Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 August 28

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From today's featured article

The Réunion ibis (Threskiornis solitarius) is an extinct bird formerly endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Réunion. Subfossil remains were found in 1974, and it was formally described in 1987. Early travellers described a white bird on Réunion that flew with difficulty, later assumed to refer to a white relative of the dodo. The ibis subfossil suggested that the tales referred to this bird instead. The ibis was mainly white, although its wing tips and plume feathers on its rear were black. The neck and legs were long, and the beak was relatively straight and short for an ibis. Similar to its extant relatives but more robust, it was about 65 cm (25 in) long. Subfossil wing-bones indicate that it had reduced flight capabilities. The diet of the ibis was invertebrates foraged from the soil. In the 17th century it lived only in mountainous areas, perhaps due to predation by introduced animals and hunting by humans for its tasty meat. These factors had driven the ibis to extinction by the early 18th century. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Corbin Building

... that the Corbin Building (pictured) was one of several "smaller infill buildings" in New York City that "experiment[ed] with new forms and unusual compositions" during the late 19th century?
... that with Flight Pattern, Crystal Pite became the first woman to choreograph for the Royal Ballet's main stage in 18 years?
... that 21-year-old university student and pro-democracy activist Jordan Pang defeated an incumbent pro-Beijing politician in the 2019 Hong Kong local elections?
... that the publisher of Redshirt suggested adding a sci-fi theme when the social-media simulation game was initially pitched?
... that a hostile review of Uncle Tom's Cabin likened the book to a witch from Horace's Epodes?
... that journalist Francis Rosa traveled with the Boston Bruins and "became one of the family"?
... that under India's new education policy, students will be allowed to combine fashion studies with physics, or baking courses with chemistry?
... that Cuban exile Orlando Bosch was arrested in 1964 after he was found towing a torpedo through rush-hour traffic?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; Testing; Impact; Portal

Hurricane Laura

After killing 25 people on Hispaniola, Hurricane Laura (satellite image pictured) makes landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane.
The Africa Regional Certification Commission declares that wild polio has been eliminated in Africa.
Two bombings in Jolo, Philippines, kill 15 people and wound 75 others.
In motorsports, Takuma Sato wins the Indianapolis 500.

On this day

August 28

Ida and its moon Dactyl

1640 – Bishops' Wars: Scottish Covenanter forces led by Alexander Leslie defeated the English army near Newburn, England.
1859 – A powerful solar storm began, later causing a coronal mass ejection to strike the Earth's magnetosphere that generated aurorae visible in the middle latitudes.
1901 – Silliman University in Dumaguete, Philippines, was founded as the first American educational institution in Asia.
1950 – In tennis, Althea Gibson became the first African-American woman to compete at the U.S. National Championships.
1993 – NASA's Galileo probe visited asteroid 243 Ida and took pictures that later revealed it has a moon, the first known asteroid moon (both pictured).

Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine (d. 1793)
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable (d. 1818)
Shania Twain (b. 1965)

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Sourav Ganguly

Fifty centuries were scored by cricketers in the ICC Champions Trophy, a One Day International (ODI) tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) from 1998 to 2017. India led the list, with ten centuries, followed by Sri Lanka, with seven. Alistair Campbell of Zimbabwe was the first to score a century in the tournament, when he made 100 against New Zealand during the inaugural edition. Four players – India's Sourav Ganguly (pictured), South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs, the West Indies' Chris Gayle and India's Shikhar Dhawan – held the record for the most number of centuries, with three each. A further four players – Pakistan's Saeed Anwar, England's Marcus Trescothick, Sri Lanka's Upul Tharanga and Australia's Shane Watson – each scored two centuries. Gayle's three centuries in 2006 was a record for any player in a single edition. The 145 by New Zealand's Nathan Astle against the United States was the highest individual score. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Bloody Saturday is a black-and-white photograph taken on 28 August 1937, a few minutes after a Japanese air attack struck civilians during the Battle of Shanghai in the Second Sino-Japanese War. It depicts a baby named Ping Mei, one of the few survivors of the attack, crying amid the bombed-out wreckage of Shanghai South railway station; the baby's mother lay dead nearby. The photographer, H. S. "Newsreel" Wong, owned a camera shop in Shanghai and provided photographs and films for various newspapers and agencies. Within a year of its publication, the photograph had been seen by more than 136 million people around the world, and became a cultural icon demonstrating Japanese wartime atrocities in China.

Photograph credit: H. S. Wong; restored by Yann Forget

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