madonna Standing. The panel is filled with Christian iconography, including representations of prophets, the Annunciation, Christ's infancy and resurrection, and Mary's Coronation. It is generally accepted as the earliest extant work by van der Weyden, one of three works attributed to him of the Virgin and Child enclosed in a niche on an exterior wall of a Gothic church. The panel is housed in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, in Madrid. It seems to be the left-hand wing of a dismantled diptych, perhaps with the Saint George and the Dragon panel now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. As an early van der Weyden, it takes influence from Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck. Van der Weyden served his apprenticeship under Campin, and the older master's style is noticeable in the architecture of the niche and in the Virgin's face, hair and exposed breast. (Full article...)
June 8
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Carnaby's black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) is a large parrot, 53–58 cm (21–23 in) long, endemic to south western Australia. It was described in 1948 by naturalist Ivan Carnaby. This black cockatoo has a short crest, mostly greyish-black plumage, prominent white cheek patches, and a white tail band. The body feathers are edged with white, giving a scalloped appearance. The beak is dark grey for males and bone-coloured for females. The young stay with the family until at least the next breeding season. The bird eats seeds, mainly from the Proteaceae and Myrtaceae families. It nests in high hollows in large trees, generally Eucalyptus, but populations north of Perth have become dependent on pine plantations. With much of its habitat lost to land clearing and development, the bird is listed as endangered. Like most parrots, it is protected by CITES, an international agreement that makes trade, export, and import of listed wild-caught species illegal. It is also part of an annual census, the Great Cocky Count, held since 2009 to track the population change of threatened black cockatoo species in Western Australia. (Full article...)
June 9
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The Greenback Party convened in 1880 at the Interstate Exposition Building in Chicago from June 9 to 11 to select presidential and vice presidential nominees and write a party platform for that year's US presidential election. Delegates chose a ticket of James B. Weaver (pictured) of Iowa and Barzillai J. Chambers of Texas. The Greenback Party had drawn support from organized labor and farmers, mostly from the nation's West and South, in response to the economic depression that followed the Panic of 1873. Weaver and Chambers triumphed quickly, winning a majority of the convention delegates' votes on the first ballot. More tumultuous was the fight over the platform, as delegates from disparate factions of the left-wing movement clashed over Chinese immigration, government regulation of working conditions, and especially women's suffrage. The general election was narrowly won by the Republican candidate, James A. Garfield, over the Democrat, Winfield Scott Hancock. The Greenback ticket placed a distant third, netting just over three percent of the popular vote. (Full article...)
Part of the United States presidential election, 1880 featured topic.
June 10
The Qayen earthquake struck Northern Iran's Khorasan Province on May 10, 1997. Centered on the village of Ardekul, around 270 kilometers (170 mi) south of Mashhad, it was the largest in the area since 1990, measuring 7.3 on the moment magnitude scale. Described as the deadliest quake of 1997 by the US Geological Survey, it ravaged the Birjand–Qayen region, killing 1,567 people and injuring more than 2,300. It damaged or destroyed over 15,000 homes, leaving 50,000 homeless, with a total estimated damage of $100 million. People trapped under the debris were assisted by rescue teams. Around 155 aftershocks caused further destruction, and drove away survivors. The earthquake was caused by a rupture along a fault that runs underneath the Iran–Afghanistan border. Partly because of a deterioration in the quality of buildings in rural areas, earthquake-related incidents have killed around 1 in 3,000 Iranians since the start of the 20th century. The devastation near the earthquake's epicenter was attributed to these poor construction practices, and led to a movement for changes in building codes. (Full article...)
June 11
Alexander (1893–1920) was King of Greece from 11 June 1917 until his death at the age of 27. He succeeded his father, King Constantine I, in 1917, after the Entente Powers of World War I and followers of Eleftherios Venizelos pushed the king and his eldest son Crown Prince George into exile. Venizelos, as prime minister, became the effective ruler with the support of the Entente. Though reduced to the status of a puppet king, Alexander supported Greek troops during their war against the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. Under his reign, Greece expanded, following the victory of the Entente and the early stages of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. Alexander married the commoner Aspasia Manos in 1919, provoking a major scandal that forced the couple to leave Greece for several months. Soon after returning to Greece with his wife, Alexander was bitten by a domestic Barbary macaque and died of septicemia. The sudden death of the sovereign contributed to the fall of the Venizelist regime. After a general election and a referendum, Constantine I was restored. (Full article...)
