Wikipedia:Main Page history/2012 July 15

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Today's featured article
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. It was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chains and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RKO has long been celebrated for its cycle of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid- to late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio. Cary Grant was a mainstay for years. The work of producer Val Lewton's low-budget horror unit and RKO's many ventures into the field now known as film noir have been acclaimed by film critics and historians. The studio produced two of the most famous films in motion picture history: King Kong (poster pictured) and Citizen Kane. Maverick industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948. After years of decline under his control, the studio was acquired by the General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was effectively dissolved two years later. (more...) Recently featured: Bal des Ardents – Santa Maria de Ovila – Andromeda Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest content: Rihanna performing live ... that Rihanna's (pictured) song "We Found Love", a collaboration with Calvin Harris, was the only song to top the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart for more than one week in 2011, topping the chart for two consecutive weeks? ... that Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is the first Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan? ... that Franco-Bolivian petroleum prospector and poet Adolfo Costa du Rels was the last President of the League of Nations? ... that Michael R. Perry was inspired to write Millennium's "The Mikado" by the "dark side" of the internet, Jennifer Ringley's JenniCam website and the Zodiac Killer? ... that Peter the Great set up Russia's first spa in Karelia based on the water-purifying qualities of shungite? ... that from 1946 to 1952 the Sillamäe processing plant in Estonia mined and processed Dictyonema argillite ore, a type of oil shale, to produce uranium oxide? ... that despite the Admiral-Lord Mountevans rules leading to pro-wrestling being relegalized, a bylaw was passed to specifically ban women wrestling in London? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
Up to 250 people are killed during a Syrian military operation in a village within the Hama Governorate. A road tanker explosion kills more than 100 people in Okobie, Nigeria. Tongan Crown Prince Tupouto'a 'Ulukalala marries Sinaitakala Fakafanua in Nukuʻalofa (Royal Standard of Tonga pictured). Astronomers announce the discovery of S/2012 P 1, the fifth moon of Pluto. In tennis, Roger Federer and Serena Williams win the men's singles and women's singles, respectively, at the Wimbledon Championships. At least 141 people are killed in a flash flood in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia. Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
July 15: Festino of Saint Rosalia in Palermo, Italy; Chūgen/Bon Festival in Japan 1799 – French soldiers uncovered the Rosetta Stone in Fort Julien, near the Egyptian port city of Rashid. 1806 – The Pike expedition, led by Zebulon Pike (pictured) to explore the Louisiana Territory, began near St. Louis, Missouri. 1815 – Aboard HMS Bellerophon, Napoleon surrendered to Royal Navy Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland to finally end the Napoleonic Wars. 1870 – Manitoba and the Northwest Territories were established following the transfer of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory from the Hudson's Bay Company to Canada. 1910 – In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gave a name to Alzheimer's disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer. 1916 – William Boeing incorporated the Pacific Aero Products Company, which was later renamed Boeing. 2009 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashed in northwestern Iran, killing all 168 people aboard. More anniversaries: July 14 – July 15 – July 16 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now July 15, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

A view from space of an explosive eruption of Sarychev Peak on June 12, 2009. The volcano is the central peak of Matua, an uninhabited island in the Kuril archipelago in the Sea of Okhotsk east of Russia and north of Japan. During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army had an airfield on the island, which was taken over by the Soviet Border Troops after the war and abandoned in 1999.

Photo: NASA

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