Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 March 13

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From today's featured article

One of the unauthorized postal covers

The Apollo 15 postal covers incident was a scandal involving the crew of NASA's Apollo 15 lunar landing mission, who in 1971 carried about 400 unauthorized postal covers (example pictured) to the Moon's surface. American astronauts David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irwin agreed to receive about $7,000 each for carrying the covers into space. These covers were inside the lunar lander Falcon as Scott and Irwin walked on the Moon, and were postmarked both prior to liftoff from Kennedy Space Center and after splashdown. Though the astronauts returned the money, they were reprimanded by NASA for poor judgment and were called before a closed session of a Senate committee. They were removed as the backup crew for Apollo 17 and never flew in space again; by 1977 all had left NASA. In 1983, Worden sued for the return of those covers that had been impounded in 1972, and the three men received them in an out-of-court settlement. One of the covers that had been provided to West German stamp dealer Hermann Sieger sold for over $50,000 in 2014. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

HMS Simoom

... that all 15 torpedoes fired by HMS Simoom (pictured) during her career missed their targets, but 3 hit and sank a destroyer instead?
... that the soprano Ursula Wendt-Walther appeared in more than 60 operatic roles at the Staatstheater Nürnberg, including Marei in the world premiere of Zemlinsky's Der Traumgörge?
... that Stephen Hendry compiled his 700th career century break during the first round of the 2007 Malta Cup snooker tournament?
... that Faiz Shakir is the first Muslim and first American of Pakistani descent to manage a United States presidential campaign?
... that spiral galaxy NGC 765 features a hydrogen disk that at 240,000 parsecs diameter is the largest in the local universe?
... that Spinophorosaurus had spikes on its tail, unlike most other sauropod dinosaurs?
... that the treatment of Lorenzo Gamboa under the White Australia policy led the Philippine House of Representatives to pass a bill which would have banned Australians from the country?
... that Hulk Hogan was sued for $5 million by Richard Belzer for choking Belzer unconscious with a sleeper hold and dropping him on live TV?

In the news

Ethiopian Airlines aircraft ET-AVJ in February 2019

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 (aircraft pictured) crashes shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa for Nairobi, Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.
A severe tornado outbreak hits the Southeastern United States, with one tornado causing 23 deaths in Alabama.
Heightened tensions remain between India and Pakistan after both countries conduct airstrikes.
Muhammadu Buhari is re-elected President of Nigeria.

On this day

March 13

Reichskriegsflagge in use during the Kapp Putsch

1697 – Nojpetén, capital of the Itza Maya kingdom, fell to Spanish conquistadors, the final step in the Spanish conquest of Guatemala.
1781 – Astronomer and composer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus while in the garden of his house in Bath, England, thinking it was a comet.
1920 – The Kapp Putsch (pictured) briefly ousted the Weimar Republic government from Berlin.
1962 – Lyman Lemnitzer, the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented to the Secretary of Defense a false flag conspiracy plan, Operation Northwoods, intended to create public support for a war against Fidel Castro and Cuba.
1985 – One of England's worst incidents of football hooliganism occurred when supporters of Luton Town and Millwall rioted before a match at Kenilworth Road stadium.

John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden (b. 1719) · Hans Gude (b. 1825) · Jenny Twitchell Kempton (d. 1921)

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Today's featured picture

The fruit of the Syzygium samarangense tree. Known in English as the wax apple, Java apple, Semarang rose-apple, or wax jambu, the fruit is a bell-shaped edible berry and appears in crops of up to 700. S. samarangense is a tropical tree, growing to a height of 12 m (39 ft), with evergreen leaves. Its flowers are white, 2.5 cm (0.98 in) in diameter, and feature four petals and numerous stamens.

Photograph: Basile Morin

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