Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 September 22

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From today's featured article

INS Vikrant (from Sanskrit for "courageous") was a Majestic-class aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy. The ship was laid down as HMS Hercules for the British Royal Navy during World War II and launched on 22 September 1945, but construction was put on hold when the war ended. India purchased the incomplete carrier in 1957, and construction was completed in 1961. Vikrant was commissioned as the first aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy and played a key role in enforcing the naval blockade of East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. In its later years, the ship underwent major refits to embark modern aircraft, before being decommissioned in January 1997. Vikrant was preserved as a museum ship in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai, until 2012. The ship was sold through an online auction in January 2014 and scrapped in November 2014 after final clearance from the Supreme Court. The Indian Navy is currently constructing its first home-built carrier, also named INS Vikrant, scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2018. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Keyhole limpet shell

... that the scale worm Arctonoe vittata protects the keyhole limpet (shell pictured) with which it lives by attacking predatory starfish?
... that 14-year-old Lai Ning died fighting a forest fire in China in 1988 and was subsequently declared a revolutionary martyr?
... that Vince Lombardi began his football coaching career at New Jersey's St. Cecilia High School, where he taught algebra, chemistry, physics and Latin, in addition to his coaching duties?
... that the Martian wedge-shaped mound Abalos Mensa has been described as "an enigmatic wedge of material"?
... that Anette Hosoi designed a robot snail that moved by rippling over artificial snail slime?
... that the 2017 Washington wildfires caused ash to fall "like snow" on Seattle?
... that Ōrora Satoshi is the heaviest ever wrestler in professional sumo?
... that television showings and online streaming of the documentary Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence were stopped after a blogger discredited its key photograph?

In the news

Earthquake damage
in Mexico City

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes central Mexico (damage pictured), killing more than two hundred people.
Hurricane Maria crosses the Antilles as a Category 5 hurricane, causing widespread destruction and at least 19 deaths.
In U.S. television, The Handmaid's Tale wins Best Drama and Veep wins Best Comedy at the Primetime Emmy Awards.
In Gaelic football, Dublin beat Mayo in the final to win their third consecutive All-Ireland title.
The Cassini–Huygens mission to the Saturn system ends with a controlled fall into the atmosphere of the planet.
Carbon dating of the Bakhshali manuscript reveals the earliest known Indian use of a zero symbol.

On this day...

September 22: Independence Day in Mali (1960); Day of Baltic Unity in Latvia and Lithuania

François "Papa Doc" Duvalier

1586 – Eighty Years' War: Spanish forces were victorious against a combined Anglo-Dutch army in the Battle of Zutphen.
1914 – World War I: German naval forces bombarded Papeete in French Polynesia.
1922 – After nine days, the great fire of Smyrna was extinguished, having caused tens of thousands of deaths.
1957 – François "Papa Doc" Duvalier (pictured) was elected President of Haiti as a populist before consolidating power and ruling as a dictator for the rest of his life.
1993 – A tugboat towing a barge collided with a rail bridge in Mobile, Alabama, U.S., deforming the tracks and causing the derailment of a passenger train eight minutes later, which killed 47 people and injured an additional 103.

Ouyang Xiu (d. 1072) · Charlotte Cooper (b. 1870) · Ségolène Royal (b. 1953)

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From today's featured list

Clifton Suspension Bridge

There are 37 Grade I listed buildings in North Somerset, including the Clifton Suspension Bridge (pictured), which joins North Somerset to Bristol, and Clevedon Pier. North Somerset is a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. In the United Kingdom, the term listed building refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance; Grade I structures are those considered to be "buildings of exceptional interest". Of the listed buildings, manor houses include Clevedon Court, built in the 14th century, and from the 15th century, Ashton Court and Nailsea Court. Somerset has many religious structures; the largest number are from the Norman or medieval eras. Some of the churches are included in the Somerset towers, a collection of distinctive, mostly spireless Gothic church towers. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Echidna catenata, also known as the chain moray, is a species of moray eel found in shallow parts of the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean. It is mainly nocturnal, hiding in holes and crevices in shallow water during the day. Although it may reach a maximum length of 165 cm (65 in), lengths of about 40 cm (16 in) are more common.

Photograph: Betty Wills

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