Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 September 9

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From today's featured article

Milos Raonic (born 1990) is a Canadian professional tennis player. He reached a career-high world No. 4 singles ranking in May 2015, as ranked by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). His career highlights include a Grand Slam final at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships and two Grand Slam semifinals at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships and 2016 Australian Open. He was the 2011 ATP Newcomer of the Year, and has been ranked continuously inside the top 20 since August 2012. Raonic is the first player born in the 1990s to win an ATP title, to be ranked in the top 10, and to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals. He has eight ATP singles titles, all won on hard courts. He is frequently described as having one of the best serves among his contemporaries. Statistically, he is among the strongest servers in the Open Era, winning 91% of service games to rank third all-time. Aided by his serve, he plays an all-court style with an emphasis on short points. Raonic has more ATP titles and finals appearances in the Open Era than all other Canadian men combined. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Jurassic limestone

... that the Jurassic Coast (pictured) reveals 185 million years of the geological history of southern England?
... that Turkish female goalball player Sevda Altınoluk was named top scorer at several international competitions?
... that for his 1929 first recording of By the Blue Hawaiian Waters, composer Albert Ketèlbey used a saxophone for a Hawaiian "love-call"?
... that Kunwar Singh Negi, winner of both the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, has transliterated 300 books in various Indian languages into braille?
... that the annual Kentucky Avenue Renaissance Festival commemorates the R&B and jazz nightspots that once lined this street in Atlantic City, New Jersey?
... that Jesús Sesma Suárez has represented San Luis Potosí and Jalisco in the federal Chamber of Deputies, and was a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District?
... that Kickstarter was not available in mainland Europe in 2012, so Digitalmindsoft crowdfunded video game Call to Arms through their website?
... that the A7FL American football league does not use helmets?

In the news

Summer Paralympics opening ceremony

North Korea conducts its fifth and largest nuclear test to date.
The Summer Paralympics open (ceremony pictured) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The IUCN reclassifies the giant panda as a vulnerable species, and the eastern gorilla as critically endangered.
Mother Teresa is officially declared a saint by Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church.
A bombing at a market in Davao City, Southern Philippines, kills 14 people and injures 70 others.

On this day...

September 9: Republic Day in North Korea (1948); Independence Day in Tajikistan (1991)

Amalthea

1141 – Yelü Dashi, the Liao dynasty general who founded the Qara-Khitai, defeated the Seljuq and Kara-Khanid forces at the Battle of Qatwan near Samarkand, present-day Uzbekistan.
1791 – The commissioners overseeing the construction of the United States' new capital city named it in honor of the first president: Washington, D.C.
1892 – At Lick Observatory, Edward Emerson Barnard discovered Amalthea (pictured), the third moon of Jupiter and the last natural satellite discovered by direct visual observation.
1939 – World War II: About 3,000 Polish Army forces began a nearly month-long defence of the Hel Peninsula during the German invasion of Poland.
2001 – Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, was assassinated in Afghanistan.

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From today's featured list

Several discontinued Hugo Awards have been presented throughout the years, only to be removed after a few years. The Hugo Awards are presented every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award. When the Hugo awards were begun in 1953, each Worldcon organizing committee decided what awards they would give. Several awards were presented over the next few years which were not repeated in later conventions, unlike the primary categories which are still presented—such as Best Novel. In 1961, formal rules were set down for which categories would be awarded, which could only be changed by the World Science Fiction Society board. Despite this, the 1964 convention awarded a Hugo Award for the Best SF Book Publisher, which was not on that list. Immediately afterward the guidelines were changed to allow individual conventions to create additional one-time categories. Since then, five temporary categories have been added and removed, with only Best Original Art Work rising for a time to the level of an official category. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It breeds in much of the Old World and the Atlantic coast of North America. It can dive to considerable depths, but often feeds in shallow water. It frequently brings its prey, mostly fish, to the surface.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

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