Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 April 15

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From today's featured article

April 1941 issue of Stirring Science Stories

Cosmic Stories and Stirring Science Stories were two pulp science fiction magazines that published a total of seven issues in 1941 and 1942. Both were edited by Donald A. Wollheim and launched by Albing Publications, appearing in alternate months. Wollheim had no budget at all for fiction, so he solicited stories from his friends among the Futurians, a group of young science fiction fans including James Blish and C.M. Kornbluth. Isaac Asimov contributed a story, but later insisted on payment after hearing that F. Orlin Tremaine, the editor of Comet—a competing science fiction magazine—was irate at the idea of a magazine that might "siphon readership from magazines that paid", and thought that authors who contributed should be blacklisted. Kornbluth was the most prolific contributor, under several pseudonyms; one of his stories, "Thirteen O'Clock", was very successful, and helped to make his reputation in the field. The magazines ceased publication in late 1941, but Wollheim was able to find a publisher for one further issue of Stirring Science Stories in March 1942 before war restrictions forced it to close again. (Full article...)

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Old College

... that an architect who despised the design of Old College, Aberystwyth (pictured) was fired from working on it amid fears that his plans would prove too expensive?
... that the Arena México 60th Anniversary Show celebrates the completion of Arena México in 1956, the largest venue ever built specifically for professional wrestling?
... that Matthew N. Levy has been referred to as "the father of neurocardiology"?
... that the Brooke Bond Taj Mahal Tea House is Hindustan Unilever's first tea restaurant business?
... that a line in the single "Game On" by the Welsh band Catatonia appeared in one of the tracks on their original demos?
... that the extinct ant genus Paraneuretus is known from amber and compression fossils?
... that according to a former editor of The Observer, Nora Beloff "had one of the most distinguished careers any woman has had in British journalism"?
... that an Earnest performance necessitates the rhythmic smashing of forty dinner plates?

In the news

Volodymyr Groysman

Volodymyr Groysman (pictured) is appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine following the resignation of Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Argentina reaches an agreement to issue bonds and pay its creditors, ending a 15-year sovereign default.
The Minjoo Party of Korea wins a plurality of seats in the South Korean National Assembly.
In golf, Danny Willett wins the Masters Tournament.
More than 100 people are killed in a fireworks accident at a Hindu temple in Kollam, Kerala, India.

Ongoing events
Recent deaths:
- Nera White
- Howard Marks

On this day...

April 15: Rama Navami (Hinduism, 2016); Father Damien Day in Hawaii; Day of the Sun in North Korea

Aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing

769 – The Lateran Council concluded proceedings intended to rectify abuses in the papal electoral process that had led to the elevation of the Antipopes Constantine II and Philip.
1638 – A rebellion by Catholic Japanese peasants in Shimabara over increased taxes was put down by the Tokugawa shogunate, resulting in greater enforcement of the policy of national seclusion.
1738 – Serse, an opera by Baroque composer George Frideric Handel loosely based on Xerxes I of Persia, premiered in London.
1922 – US Senator John B. Kendrick introduced a resolution calling for an investigation of a secret land deal, which led to the discovery of the Teapot Dome scandal.
2013 – Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev set off two pressure cooker bombs (immediate aftermath pictured) during the running of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring 264 others.

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From today's featured list

Roman Baths

There are 58 scheduled monuments in Bath and North East Somerset. Bath and North East Somerset (commonly referred to as BANES or B&NES) is a unitary authority created on 1 April 1996, following the abolition of the County of Avon, which had existed since 1974. Part of the ceremonial county of Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset occupies an area of 220 square miles (570 km²), two-thirds of which is green belt. A scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or monument which is given legal protection by being placed on a list (or "schedule") by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; English Heritage takes the leading role in identifying such sites. Some of the oldest scheduled monuments in Bath and North East Somerset are Neolithic including the Stanton Drew stone circles and several tumuli. There are also several Iron Age hillforts such as Maes Knoll, which was later incorporated into the medieval Wansdyke, a defensive earthwork. The Romano-British period is represented with several sites, most notably the Roman Baths (pictured) and city walls in Bath. (Full list...)

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Girl at Sewing Machine

Girl at Sewing Machine is a 1921 painting by Edward Hopper that is currently housed in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Spain. The first of Hopper's "window paintings", it portrays a young girl sitting at a sewing machine facing a window on a beautiful sunny day. The location appears to be New York as is evident from the yellow bricks in the window.

Painting: Edward Hopper

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