Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 August 24

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Jethro Sumner (c. 1733 – 1785) was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. After serving in Virginia's Provincial forces in the French and Indian War and later as Sheriff of Bute County, North Carolina, he became a strident Patriot, and was elected to North Carolina's Provincial Congress. He was named the commanding officer of the 3rd North Carolina Regiment in the Continental Army in 1776, seeing action in the Southern theater and Philadelphia campaign. One of five brigadier generals from North Carolina, he served with distinction in the battles of Stono Ferry and Eutaw Springs, but recurring bouts of poor health often forced him to play an administrative role, or to convalesce back home. Following a drastic reduction in the number of North Carolinians serving with the Continental Army, Sumner became a general in the state's militia, but resigned in protest after the state Board of War awarded overall command of the militia to William Smallwood, a Continental Army general from Maryland. In 1783 Sumner helped establish the state chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati, and became its first president. He died in 1785 with extensive landholdings. (Full article...)

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Greater Egyptian jerboa
Greater Egyptian jerboa

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August 24: Independence Day in Ukraine (1991)

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SMS Hagen
SMS Hagen

In the 1880s, Germany built a series of coastal defense ships to protect its coastline on the North and Baltic Seas. During the 1870s and early 1880s, the Imperial German Navy had built a number of ironclad warships of various designs. In the mid-1880s, however, dissatisfaction with the Sachsen-class ironclads and the rise of the Jeune École doctrine persuaded Leo von Caprivi, then the chief of the Imperial Navy to turn away from capital ship construction in favor of coastal defense ships and torpedo boats. As a result, the next class of large warships, the Siegfried class, was significantly smaller than the earlier ironclads, and armed with a main battery of only three large-caliber guns. These vessels were intended only for defense of German harbors. Six of them were built between 1888 and 1894. Another two ships of the Odin class were built to a modified design between 1892 and 1896. All eight ships were mobilized briefly at the start of World War I in August 1914 as the VI Battle Squadron, though by August 1915, they had all been withdrawn from service and employed in secondary roles. (Full list...)

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A view of the skyline of downtown Tampa, Florida, as viewed from the Embassy Terrace Hotel. Downtown is the central business district of the city, as well as the chief financial district of the Tampa Bay Area. It is second only to Westshore in employment. It is also home to several museums and cultural centers.

Photograph: Joaquim Alves Gaspar

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