Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 July 9

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From today's featured article

The corn crake (Crex crex) is a bird in the rail family. It breeds in Europe and Asia, and migrates to Africa for the northern hemisphere's winter. It is a medium-sized crake with buff- or grey-streaked brownish-black upperparts, chestnut markings on the wings, and blue-grey underparts with rust-coloured and white bars on the flanks and undertail. The male's call is a loud krek krek, from which the scientific name is derived. The breeding habitat is grassland, particularly hayfields; the female builds a nest of grass leaves in a hollow in the ground and lays 6–14 cream-coloured eggs that hatch in 19 or 20 days. The bird is in steep decline across much of its former breeding range because modern farming practices often destroy nests before breeding is finished. It is omnivorous but mainly feeds on invertebrates, the occasional small frog or mammal, and some seeds. Natural threats include feral and introduced mammals, large birds, and various parasites and diseases. Although numbers have declined steeply in western Europe, the bird is classed as a species of least concern because of its huge range and large populations in Russia, Kazakhstan and western China. (Full article...)

Part of the Crex series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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Did you know...

... that Polish Catholic midwife Stanisława Leszczyńska (pictured) delivered 3,000 babies at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust in occupied Poland?
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... that Hilda C. Heine is the first Marshallese woman to earn a doctorate degree?
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In the news

In association football, the Women's World Cup concludes with the United States defeating Japan in the final, and the Copa América concludes with Chile defeating Argentina in the final.
Nicholas Winton (pictured), dubbed the "British Schindler" for saving more than 600 children – the majority Jewish – from the Nazis, dies at the age of 106.
More than 140 people are killed when a Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashes into a residential area of Medan, Indonesia.
Hisham Barakat, Egypt's prosecutor general, is assassinated in a car bombing.
SpaceX CRS-7, an unmanned resupply mission to the International Space Station, fails when the Falcon 9 launch vehicle disintegrates shortly after liftoff.

Ongoing events:
- Greek debt crisis
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On this day...

July 9: Independence Day in Argentina (1816)

869 – An earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck the area around Sendai, Japan, leaving sand deposits up to 4 km (2.5 mi) inland.
1572 – Nineteen Catholic friars and clerics were hanged in Gorkum during the 16th-century religious wars in the Low Countries.
1790 – Russo-Swedish War: During the Second Battle of Svensksund in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish Navy captured one third of the Russian fleet.
1900 – Queen Victoria gave her Royal Assent to an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, ratifying the Constitution of Australia.
1922 – Johnny Weissmuller (pictured) swam the 100-meter freestyle in 58.6 seconds, breaking a world swimming record and the "minute barrier."
1995 – Sri Lankan Civil War: After having advised civilians to take shelter in places of worship, the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed a church in Navaly, killing at least 125 people.

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Today's featured picture

The edible frog (Pelophylax kl. esculentus) is a fertile hybrid of the pool and marsh frogs which is commonly found in Europe. The species is commonly used in food, including the French delicacy frog legs.

Photograph: Grand-Duc; edit: Niabot

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