Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 February 28

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From today's featured article

Banksia attenuata, the candlestick banksia, is a tree in the family Proteaceae. Commonly reaching 10 m (33 ft), it can be a shrub of 0.4 to 2 m (1.3 to 6.6 ft) in dryer areas. It has long narrow serrated leaves and bright yellow inflorescences, or flower spikes. It is found across much of the southwest of Western Australia, from north of Kalbarri National Park south to Cape Leeuwin and then east to Fitzgerald River National Park. Robert Brown named the species in 1810. Within the genus Banksia, the close relationships and exact position of B. attenuata are unclear. The tree is pollinated by and provides food for a wide array of vertebrate and invertebrate animals in summer months, including the honeyeaters and the honey possum, a tiny marsupial. The plant regenerates from bushfire by regrowing from its woody base or from epicormic buds within its trunk. It can live for up to 300 years. It has been widely used as a street tree and for amenities planting in urban Western Australia, though its large size generally precludes use in small gardens. A dwarf form is commercially available in nurseries. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

The Big Horn

... that the Big Horn (pictured), a gateway sculpture to Manchester's Northern Quarter, was built on the remains of a hat factory in 1999?
... that John Michael Bednarek was commander of the First United States Army, prior to becoming the top US military officer in Iraq?
... that to promote her song "Chained to the Rhythm", Katy Perry left disco balls playing the track in various cities?
... that a television crew captured the beating of a handcuffed protester by police during the 2014 Hong Kong protests?
... that the White House Family Theater was built out of a former cloakroom in 1942?
... that Avicenna made an argument to prove the existence of God which became known as the "Proof of the Truthful"?
... that Maria Luise Thurmair published the "love talks" she exchanged with her husband when he was a soldier in World War II, and wrote the lyrics for many hymns in the Gotteslob?
... that during the Knowles Riot of 1747, Bostonians put the sheriff's deputy in the stocks?

In the news

Artist’s impression of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system

Moonlight wins Best Picture and La La Land wins in six categories at the Academy Awards.
The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captures Al-Bab from ISIL.
Astronomers announce that the star TRAPPIST-1 hosts seven exoplanets (artist's impression pictured), some orbiting in its habitable zone.
South Sudan and the United Nations declare a famine in parts of the country.
A suicide bombing at a shrine in Sehwan, Pakistan, kills at least 83 people and injures more than 250 others.

On this day...

February 28: Shrove Tuesday (Western Christianity, 2017); Kalevala Day in Finland

Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar

1844 – A gun on USS Princeton exploded while the warship was on a Potomac River cruise, killing six people and injuring twenty others.
1897 – Ranavalona III (pictured), the last sovereign ruler of the Kingdom of Madagascar, was deposed by a French military force.
1914 – In the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, Greeks living in southern Albania proclaimed the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus.
1972 – Japanese police stormed a mountain lodge near Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, to end a ten-day siege by members of the paramilitary group United Red Army.
1997 – GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, struck the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way.

Michel de Montaigne (b. 1533) · Koesbini (d. 1991)

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Today's featured picture

A dancer from Sanata Dharma University's Balinese dance group performing kebyar duduk, a dance created by I Mario and first performed in 1925. Inspired by the development of the quick-paced gamelan gong kebyar, kebyar duduk is named for the seated and half-seated positions taken by the dancers. While in this position, dancers may shift or spin around, using their eyes to emote. Unlike several other Balinese dances, kebyar duduk is interpretative rather than narrative.

Photograph: Chris Woodrich

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