Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 February 17

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From today's featured article

Banksia paludosa (swamp banksia) is a shrub endemic to New South Wales, found between Sydney and Batemans Bay and in Eden. Two subspecies are recognised: a spreading shrub to 1.5 m (5 ft) in height, and a subspecies astrolux, up to 5 m (16 ft) high and found only in Nattai National Park. Native mammals, such as the brown antechinus and sugar glider, are important pollinators of B. paludosa. Several species of honeyeaters visit the flower spikes, as do ants and the European honeybee. The response to bushfire depends on the subspecies; subspecies paludosa regenerates from underground lignotubers, while plants of subspecies astrolux are killed by fire and regenerate from large stores of seed which have been held in cones in the plant canopy. B. paludosa is sometimes seen in cultivation, with dwarf forms being registered and sold. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that the Plaka Bridge (pictured) in western Greece, formerly the largest single-arch stone bridge in the Balkans, survived bombing by the Luftwaffe, but was destroyed by floods on 1 February 2015?
... that the sea battles of the Echinades and of Amorgos in 322 BC led to the defeat of Athens in the Lamian War, ending Athenian naval power and independence?
... that India is one of the most dangerous places in the world to drive?
... that in the 1969 Lusaka Manifesto, black-ruled African states offered dialogue with apartheid South Africa?
... that Tripoli Jewish community leader and historian Abraham Khalfon lost two sons in his lifetime – one in a plague and one who was burned at the stake?
... that in 1886, the United States Naval Academy football team beat close rival Johns Hopkins with a last-second double lateral?
... that Masanobu Takayanagi was inspired to move to the U.S. and become a cinematographer after seeing a book about the subject in a Japanese bookstore?
... that Gotlandsdricka is essentially the same everyday brew that the Vikings drank?

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In the news

Egypt strikes ISIS targets in Libya after a video is released showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts.
Taxi, by Iranian director Jafar Panahi (pictured), wins the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
The attempted rape and subsequent murder of a student on a bus spark protests across Turkey.
Two people are killed in shootings at a free-speech seminar and at a synagogue service in Copenhagen.
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is imprisoned for five years after the country's Federal Court upholds his conviction for sodomy.

Ongoing: Boko Haram – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – War in Ukraine
Recent deaths: Philip Levine – Louis Jourdan – John McCabe

On this day...

February 17: Independence Day in Kosovo (2008)

1400 – The body of the deposed king Richard II was put on display in London's Old St Paul's Cathedral, after his death in Pontefract Castle.
1600 – Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, best-known as a proponent of heliocentrism and the infinity of the universe, was burned at the stake as a heretic by the Roman Inquisition.
1913 – In the U.S. National Guard's 69th Regiment Armory in New York City, the Armory Show opened, introducing Americans to avant-garde and modern art.
1949 – Chaim Weizmann (pictured) began his term as the first President of Israel.
2011 – Bahrain security forces launched a pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama, killing four of them.

More anniversaries: February 16 – February 17 – February 18

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It is now February 17, 2015 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

Raden Saleh (1811–1880) was a Romantic painter of Arab-Javanese ethnicity from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Born in Semarang, in 1829 he was sent to the Netherlands to study portraiture and landscape painting under artists such as Cornelis Kruseman and Andreas Schelfhout. Upon returning to Java in 1851, Saleh focused predominantly on the day-to-day lives of the Javanese, although he also completed his magnum opus, The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro, in this period.

This painting, though long thought to be a self-portrait, is now attributed to Friedrich Carl Albert Schreuel, a German artist whom Saleh knew during his time in Europe.

Painting: Friedrich Carl Albert Schreuel

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