Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 August 11

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From today's featured article

The European hare (Lepus europaeus) is one of the largest hare species. Native to Europe and parts of Asia, it is adapted to temperate, open country. Hares feed mainly on grasses and herbs, supplementing these with twigs, buds, bark and field crops, particularly in winter. They rely on high-speed endurance running to escape predators, including large birds of prey, canids and felids. Generally nocturnal and shy, hares can be seen in the spring in broad daylight chasing one another around in fields, and sometimes striking each other with their paws ("boxing"). The female nests in a depression on the surface of the ground, giving birth to three or four kits that are active as soon as they are born. The European hare has a wide range and is moderately abundant, but populations have been declining in mainland Europe since the 1960s. The hare has been a traditional symbol of fertility and reproduction in some cultures. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Weebill

... that the weebill (pictured), measuring 8 to 9 cm (3.1 to 3.5 in) long, is Australia's smallest bird?
... that Paul Loicq from Belgium was the first European to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame?
... that the C train, described as the "least loved of New York City subway lines", still uses subway cars that date to the 1960s?
... that the North African Muhammad ibn Rushayd befriended the future Granadan vizier Ibn al-Hakim when the two travelled to Mecca for pilgrimage and study?
... that Carlos Carrera's El héroe was the first Mexican entry to win the Short Film Palme d'Or, in 1994?
... that Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen became a student of Arve Tellefsen by the age of four?
... that Karski's reports were the first comprehensive documents on the Holocaust in Poland to reach the government-in-exile?
... that a century after Irish antiquarian Francis Joseph Bigger had revived the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, sites he had dug were still being referred to as "well and truly Biggered"?

In the news

Toni Morrison

A suicide bombing near a police station in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 14 people and injures 145 others.
American novelist Toni Morrison (pictured) dies at the age of 88.
India revokes the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and establishes Ladakh as a separate union territory.
In the United States, 32 people are killed and more than 50 others are injured during separate mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and in Dayton, Ohio.

On this day

August 11: First day of Eid al-Adha (Islam, 2019); Tisha B'Av (Judaism, 2019); Independence Day in Chad (1960)

Tupolev Tu-134A similar to both aircraft in the 1979 collision

2492 BC – According to legend, Armenian culture hero Hayk slew the giant king Bel with a shot from a longbow near Lake Van (in modern Turkey).
1786 – Francis Light founded George Town, the first British settlement in Southeast Asia and the capital city of the Malaysian state of Penang.
1929 – The first Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic, the oldest and largest African-American parade in the United States, was held in Chicago.
1979 – Two Aeroflot passenger jets (similar aircraft pictured) collided in mid-air near Dniprodzerzhynsk in the Ukrainian SSR, killing all 178 people on both aircraft.
1999 – Ken Levine's System Shock 2 was released to mediocre sales, but was critically acclaimed and highly influenced subsequent first-person shooter game design.

Guttorm of Norway (d. 1204) · James B. Longacre (b. 1794) · Pablo Sandoval (b. 1986)

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Today's featured picture

The Elder Sister is an oil-on-canvas painting by French academic artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau, produced in 1869. The painting shows a girl (the "elder sister") sitting on a rock and holding a sleeping baby on her lap, with a quiet rural landscape behind them. For this scene, Bouguereau's daughter Henriette and son Paul served as models. Bouguereau used great care and attention in drawing the children's features and the positioning of their bodies, giving them an idyllic look. The girl's eyes look directly at the viewer and both children are shown with immaculate clothing. The painting is now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Painting credit: William-Adolphe Bouguereau

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