Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 August 4

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From today's featured article

The Blind Leading the Blind is a painting of 1568 by Flemish renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Executed in distemper on linen canvas, it measures 86 cm × 154 cm (34 in × 61 in). It depicts the Biblical parable of the blind leading the blind from Matthew 15:14. Considered a masterwork for its composition and accurate detail, the painting (detail pictured) reflects Bruegel's mastery of observation: each figure has a different recognizable eye affliction, including corneal leukoma, atrophy of globe and removed eyes. The diagonal composition reinforces the off-kilter motion of the six figures falling in progression. It was painted the year before Bruegel's death, and has a bitter, sorrowful tone. This may be related to the establishment of the Council of Troubles in 1567 by the government of the Spanish Netherlands, which ordered mass arrests and executions to enforce Spanish rule and suppress Protestantism, but it is not clear if the painting was meant as a political statement. The work has inspired poetry by Charles Baudelaire and William Carlos Williams, and a novel by Gert Hofmann. It is part of the collection of the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, Italy. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that De Akkermolen (pictured) was used as a gristmill from the early 1600s until it was damaged in 1950?
... that Mohammed Dajani Daoudi led the first group of students from Palestine to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland?
... that the designer of the company town of Bemis, Tennessee tried to make the community look like it had grown over time?
... that Michael Roll completed his college basketball career with the UCLA Bruins holding the school's record for most career games played?
... that the Barton Road Swing Bridge opens up to 14 times a day to let traffic through the Manchester Ship Canal?
... that one can eat all the hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, peanuts, and soft drinks one wants in the "all-you-can-eat" sections found at many Major League Baseball parks?
... that the male polkadot poison frog guards the eggs laid by the female and carries the newly hatched tadpoles to water?

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In the news

A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in Yunnan, China, kills at least 367 people and injures more than 1,700 others.
Gas explosions in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, kill at least 28 people and injure more than 300.
Heavy rains trigger a landslide in the Pune district of India, killing at least 82 people.
The 45th Pacific Islands Forum opens in Koror, Palau, with climate change as the main topic.
An international arbitral tribunal orders Russia to repay US$50 billion to shareholders of the Yukos Oil Company for breaching the Energy Charter Treaty.
The Séléka and anti-balaka militias agree to a ceasefire in the Central African Republic civil war.

Ongoing: Gaza conflict – Ebola outbreak – Ukrainian unrest
Recent deaths: Dick Smith

On this day...

August 4: Civic Holiday in most areas of Canada (2014); Constitution Day in the Cook Islands (1965)

1265 – Second Barons' War: Royal forces under Prince Edward defeated Baronial forces under Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester at the Battle of Evesham near Evesham, Worcestershire.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: The French Army of Italy under Napoleon crushed an Austrian brigade in the Battle of Lonato.
1964 – A second U.S. Navy destroyer (USS Maddox pictured) was reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese forces in the Gulf of Tonkin, leading Congress to authorize the use of military force in Southeast Asia.
1974 – A bomb placed by a neo-fascist group exploded on a train of the Ferrovie dello Stato while on the Bologna–Florence railway.
1992 – Yōhei Kōno, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, issued a formal apology for forcing women into sexual slavery during World War II.

More anniversaries: August 3 – August 4 – August 5

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From today's featured list

The Minister of Transport and Communications is a Councillor of State and Chief of the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications. Since 16 October 2013, the position has been held by Ketil Solvik-Olsen of the Progress Party. The position was created with the ministry on 22 February 1946, when Nils Langhelle was appointed. The ministry and minister position were split out from the Ministry of Labour. Twenty-eight people have held the position, representing six parties. Sixteen people have represented the Labour Party, five the Centre Party, two each the Christian Democratic Party, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party and one the Progress Party. The longest-sitting minister is Kjell Opseth (pictured) who sat a week short of six years. Trygve Bratteli is the only officeholder to have later become Prime Minister. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

A mating pair of common Mormons. Females of this species are polymorphic, with three morphs, and may imitate the common rose or crimson rose. The female in this photograph, at the top of the coupling, is of the romulus morph.

Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

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