Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 August 8

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From today's featured article

The Dawn of Love is an oil painting by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1828. Loosely based on a passage from John Milton's 1634 Comus, it shows Venus leaning across to wake the sleeping Love by stroking his wings. It was very poorly received when first exhibited; the stylised Venus was thought unduly influenced by foreign artists such as Rubens as well as being overly voluptuous and unrealistically coloured, while the painting as a whole was considered tasteless and obscene. The Dawn of Love was omitted from the major 1849 retrospective exhibition of Etty's works, and its exhibition in Glasgow in 1899 drew complaints for its supposed obscenity. In 1889 it was bought by Merton Russell-Cotes, and has remained in the collection of the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum ever since. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Torrance Barrens

... that the Torrance Barrens (pictured) is Canada's first dark-sky preserve?
... that Erinea Garcia Gallegos, one of the first college-educated Hispanic women in Colorado, was appointed postmistress of the city of San Luis by President Franklin D. Roosevelt?
... that Deutsche Reiterliche Vereinigung, the governing body for the majority of equestrian sports in Germany, promotes the status of the horse as a cultural asset?
... that Farouk Topan described the English language as "the elephant in the room" in relation to the use of Kiswahili in East Africa?
... that when the besieged town of Berwick-upon-Tweed refused to surrender, the governor's son was hanged outside the town gates?
... that the history of the Jews in Atlanta dates to 1845, the same year the city changed its name from Marthasville?
... that the sea chubs Graus nigra and Medialuna ancietae, the Chilean sandperch, and the Galápagos sheephead wrasse all live in the forest?
... that John Joseph Merlin crashed into a mirror at Carlisle House while playing the violin on the roller skates that he had invented?

In the news

Student protests in Dhaka, Bangladesh

A 6.9 magnitude earthquake strikes Lombok, Indonesia, killing more than 100 people after its 6.4 magnitude foreshock killed at least 20 others a week prior.
More than 140 people are injured in road-safety protests (pictured) in Bangladesh.
A 79-year-old Junkers Ju 52 aircraft crashes in Switzerland, killing all 20 people on board.
In mathematics, the Fields Medal is awarded to Caucher Birkar, Alessio Figalli, Peter Scholze and Akshay Venkatesh.

On this day

August 8

Uraniborg

1264 – Reconquista: In the early stages of the Mudéjar revolt of 1264–1266, Muslim rebels captured the alcázar of the city of Jerez, holding it for about two months.
1576 – The cornerstone of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe's observatory Uraniborg (pictured) was laid on the island of Hven.
1918 – The Battle of Amiens began in Amiens, France, marking the start of the Allied Powers' Hundred Days Offensive through the German front lines that ultimately led to the end of World War I.
1988 – A series of marches, demonstrations, protests, and riots, which became known as the 8888 Uprising, began against the one-party state of the Burma Socialist Programme Party.
2008 – A EuroCity train en route to Prague struck a part of a motorway bridge that had fallen onto the track near Studénka station and derailed, killing 8 people and injuring 64 others.

Seo Hui (d. 998) · James Tissot (d. 1902) · Esther Williams (b. 1921)

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Today's featured picture

An Indian Head gold piece in the denomination five American dollars (a half eagle). The same design by Augustus Saint-Gaudens as the eagle and double eagle was originally to be used, but this design by Boston sculptor Bela Pratt was chosen instead. Struck from 1908 to 1916, and in 1929, the Indian Head half eagle is one of only two US circulating coins with recessed (incuse) designs.

Coin: United States Mint; photograph: Jaclyn Nash/National Numismatic Collection

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