Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 April 23

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From today's featured article

The Destroying Angel and Daemons of Evil Interrupting the Orgies of the Vicious and Intemperate is an oil painting by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1832. With this openly moral piece, Etty hoped to respond to critics who found his nude paintings indecent and in poor taste. It depicts a classical temple under attack from a destroying angel and a group of daemons. Some of the occupants are dead or unconscious; others flee in terror or struggle against the daemons. When first exhibited The Destroying Angel was widely praised for its technical brilliance, but critics were divided on the subject matter. Some praised its vividness and ability to mix fear and beauty without descending into tastelessness; others criticised its theme as inappropriate, and chastised Etty for wasting his talents. Joseph Whitworth donated the painting in 1882 to the Manchester Art Gallery, where it remains. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Gothic-arch barn purchased from Sears

... that an entire Gothic-arch barn (example pictured) could be ordered from the Sears & Roebuck catalog?
... that in 1952, mayor Pedro Zaragoza was threatened with excommunication from the Catholic Church for allowing women to wear bikinis in Benidorm, Spain?
... that young Parvulastra vivipara live inside their mother and eat each other?
... that Princess Minkhaung Medaw of Prome was twice married off by her brothers, becoming queen of Hanthawaddy and later of Mrauk U?
... that George Town, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Penang, was the first British settlement in Southeast Asia?
... that according to Richard Hamming, Nobel Prize winners often discover they can no longer work on small problems?
... that the inspiration for the Philippine thriller Neomanila came from a BBC interview with a married couple who worked as hitmen?
... that on New Year's Day, tens of thousands of Americans take a hike?

In the news

Miguel Díaz-Canel

Miguel Díaz-Canel (pictured) succeeds Raúl Castro as President of Cuba.
In horse racing, Tiger Roll wins the Grand National at Aintree Racecourse in the United Kingdom.
The United States, United Kingdom and France strike multiple government targets in Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Douma.
At least 257 people are killed as an Algerian Air Force Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft crashes in Algeria.

On this day...

April 23

Can of New Coke

1516 – The most well-known version of the Reinheitsgebot, the German Beer Purity Law, was adopted across the entirety of Bavaria.
1661 – Charles II, King of England, Ireland, and Scotland was crowned at Westminster Abbey.
1918 – First World War: The British Royal Navy conducted an unsuccessful raid on the German-occupied port of Bruges-Zeebrugge in Belgium.
1951 – American journalist William N. Oatis was arrested for espionage by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia.
1985 – The Coca-Cola Company replaced its flagship soft drink, Coca-Cola, with "New Coke" (pictured), which generated so much negative response that the company put the previous formula back on the market less than three months later.

William Shakespeare (d. 1616) · Karl Friedrich Bahrdt (d. 1792) · Kathy Lynch (b. 1957)

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From today's featured list

Regine Velasquez

Filipino singer Regine Velasquez has recorded more than 300 songs for her seventeen studio albums and other official releases. She rose to prominence with the release of her debut album Regine in 1987. The record contained eight original songs and spawned the singles "Kung Maibabalik Ko Lang", "Urong Sulong" and "Isang Lahi". In 1994, she signed with Polygram and released her fifth studio album—Listen Without Prejudice—that established her commercial music career in Southeast and East Asia. As executive producer, she released her tenth studio album, R2K, in November 1999. The record became the best-selling album by a solo female artist in the Philippines. The singer has released a string of covers albums, including Covers. Vol 1 (2004), Covers, Vol. 2 (2006), Low Key (2008) and Fantasy (2010). In addition to her music career, Velasquez has also starred in films and recorded songs for nine soundtrack albums. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Apple Bandai Pippin is a multimedia technology console designed by Apple Computer based on the Apple Pippin platform, and produced by Bandai. Only 100,000 of the consoles were produced between its 1996 release and 1997 discontinuation. The Bandai Pippin was intended to create an inexpensive computer aimed mostly at playing CD-based multimedia software, especially games, but also functioning as a thin client.

Photograph: Evan Amos

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