Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 September 11

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From today's featured article

William Burke

William Hare

The Burke and Hare murders were a series of 16 killings committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke (pictured, left) and William Hare (pictured, right), who sold the corpses to Doctor Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures. Edinburgh was a leading European centre of anatomical study in the early 19th century, in a time when the demand for cadavers exceeded the legal supply. When a lodger in Hare's house died, he turned to his friend Burke for advice and they sold the body to Knox. They then began their murder spree, which was uncovered after other lodgers discovered their last victim, Margaret Docherty, and called the police. Hare provided the details of Docherty's murder and confessed to all 16 deaths. Burke was found guilty of one murder, sentenced to death and hanged. His corpse was dissected and his skeleton displayed at the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh Medical School, where it remains. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Elizabeth Kekaʻaniau,
c. 1870

... that Elizabeth Kekaʻaniau (pictured) was the last surviving royal student from the Chiefs' Children's School, a select school for the nobles and rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaii?
... that the Royal Air Force's "Winkle" system tracked aircraft by listening for their radar jammers?
... that editorial cartoonist Etta Hulme began her artistic career at Walt Disney animation studio under Ward Kimball?
... that the breakout single "broken" by lovelytheband was inspired by its vocalist after he split up with his previous band, Oh Honey?
... that Fredy Hirsch saved the lives of children at Auschwitz by impressing SS guards, even though he was Jewish and openly gay?
... that the oceanic two-wing flyingfish exhibits countershading?
... that Roberto Benedicto was so close to his fraternity brother, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, that he had full access to the presidential quarters in Malacañang Palace?
... that sections of Washington State Route 821 are shut down for annual cattle drives, a marathon, and a heritage tractor run?

In the news

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Jocelyn Bell Burnell (pictured), who discovered pulsars but was omitted from the related Nobel Prize, receives the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is stabbed during a campaign rally.
The Supreme Court of India strikes down portions of the colonial-era Section 377, thereby making all private consensual sexual acts between adults legal.
An earthquake in the south of Hokkaido, Japan, results in at least seventeen deaths.
Typhoon Jebi affects Taiwan and Japan, killing at least seventeen people and causing extensive damage in the Kansai region of Japan.

On this day

September 11: Islamic New Year (2018, 1440 AH); National Day of Catalonia

Swami Vivekananda

1758 – Seven Years' War: France repelled an invasion attempt by the British in the Battle of Saint Cast.
1893 – On the opening day of the first Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda (pictured) introduced Hinduism to the United States.
1914 – During the First World War, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force invaded German New Guinea, winning the Battle of Bita Paka.
1978 – Janet Parker, a British medical photographer, became the last recorded person to die from smallpox, leading to a debate on whether the virus should be preserved.
2001 – Al-Qaeda used four hijacked passenger airliners to carry out a series of suicide attacks against targets in New York City and the Washington, D.C., area.

Daniyal Mirza (b. 1572) · Joseph Nicollet (d. 1843) · Susi Kentikian (b. 1987)

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Today's featured picture

A double eagle is a gold coin of the United States with a denomination of $20. The first double eagle, known as the Liberty Head, was minted from 1849, coinciding with the California Gold Rush. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt asked artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens to produce a new coin in an effort to beautify American coinage. The new coin became known as the Saint-Gaudens, and was produced until 1933. The 1933 double eagle is among the most valuable of U.S. coins, with the sole example currently known to be in private hands selling in 2002 for $7,590,020.

The coin pictured is a 1907 Saint Gaudens with Arabic numerals.

See other double eagle coins: 1849 Liberty Head; 1866 Liberty Head; 1877 Liberty Head; 1907 Saint Gaudens (Roman, high relief; Roman, ultra high relief, wire edge; Arabic and motto; edge detail); 1933 Saint Gaudens

Coins: US Mint, National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History.

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