June 12
Roy Phillipps (1892–1941) was an Australian fighter ace of World War I. He achieved fifteen victories in aerial combat, four of them in a single action on 12 June 1918. A grazier between the wars, he joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1940 and was killed in a plane crash the following year. Born in New South Wales but raised in Western Australia, Phillipps joined the Australian Imperial Force as an infantryman in April 1915, seeing action at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. Wounded twice in 1916, he transferred to the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) and, having falsified his age, was accepted for pilot training in May 1917. As a member of No. 2 Squadron in France, Phillipps flew mainly S.E.5 fighters, and was awarded two Military Crosses and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions. He finished the war a major, commanding No. 6 (Training) Squadron in England. He returned to Australia in 1919 and left the AFC. Soon after the outbreak of World War II, he enlisted in the RAAF. At his death he was ranked squadron leader, commanding No. 2 Elementary Flying Training School at Archerfield, Queensland. (Full article...)
June 13
Macrotarsomys petteri, Petter's big-footed mouse, is a Malagasy rodent. It is the largest in its genus, with a head and body length of 150 mm (5.9 in) and body mass of 105 g (3.7 oz). The upperparts are brown, darkest in the middle of the back, and the underparts are white to yellowish. The animal has long whiskers, short forelimbs, and long hindfeet. The tail ends in a prominent tuft of long, light hairs. The skull is robust and the molars are low-crowned and cuspidate. The species most resembles, and may be most closely related to, the greater big-footed mouse. The specific name, petteri, honors French zoologist François Petter for his contributions to the study of Malagasy rodents. M. petteri is now found only in southwestern Madagascar's Mikea Forest, which is threatened by human development. Subfossil records indicate that it used to be more widely distributed in southern Madagascar; climatic changes and competition with introduced species may have led to the shift in its distribution. (Full article...)
June 14
The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony, released for the PlayStation 3 worldwide on June 14, 2013. Players control Joel (Troy Baker), a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenager, Ellie (Ashley Johnson), across a post-apocalyptic United States. In third-person perspective, players use firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated Cordyceps fungus. Up to eight players may engage in cooperative and competitive gameplay online. The game received universal acclaim for its narrative, gameplay, visual and sound design, characterization, and depiction of female characters. It sold faster than any other PlayStation 3 game released in the first half of 2013: over 1.3 million units within a week, and over 3.4 million within three weeks. It won year-end accolades, including many Game of the Year awards, and is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time. An enhanced edition, The Last of Us Remastered, was released for the PlayStation 4 in 2014, and a sequel, The Last of Us Part II, was announced in 2016. (Full article...)
June 15
The Sweet Track is an ancient causeway in the Somerset Levels, England. Built in 3807 or 3806 BC along an earlier structure, the Post Track, it was the oldest unearthed timber trackway in Northern Europe until the 2009 discovery of a 6,000-year-old trackway in Plumstead, London. It extended close to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) across the now largely drained marsh between what was then an island at Westhay and a ridge of high ground at Shapwick. Various artefacts, including a jadeitite ceremonial axe head, have been found along its length. Construction was of crossed wooden poles, driven into the waterlogged soil to support a walkway that consisted mainly of planks of oak, laid end-to-end. The track was abandoned after 10 years of use, probably due to rising water levels. Following its discovery in 1970, most of the track has been left in its original location, with active conservation measures taken, including a water pumping and distribution system to maintain the wood in its damp condition. Some of the track is stored at the British Museum and a reconstruction of a section was built at the Peat Moors Centre near Glastonbury. (Full article...)
June 16
OK Computer is the third studio album by English alternative rock band Radiohead (pictured), released on 16 June 1997 in the UK by EMI subsidiaries Parlophone and Capitol Records. The band made a deliberate attempt to distance themselves from the guitar-oriented, lyrically introspective style of prior works like The Bends. OK Computer's abstract lyrics, densely layered sound and eclectic range of influences laid the groundwork for the more experimental style Radiohead adopted beginning with their next album, Kid A. Although record label executives feared the progressive album would be difficult to market, it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and became the band's highest album entry on the American charts at the time, debuting at number 21 on the Billboard 200. The album's lyrics, depicting a world fraught with rampant consumerism, social alienation, emotional isolation and political malaise, are often interpreted as having prescient insight into the mood of 21st-century life. (Full article...)
