Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 August 21

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Track and intensity of Tropical Storm Ileana

Tropical Storm Ileana was a small tropical cyclone that affected western Mexico in early August 2018. The eleventh tropical cyclone and ninth named storm of the 2018 Pacific hurricane season, Ileana originated from a tropical wave that left the west coast of Africa and traveled across the Atlantic Ocean before crossing into the eastern Pacific Ocean early on August 4. The system began to strengthen on August 5, becoming Tropical Storm Ileana. On August 6, it began to develop an eyewall structure as it reached its peak intensity with winds of 65 mph (100 km/h) and a pressure of 998 mbar (29.47 inHg). The storm became intertwined with Hurricane John; the circulation of John disrupted Ileana before absorbing it on August 7. Paralleling the coast of Mexico for much of its existence, Ileana killed four people in Guerrero and four others in Chiapas. There was flooding in the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Estado de México. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

New Zealand White Ensign

... that until a distinct white ensign (pictured) was adopted in 1968, Royal New Zealand Navy vessels at sea might have been indistinguishable from British vessels?
... that Helen Ballard was a hellebore horticulturist?
... that the Cabinet of Folksongs, which contains all the Latvian folksongs collected by Krišjānis Barons, was included in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register?
... that the headmistress of the progressive school St Trinnean's was heartbroken by its satirical parody?
... that the Duke of Tuscany allied with Ali Janbulad, the Kurdish chief and rebel governor of Aleppo, to destroy the Ottoman Empire and establish Ali as "Prince of the Kingdom of Syria"?
... that The Delectable Negro describes how Nat Turner's body was turned into "medicinal" grease?
... that Bernard Ładysz, a bass-baritone who performed in world premieres of Krzysztof Penderecki's music in Hamburg and in Salzburg, was the only Polish singer to appear with Maria Callas?
... that according to the game's best player, you can make more money working at McDonald's than by winning major Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournaments?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta

The People's National Movement led by Keith Rowley is sworn in for a second term after winning the 2020 Trinidad and Tobago general election.
In Mali, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (pictured) resigns and dissolves the government after his arrest in a military coup following months of protests.
Ronnie O'Sullivan wins the World Snooker Championship, defeating Kyren Wilson in the final.

On this day

August 21

Mona Lisa

1689 – Jacobite risings: Jacobite clans clashed with a regiment of Covenanters in the streets of Dunkeld, Scotland.
1911 – Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (pictured) was stolen from the Louvre by museum employee Vincenzo Peruggia and was not recovered until two years later.
1945 – American physicist Harry Daghlian accidentally dropped a tungsten carbide brick onto a plutonium bomb core, exposing himself to neutron radiation and later becoming the first Manhattan Project fatality due to a criticality accident.
2013 – Syrian civil war: Rockets containing sarin struck opposition-controlled areas in the Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, resulting in at least 281 deaths.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (d. 1762)
Christopher Robin Milne (b. 1920)
Art Farmer (b. 1928)

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Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) composed ten operas, a genre that emerged while he was a court musician in Mantua. His first opera, L'Orfeo, premiered in 1607 and became the first opera still in today's repertoire. The music for seven of his opera projects is mostly lost. Four of these were completed and performed, while he abandoned the others at some point. Libretti have survived for some of them, as well as fragments of the music for L'Arianna and Proserpina rapita. Monteverdi composed operas for a theatre in Venice when he was master of music at San Marco, including Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria in 1640 and L'incoronazione di Poppea in 1643, both of which also remain in the repertoire. (Full list...)

Part of the Operas by Claudio Monteverdi series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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This is an animation showing geocentric satellite orbits, to scale with the Earth, at 3,600 times actual speed. The second-outermost (shown in grey) is a geostationary orbit, 35,786 kilometres (22,236 miles) above Earth's equator and following the direction of Earth's rotation, with an orbital period matching the planet's rotation period (a geosynchronous orbit). An object in such an orbit will appear to occupy a fixed position in the sky. Some 300 kilometres (190 miles) farther away is the graveyard orbit (brown), used for satellites at the end of their operational lives. Nearer to the Earth are the orbits of navigational satellites, such as Galileo (turquoise), BeiDou (beige), GPS (blue) and GLONASS (red), in medium Earth orbits. Much closer to the planet, and within the inner Van Allen belt, are satellites in low Earth orbit, such as the Iridium satellite constellation (purple), the Hubble Space Telescope (green) and the International Space Station (magenta).

Animation credit: Cmglee

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