Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 July 7

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From today's featured article

The banded stilt (Cladorhynchus leucocephalus) is a nomadic wader of the stilt and avocet family, Recurvirostridae, native to Australia. It gets its name from the red-brown breast band found on breeding adults, though this is mottled or entirely absent in non-breeding adults and juveniles. Its remaining plumage is pied and the eyes are dark brown. Nestling banded stilts have white down, unlike any other species of wader. Breeding is triggered by the filling of inland salt lakes by rainfall, creating large shallow lakes rich in tiny shrimp on which the birds feed. Banded stilts migrate to these and assemble in large breeding colonies. The female lays three to four brown- or black-splotched whitish eggs on a scrape. The species is not threatened, but it is subject to predation by silver gulls, black falcons and wedge-tailed eagles, and is designated as vulnerable under the South Australian National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Erlöserkirche in Munich-Schwabing

... that the Erlöserkirche (pictured) at today's Münchner Freiheit is the oldest Protestant church in Schwabing, consecrated in 1901?
... that footballer Youssef "Obama" Ibrahim was given his nickname due to his likeness to Barack Obama?
... that Tuzex shopping vouchers were used as unofficial parallel currency in communist Czechoslovakia?
... that Claire Ptak baked the lemon and elderflower wedding cake for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle?
... that creating human hair wreaths is a part of Mormon folklore, and a wreath containing hair from prominent church leaders was on display in the Salt Lake Temple until 1967?
... that Erik Adolf von Willebrand originally used the term "hereditary pseudohemophilia" to describe what came to be known as von Willebrand disease?
... that Interstate 84 is the longest freeway in Oregon and the only one to traverse the state from west to east?
... that the British physician Raymond Crawfurd described the custom of touching to cure the King's evil?

In the news

Nawaz Sharif

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (pictured) is sentenced to 10 years in prison on corruption charges.
Twelve boys and a man trapped in Thailand’s Tham Luang Nang Non cave are found alive after ten days missing, with rescue operations ongoing.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador is elected President of Mexico.
The Japanese sample-return spacecraft Hayabusa2 arrives at the asteroid 162173 Ryugu.
Saudi Arabia lifts its ban on women driving.

On this day

July 7

Ambulances at Russell Square, London, after the 2005 bombings

1575 – Anglo-Scottish Wars: In the last major battle between England and Scotland, a "Truce Day" at Carter Bar near Redesdale degenerated into a fight where the English side were routed.
1834 – In New York City, four nights of rioting against abolitionists began, fueled by rumors that they were encouraging miscegenation.
1937 – The Peel Commission published a report stating the British Mandate for Palestine had become unworkable and recommended the partition of Mandatory Palestine into two states.
1963 – The police of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief political adviser of President of South Vietnam Ngô Đình Diệm, attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest during the Buddhist crisis.
2005 – Suicide bombers killed 52 people in a series of four explosions on London's public transport system (emergency responders pictured).

Momchil (d. 1345) · Mary Surratt (d. 1865) · Marie-Louise Dubreil-Jacotin (b. 1905)

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Today's featured picture

The "Family Ruble", a coin issued by the Russian Empire in 1836 and denominated both as 1½ rubles and as 10 złoty. It depicts Tsar Nicholas I on the obverse and his family on the reverse: Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (center), surrounded by Alexander II as Tsarevich, Maria, Olga, Nicholas, Michael, Konstantin, and Alexandra.

Coin: Russian Empire (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)

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