June 17
Upper Pine Bottom State Park is a 5-acre (2.0 ha) Pennsylvania state park near the southern end of what has been called the "Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania", Pine Creek Gorge. The park is in Lycoming County on Upper Pine Bottom Run, a tributary of Pine Creek in the West Branch Susquehanna River drainage basin. Local streams have cut through five major rock formations from the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. The earliest recorded inhabitants of the area were the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannocks; they were followed by the Iroquois, Lenape, and Shawnee. Upper Pine Bottom Run was the site of a furnace for pig iron in 1814. The first sawmill was built on it in 1815, and in 1825 an earlier bridle path across its headwaters became a turnpike. The park is surrounded by 105,000 acres (42,000 ha) of the Tiadaghton State Forest, which was created after the lumber industry clearcut the area in the 19th century. Upper Pine Bottom State Park is one of the smallest state parks in Pennsylvania. (Full article...)
June 18
A coup in Guatemala, launched on 18 June 1954, deposed the democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz (pictured in mural). The result of a covert operation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), it ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954, a period of representative democracy and liberal reform. The U.S. government was motivated by a Cold War predisposition to assume Árbenz was a communist, and by lobbying from the United Fruit Company for his overthrow. The CIA, authorized in August 1953 by Dwight Eisenhower to carry out the operation, armed, funded, and trained a force of 480 men led by Carlos Castillo Armas. Most of the offensives of the invasion force were repelled, but a heavy campaign of psychological warfare and the possibility of a U.S. invasion intimidated the Guatemalan army, which eventually refused to fight. Árbenz resigned on 27 June, and Castillo Armas became president ten days later, the first in a series of authoritarian rulers in the country. The coup was widely criticized internationally, and contributed to long-lasting anti-U.S. sentiment in Latin America. (Full article...)
June 19
Auriscalpium vulgare, the pinecone mushroom, is a species of fungus in the family Auriscalpiaceae. It was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus, who included it as a member of the tooth fungi genus Hydnum. British mycologist Samuel Frederick Gray recognized its uniqueness in 1821 and created the genus Auriscalpium for it. It is widely distributed in Europe, Central America, North America, and temperate Asia. The small, spoon-shaped mushrooms grow on conifer litter or on conifer cones in soil. The dark brown cap is covered with fine brown hairs, and reaches a diameter of up to 2 cm (0.8 in). The underside of the cap has an array of tiny tooth-shaped protrusions up to 3 mm long. The dark brown, hairy stem, up to 55 mm (2.2 in) long and 2 mm thick, attaches to one edge of the cap. High levels of humidity are essential for optimum mushroom development, while excesses of either light or darkness inhibit growth. A. vulgare is generally too tough to be considered edible, but some historical literature says it used to be consumed in France and Italy. (Full article...)
June 20
Melbourne Castle was an incomplete medieval castle, founded in 1311 by Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, in Melbourne, Derbyshire. It was built on the site of an earlier royal manor house that had provided accommodation for noblemen hunting in a nearby royal park in the reign of King John. After the earl's execution in 1322 for opposing Edward II, the castle was mainly in the possession of the Crown or the Earls and Dukes of Lancaster. Improvements and repairs were made by John of Gaunt and others, and the building was in generally good condition throughout the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. John I, Duke of Bourbon, was kept at Melbourne for 19 years after his capture at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, and it was considered as a possible prison for Mary Queen of Scots. The castle was in decline by the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. It was purchased in 1604 by Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon, who had his own castle in nearby Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and was gradually demolished for its building materials. All that remains is a short section of wall and some foundations. The ruins are grade II listed and the site is a scheduled monument, with no public access. (Full article...)
