Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 June 21

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From today's featured article

HMS Nairana was a passenger ferry that was requisitioned by the Royal Navy as a seaplane carrier in 1917. She was laid down in 1914 as TSS Nairana for the Australian shipping line Huddart Parker, but construction was temporarily suspended after the outbreak of the First World War. The ship was converted to operate wheeled aircraft from her forward flying-off deck as well as floatplanes that were lowered into the water. She saw service during the war with the Grand Fleet, and in 1918–19 supported the British intervention in the Russian Civil War. Nairana was returned to her former owners in 1921 and refitted in her original planned configuration, then spent the next several decades ferrying passengers and cargo across Bass Strait between Tasmania and Melbourne, where she was nearly capsized twice by rogue waves. Nairana was the only Bass Strait ferry not requisitioned for military service in the Second World War, and so became the sole passenger ship with service to Tasmania during the conflict. She was laid up in 1948, wrecked in a storm three years later, and scrapped onsite in 1953–54. (Full article...)

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In the news

Pope Francis (pictured) releases the encyclical Laudato si', in which he calls for action on environmental degradation and climate change.
Nine people, including a state senator, are killed in a mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
In basketball, the Golden State Warriors defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the NBA Finals.
In ice hockey, the Chicago Blackhawks defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Stanley Cup.
Flooding in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, kills at least nineteen people and releases zoo animals into the streets.

Ongoing events:
- FIFA Women's World Cup
Recent deaths:
- Ron Clarke
- Qiao Shi

On this day...

June 21: June solstice (16:58 UTC, 2015); Midsummer festivities (Northern Hemisphere); Winter solstice festivals (Southern Hemisphere); World Music Day; Father's Day in various countries (2015); National Aboriginal Day in Canada

217 BC – Second Punic War: The Carthaginians under Hannibal executed one of the largest military ambushes in history when they overwhelmingly defeated the Romans.
1826 – Greek War of Independence: A combined Egyptian and Ottoman army began their invasion of the Mani Peninsula, but they were initially held off by the Maniots at the fortifications of Vergas.
1898 – In a bloodless event during the Spanish–American War, the United States captured Guam from Spain.
1919 – Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttled the German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow to prevent the ships from being seized and divided amongst the Allied Powers.
1948 – The Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (pictured), the world's first stored-program computer, ran its first computer program.

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Today's featured picture

A view of Loughrigg Tarn, a small natural lake in the Lake District of Cumbria, England, as seen from the nearby Loughrigg Fell. The poet William Wordsworth likened it to "Diana’s Looking-glass".

Photograph: David Iliff

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