Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 December 5

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From today's featured article

The yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) is a Eurasian bird in the bunting family that has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and the Falkland Islands. The male has a bright yellow head, streaked brown back, chestnut rump and yellow underparts. Other plumages are duller versions of the same pattern. The yellowhammer is common in open areas with some shrubs or trees, and forms small flocks in winter. The song is very similar to that of its closest relative, the pine bunting, with which it interbreeds. Two or three times a year, the female lays 3–5 eggs patterned with a mesh of fine dark lines in a cup nest. The bird's diet is mainly seeds, supplemented by invertebrates in the breeding season. The nest may be raided by rodents or by birds in the crow family, and the adults are hunted by birds of prey. Changes to agricultural practices have led to population declines in western Europe, but the species has a huge range and is not threatened. This conspicuous yellow bird has inspired poems by Robbie Burns and John Clare, and its song has influenced works by Beethoven and Messiaen. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Choir of St. Michaelis

... that Johann Sebastian Bach sang as a choir member for two years at St. Michaelis in Lüneburg, a brick Gothic former abbey church (choir pictured)?
... that Elizabeth Marshall was one of the first women to become a pharmacist in the United States?
... that more than two-thirds of children with egg allergy will outgrow it by the time they are 16 years old?
... that Robert Sickinger, the father of Chicago's "off-Loop" theater scene, ended up running a telemarketing company?
... that, despite being affected by poverty, language barriers, and prejudice, first-generation immigrants have better health outcomes than subsequent generations by way of the immigrant paradox?
... that remote sensing helps geologists study otherwise inaccessible areas such as Antarctic ice shelves?
... that Japanese voice actress Ai Kayano worked in the beauty industry to pay for her voice acting school tuition?
... that the lethal mushroom Amanita subpallidorosea was discovered when two people died in 2014 after eating it in China?

In the news

Ali Abdullah Saleh

Former President of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh (pictured) is killed amidst the ongoing conflict in Sana'a.
Former Bosnian Croat army general Slobodan Praljak dies from intentionally drinking poison after the ICTY upholds his conviction for war crimes.
In sumo, yokozuna Harumafuji Kōhei retires amidst investigations into an assault on fellow wrestler Takanoiwa Yoshimori.
Indonesian officials order the evacuation of 100,000 people in Bali due to the eruption of Mount Agung.
In Canadian football, the Toronto Argonauts defeat the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup.
At least 305 people are killed in a terrorist attack on a mosque in Bir al-Abed, Egypt.

On this day...

December 5: Krampusnacht in Austria

Damage from the Brooklyn Theatre fire

1757 – Seven Years' War: Prussian forces under Frederick the Great defeated Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine at the Battle of Leuthen in Leuthen, present-day Poland.
1876 – Fire engulfed the Brooklyn Theatre (damage pictured) in Brooklyn, New York, killing at least 278 people, mostly due to smoke inhalation.
1958 – Britain's first motorway, the Preston By-pass, opened to the public.
1972 – Gough Whitlam took office as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia and formed a duumvirate with his deputy Lance Barnard, ending 23 years of Liberal-Country Party government.
2007 – A nineteen-year-old gunman went on a shooting spree at a shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., killing nine people, including himself.

Joan, Countess of Flanders (d. 1244) · Louise Bryant (b. 1885) · Amrita Sher-Gil (d. 1941)

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Today's featured picture

An illustration by Sidney Hall for Urania's Mirror, a set of 32 astronomical star chart cards first published in November 1824. These cards, which were based on Alexander Jamieson's A Celestial Atlas, had holes punched allowing them to be held up to the light to see a depiction of the constellation's stars.

This card, Plate 28 in the series, depicts six constellations: the defunct Psalterium Georgii ('George's Harp'), Fluvius Eridanus ('the river'), Cetus (also known as 'the whale'), Officina Sculptoris ('sculptor'), Fornax Chemica ('the furnace'), and the defunct Machina Electrica ('the generator').

Illustration: Sidney Hall; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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