June 21
Ram Narayan (born 1927) is an Indian musician who popularised the bowed sarangi of Hindustani classical music as a solo concert instrument and became its first international virtuoso. He was born near Udaipur and learned to play at an early age. He studied under sarangi players and singers and, as a teenager, worked as a music teacher and travelling musician. All India Radio, Lahore, hired him as an accompanist for vocalists in 1944. He moved to Delhi following the partition of India in 1947 and moved to Mumbai in 1949 to work in Indian cinema. He had his first success as a concert solo artist in 1956 and has since performed at major music festivals in India. After sitar player Ravi Shankar successfully performed in Western countries, Narayan followed his example. He recorded solo albums and made his first international tour in 1964 to America and Europe with his older brother Chatur Lal, a tabla player who had toured with Shankar in the 1950s. Narayan taught Indian and foreign students and performed into the 2000s. He was awarded India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2005. (Full article...)
June 22
Tidus is a role-playing video game character, introduced as the protagonist of Final Fantasy X in 2001. He is a 17-year-old star blitzball player who joins a pilgrimage to destroy a creature that attacked Zanarkand, his hometown. He has appeared in other video games, including the Final Fantasy X sequel Final Fantasy X-2, the Kingdom Hearts series, and several Square Enix crossover games. The cheerful Tidus was designed by Tetsuya Nomura. Scenario writer Kazushige Nojima gave him frequent monologues describing the game's setting. Tidus is voiced in English by James Arnold Taylor and in Japanese primarily by Masakazu Morita, who also performed the motion capture. Video game critics judged Tidus an appealing protagonist, with excellent character development. Although reviewers and fans were divided on Taylor's voice work, Tidus enjoyed popularity with fans, often ranking as one of the best Final Fantasy characters in polls. He is a popular cosplay character. (Full article...)
June 23
The uprising in eastern Herzegovina on 23 June 1941 was a Serb rebellion against the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), an Axis puppet state established during World War II on the territory of the defeated Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As the NDH imposed its authority, members of the fascist Ustaše ruling party had begun a campaign of persecution against Serbs throughout the country. In eastern Herzegovina, the Ustaše perpetrated a series of massacres and attacks against the majority Serb population commencing in the first week of June, igniting a series of spontaneous clashes between the NDH authorities and groups of Serbs. On 23 June, the day after the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, sporadic revolts erupted into mass rebellion, triggered by Ustaše persecution, Serb solidarity with the Russian people, hatred and fear of the NDH authorities, and other factors. The Italians intervened after several setbacks for the NDH forces, who regained full control of all towns and transport routes by 7 July. (Full article...)
June 24
4 is the fourth studio album by American singer Beyoncé (pictured), released on June 24, 2011, by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. In collaborations with songwriters and producers The-Dream, Tricky Stewart, and Shea Taylor, Beyoncé aimed for a mellower rhythm and blues tone with influences from funk, hip hop, and soul. She severed professional ties with Mathew Knowles, her father and manager, to help her develop an intimate, personal album. The lyrics emphasize monogamy, female empowerment and self-reflection. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, and some put it on their year-end lists. It was her fourth consecutive album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200, and it also reached number one in Brazil, France, Ireland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It spawned the international singles "Run the World (Girls)", "Best Thing I Never Had", "Party", "Love On Top" and "Countdown". "Love On Top" won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance at the 55th annual ceremony. The album has sold more than 1.5 million copies in the United States. (Full article...)
June 25
The ukiyo-e genre of art flourished in Japan from the 17th to the 19th century. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties, kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers, scenes from history and folk tales, travel scenes and landscapes, flora and fauna, and erotica. The term ukiyo-e refers to pictures of the ukiyo or "floating world" of kabuki theatre, courtesans, and geisha of the pleasure districts. Images of this environment became successful in the 1670s with Moronobu's paintings and monochromatic prints of beautiful women. By the 1740s, artists such as Masanobu were using multiple woodblocks to print areas of colour. In the 1760s, with the success of Harunobu's "brocade prints", full-colour production of prints made with numerous blocks became standard. Portraits of beauties and actors by masters such as Kiyonaga, Utamaro, and Sharaku were prominent in the late 18th century. Masters from the 19th century include the bold formalist Hokusai, whose Great Wave off Kanagawa is one of the best-known works of Japanese art, and the serene, atmospheric Hiroshige, most noted for his series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō. (Full article...)
