Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 January 6

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From today's featured article

Weather Machine is a lumino-kinetic bronze sculpture in the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, that serves as a weather beacon, displaying a daily weather prediction at noon. Designed and constructed at a cost of $60,000 by Omen Design Group Inc., the approximately 30-foot (9 m) tall sculpture was installed in 1988 in the northwest corner of Pioneer Courthouse Square. Two thousand people attended its dedication, which was broadcast live nationally from the square by Today weatherman Willard Scott. During its daily two-minute sequence, which includes a trumpet fanfare, mist and flashing lights, the machine displays one of three metal symbols as a prediction of the weather for the following 24-hour period: a sun for clear and sunny weather, a blue heron for drizzle and transitional weather, or a dragon and mist for rainy or stormy weather. The sculpture includes two bronze wind scoops and displays the temperature via vertical colored lights along its stem. The air quality index is also displayed by a light system below the stainless steel globe. Considered a tourist attraction, Weather Machine has been called "bizarre", "playful", "unique" and "wacky". (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that the carol "We Three Kings" (Magi pictured) was the first American Christmas carol to be featured in the "prestigious" and "influential" British collection Christmas Carols Old and New?
... that the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 allows extra U.S. federal government spending in 2014 and 2015, but limits it in 2022 and 2023?
... that Skederid Church was built by the father of Saint Bridget of Sweden, who also had some of her first religious visions there?
... that historian John Vincent called the New Social Alliance a "poor man's Young England"?
... that Rachmat Kartolo, son of actors Roekiah and Kartolo, initially did not want to enter the film industry but ultimately completed more than 40 movies?
... that the number 1 sex advertising site in Hong Kong was shut down by police in December 2013?
... that a 240-million-year-old animal latrine was dubbed "the oldest communal toilet"?

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In the news

The al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant captures the city of Fallujah.
Latvia becomes the 18th EU member state to adopt the euro.
More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On its maiden flight, a Russian Soyuz-2-1v rocket launches Aist 1 and two radar calibration satellites.
Two suicide bombings kill more than 30 people in Volgograd, Russia (Volgograd-1 railway station pictured).
Amidst fears of civil war, the United Nations Security Council agrees to send more UNMISS soldiers to South Sudan.

Recent deaths: Eusébio – Phil Everly

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On this day...

January 6: Epiphany (Gregorian calendar)

1449 – The last Byzantine-Roman Emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, was crowned, four years before the Fall of Constantinople.
1839 – The most damaging storm in 300 years swept across Ireland, with 100-knot winds damaging or destroying more than 20% of the houses in Dublin.
1907 – Italian educator Maria Montessori opened her first school and day care center for working class children in Rome, employing the philosophy of education that now bears her name.
1941 – During his State of the Union Address, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented his Four Freedoms as fundamental freedoms humans everywhere in the world ought to enjoy.
1994 – Two-time American Olympic figure skating medalist Nancy Kerrigan (pictured) was clubbed on the right leg by an assailant hired by Jeff Gillooly, the ex-husband of her rival Tonya Harding.

More anniversaries: January 5 – January 6 – January 7

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From today's featured list

The Carry On series consisted of thirty-one films, three Christmas specials, one television series of thirteen episodes, and three West End and provincial stage plays as part of a wider franchise. Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas were the series' sole producer and director respectively who mostly employed the same crew and group of actors. Much of the series' humour came from the use of innuendo and double entendre, provided by seven writers, who produced the material for all the output, between 1958 and 1992. The Carry On films were distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated (1958 – 66), and the Rank Organisation (1967 – 78); they were all made at Pinewood Studios. The series comprises the largest number of films of any British film series and, next to the James Bond films, are the second-longest continually-running UK film series. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

A satellite image showing Fogo, one of the islands making up Cape Verde. The Pico do Fogo volcano, which forms the whole island, is a tourist attraction and the tallest peak in the archipelago.

Photo: NASA Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen

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