Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 August 19

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From today's featured article

Shelley Chaplin

The Australian women's national wheelchair basketball team played in the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. The wheelchair basketball team, known as the Gliders, included nine Paralympic veterans, Bridie Kean, Amanda Carter, Sarah Stewart, Tina McKenzie, Kylie Gauci, Katie Hill, Cobi Crispin, Clare Nott and Shelley Chaplin (pictured), along with three newcomers, Amber Merritt, Sarah Vinci and Leanne Del Toso. The team had won silver in Sydney and Athens, but never gold. The Gliders faced a formidable task just to make the finals, as their round-robin pool included Brazil, Great Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. After a narrow victory over Brazil, and an easier one against Great Britain, the Gliders were defeated by Canada, but won their final match against the Netherlands to finish at the top of their pool. They went on to win the quarterfinal against Mexico and the semifinal against the United States, but lost to Germany in the final, winning silver. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

A streetcar from Milan in the 1987 Historic Trolley Festival

... that the San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival featured streetcars from cities in Australia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, England, Germany, and Italy (pictured)?
... that manhua artist Xia Da's April Story was published in 2003 before she had even graduated college?
... that by approving selinexor, the FDA overruled a panel of independent experts that had voted 8–5 against the anti-cancer drug?
... that after John R. Allan died, seven complete or partly-finished unpublished novels were found in his effects?
... that librettist Gerhard Müller and composer Georg Katzer wrote Antigone oder die Stadt in East Germany, but it premiered at the Komische Oper Berlin only after reunification?
... that footage of Ann Peterson diving was the first 1968 Summer Olympics coverage to be aired by ABC in the eastern United States?
... that antelope grass can recover quickly after wildfires even in the middle of the dry season?
... that pilot Walter Anderson and observer John Mitchell were hit by communist fire but landed, rescued two pilots, and took off with Mitchell on the wing and his fingers plugging their leaking tank?

In the news

Ural Airlines Airbus A321 in 2013

At least 63 people are killed in a bombing at a wedding in Kabul, Afghanistan.
All 233 people on board Ural Airlines Flight 178 (aircraft pictured) survive a crash following bird strikes in both engines of an Airbus A321.
Typhoon Lekima impacts the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan and East China, killing at least 80 people.
At least 75 people are killed and more than 50 others injured in a fuel tanker truck explosion in Morogoro, Tanzania.

On this day

August 19: Eid al-Ghadir (Shia Islam, 2019)

Bonnie Prince Charlie

1745 – Bonnie Prince Charlie (pictured) raised the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands, beginning the Jacobite rising of 1745.
1934 – A referendum supported the recent merging of the posts of Chancellor and President of Germany, consolidating Adolf Hitler's assumption of supreme power.
1964 – More than 17,000 fans saw the Beatles at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, on the opening date of the group's first nationwide U.S. tour.
2002 – Chechen separatists brought down a Russian Mil Mi-26 with a man-portable air-defense system, killing 127 people in the single deadliest helicopter crash in history.
2017 – Around 250,000 farmed non-native Atlantic salmon were accidentally released into the wild near Cypress Island, Washington.

Tom Wills (b. 1835) · Gene Roddenberry (b. 1921) · Clay Walker (b. 1969)

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From today's featured list

Radiohead in the mid-2010s

The English rock band Radiohead have recorded over 160 songs since their debut in 1992. Radiohead's first album, Pablo Honey (1993), preceded by their breakthrough single "Creep", features a sound reminiscent of alternative rock bands such as the Pixies and Nirvana. The Bends (1995) marked a move toward "anthemic rock", with more cryptic lyrics about social and global topics, as well as elements of Britpop. OK Computer (1997), the first Radiohead album produced by longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich, features more abstract lyrics that reflect themes of modern alienation, as well as subtle, complex and textured songs. Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), recorded in the same sessions, marked a drastic change in style, incorporating influences from electronic music, 20th-century classical music, krautrock and jazz. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The longnose batfish (Ogcocephalus corniger) is a species of batfish found at depths between 29 and 230 m (95 and 755 ft) in the Atlantic Ocean, ranging from North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico and the Bahamas. Like other members of the Ogcocephalidae family, it has a flat triangular body and coloring varying from yellowish to purple with pale, round spots and lips of orange-red.

Photograph credit: Betty Wills

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