June 26
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Jun'yō ("Peregrine Falcon") was a Hiyō-class aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was laid down as the passenger liner Kashiwara Maru, but was purchased by the navy in 1941 while still under construction and converted into an aircraft carrier. Launched on 26 June 1941 and completed in May 1942, the ship participated in the Aleutian Islands Campaign the following month and in several battles of the Guadalcanal Campaign later in the year. Her aircraft were used from land bases during battles in the New Guinea and Solomon Islands Campaigns. Jun'yō was torpedoed in November 1943 and spent three months under repair. She was damaged by several bombs during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in mid-1944, but quickly returned to service. Lacking aircraft, she was used as a transport in late 1944 and was torpedoed again in December. Jun'yō was under repair until March 1945, when work was cancelled as uneconomical. She was then effectively hulked for the rest of the war. After the surrender of Japan in September, the Americans also decided that she was not worth the cost to make her serviceable for use as a repatriation ship, and she was broken up in 1946 and 1947. (Full article...)
June 27
The Well of Loneliness is a 1928 lesbian novel by the British author Radclyffe Hall that follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family. Her "sexual inversion" (homosexuality) is apparent from an early age. She finds love with Mary Llewellyn, whom she meets while serving as an ambulance driver in World War I, but their happiness together is marred by social isolation and rejection. The novel portrays inversion as a natural, God-given state and makes an explicit plea: "Give us also the right to our existence". Although its only sexual reference consists of the words "and that night, they were not divided", a British court judged it obscene because it defended "unnatural practices between women". In the United States the book survived legal challenges. Publicity over The Well's legal battles increased the visibility of lesbians in British and American culture. Gordon's expressions of self-hatred have been faulted for inspiring shame, but the book was for decades the best-known lesbian novel in English, and often the first source of information about lesbianism that young people could find. (Full article...)
June 28
The white-naped xenopsaris (Xenopsaris albinucha) is a bird in the family Tityridae found in the South American countries of Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. It lives in open woodland and other open forest habitats, and is mostly sedentary, though some populations may be migratory. The only species in its genus, it is closely related to becards and tityras, and was thought to be either a tyrant-flycatcher or cotinga before it was placed in the Tityridae family. The bird is 12.5 to 13 cm (4.9–5.1 in) in length, with whitish undersides, a black crown and grey-brown upperparts. The sexes are similar in appearance, though the females have duller upperparts. It feeds on insects in the foliage of trees and bushes, and sometimes on the ground. In a simple cup nest in the fork of a tree, both parents incubate the eggs and help feed the chicks. After the chicks have fledged, the parents may divide the brood, each helping one or two chicks. The species is not common and little is known about it, but it is not in danger of extinction. (Full article...)
June 29
Tropical Storm Bill hit the Gulf Coast of the United States in the summer of 2003. The second storm of that Atlantic hurricane season, Bill developed from a tropical wave on June 29 to the north of the Yucatán Peninsula. It slowly organized as it moved northward, and reached a peak of 60 mph (95 km/h) shortly before making landfall in south-central Louisiana. It produced a moderate storm surge, causing tidal flooding. In Montegut in the southeastern portion of the state, a levee was breached, flooding many homes, and in Florida, two swimmers drowned. As Bill accelerated to the northeast, moisture from the storm, combined with cold air from an approaching cold front, produced an outbreak of 34 tornadoes. Moderate winds and wet soil combined to topple trees onto houses and power lines, leaving hundreds of thousands without electric power. By the time Bill became extratropical on July 2, it was responsible for four deaths and around $50 million in damage. (Full article...)
Part of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season featured topic.
June 30
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Panggilan Darah (Call of Blood) is a film from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) written and directed by Sutan Usman Karim and produced by Tjho Seng Han for Oriental Film. Released on 30 June 1941, the black-and-white film starred Dhalia and Soerip as orphaned sisters trying to make a living in the colonial capital of Batavia (now Jakarta) as housemaids for a man named Iskak, before moving to Kudus to work at a clove cigarette factory. They later discover that they are Iskak's nieces, and are welcomed into his home. Panggilan Darah, shot on location at an orphanage and two factories in central Java, was a modest commercial success in the Indies and Singapore. The acting drew critical praise, and the soundtrack, with nine kroncong songs, was mentioned favorably. Despite this success, Oriental was unable to meet its expenses, and merged into Multi Film soon afterwards. Panggilan Darah, which was screened as late as 1952, may now be lost. (Full article...)