Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 May 16

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Bob Dylan in 1963

Blonde on Blonde is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on May 16, 1966, by Columbia Records. The album completes a rock trilogy, with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. Unsatisfied with the initial recording sessions, Dylan brought his keyboardist Al Kooper and guitarist Robbie Robertson to the CBS studios in Nashville, Tennessee, where all but one of the album's songs were recorded in February and March. Combining the expertise of Nashville session musicians with a modernist literary sensibility, the album's songs have been described as operating on a grand scale musically, while featuring lyrics that the writer Michael Gray called "a unique blend of the visionary and the colloquial". One of the first rock double albums, it peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 chart in the US, where it eventually went double-platinum, and reached No. 3 in the UK. Blonde on Blonde spawned two top twenty singles in the US: "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" and "I Want You". "Just Like a Woman" and "Visions of Johanna" made Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. The album has consistently ranked high in greatest-albums polls. (Full article...)

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Chalciporus pseudorubinellus

... that bolete mushrooms of the genus Chalciporus, such as C. pseudorubinellus (pictured), are thought to be parasitic?
... that South Korean girl group Oh My Girl was denied entry to the United States when they flew to Los Angeles for Pink Ocean's album cover photoshoot?
... that sociologist William Chambliss concluded that conflict between social classes is the fundamental force in capitalist societies?
... that in 2015, the Oregon Department of State Lands closed Crump Lake to the public because drought had reduced the lake’s water level exposing the lakebed to looting by cultural artifact hunters?
... that Indian gender equality activist Trupti Desai has successfully campaigned for women to be allowed entry to various religious places?
... that films featuring Matt Damon have collectively earned over $2.9 billion in North America?
... that South African rower Sandra Khumalo competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics just two years after taking up the sport?
... that when threatened, the megascolecid worm Octochaetus multiporus squirts a luminescent fluid from its mouth?

In the news

Jamala

Jamala (pictured), representing Ukraine with the song "1944", wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, Sweden.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is suspended after both houses of the National Congress vote to impeach her.
A series of bombings in Baghdad kills at least 93 people and injures more than 165.
Werner Faymann resigns as Chancellor of Austria and leader of the Social Democratic Party.
In horse racing, Nyquist, ridden by Mario Gutierrez, wins the Kentucky Derby.
Enda Kenny of Fine Gael is re-elected Taoiseach of Ireland and forms a minority coalition government.

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On this day...

May 16: Whit Monday (Western Christianity, 2016)

Shield nickel

1771 – The Battle of Alamance—the final battle of the War of the Regulation, a rebellion in colonial North Carolina over issues of taxation and local control—was fought.
1866 – The United States Congress authorized the minting of the country's first copper-nickel five-cent piece, the Shield nickel (pictured).
1916 – The United Kingdom and France signed the Sykes–Picot Agreement, a secret agreement considered to have shaped the Middle East, defining the borders of Iraq and Syria.
1966 – Chinese leader Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution officially as a campaign to rid China of its liberal bourgeois elements and to continue revolutionary class struggle.
1975 – Based on the results of a referendum held about one month earlier, Sikkim abolished its monarchy and was annexed by India, becoming its 22nd state.

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The World Fantasy Award for Best Collection is one of the World Fantasy Awards presented each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. The honor is given each year for collections of fantasy stories by a single author published in English. A collection can have any number of editors, and works in the collection may have been previously published; awards are also given out for anthologies of works by multiple authors in the anthology category. The World Fantasy Award for Best Collection has been awarded annually since 1975, though from 1977 through 1987 anthologies were admissible as nominees. Anthologies were split into a separate category beginning in 1988; during the 10 years they were admissible they won the award 7 times. During the 41 nomination years, 143 writers have had works nominated; 38 of them have won, including ties and co-authors. Only five writers or editors have won twice. Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, and Lucius Shepard won the regular collection award twice, out of three, two, and four nominations, respectively. Charles L. Grant and Kirby McCauley won multiple awards as editors of anthologies while those were eligible. (Full list...)

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A NASA video showing the launch of STS-134, the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the 25th and last spaceflight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. Led by the mission commander Mark Kelly, this flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station. The first launch attempt, on 29 April 2011, was canceled due to problems with two heaters on one of the orbiter's auxiliary power units (APU); a second, successful attempt was made on 16 May 2011. The shuttle landed for the final time on 1 June 2011.

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