Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 August 4

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From today's featured article

Protest on the first anniversary of Ms Dhu's death

Ms Dhu was a 22-year-old Australian Aboriginal woman who died in police custody in Western Australia on 4 August 2014. Dhu had been arrested two days earlier for unpaid fines, and was required to serve four days in custody to clear part of the debt. While detained, Dhu complained of pain and was taken to hospital. Police accused her of faking her condition, and medical staff believed her complaints were exaggerated and suspected drug withdrawal. Dhu died shortly after arriving on her third visit to hospital. The cause of death was an infection due to three-month-old rib fractures caused by her partner. An internal police investigation found 11 officers had not complied with regulations or were guilty of misconduct. A coronial inquest found that she suffered "unprofessional and inhumane" handling by police and "deficient" treatment from hospital staff. The inquest recommended not imprisoning people for unpaid fines and introducing a Custody Notification Scheme. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Dry mouth

... that the Challacombe scale assesses the severity of a dry mouth (illustration shown)?
... that Jeanne Laisné appeared as Aurore in the 1894 world premiere of Massenet's Le portrait de Manon, a sequel to his Manon?
... that a clandestinely-distributed poem about the Kurds became a Ukrainian symbol of national revival and resistance against the Soviet Union?
... that after Josephine Groves Holloway's petition to form an official Girl Scout troop for African-Americans was rejected, she formed her own troop and encouraged her friends to do the same?
... that the Kivu Ebola epidemic was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 17 July?
... that at a young age, German TV personality Ranga Yogeshwar learned Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam in order to communicate with his housekeeper, teacher, and gardener, respectively?
... that the new pine knot-horn is a serious pest of maritime pine plantations?
... that American collage artist Eunice Parsons, who turns 103 today, is the last of the "Northwest Matriarchs of Modernism"?

In the news

Egan Bernal

At least 20 people are killed in a mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas.
A prison riot in Altamira, Brazil, leaves 57 people dead.
In cycling, Colombian Egan Bernal (pictured) becomes the first Latin American to win the Tour de France.
Incumbent President of Tunisia Beji Caid Essebsi dies at the age of 92, and Mohamed Ennaceur is named as his interim replacement.

On this day

August 4:

USS Maddox (DD-731)

1265 – Second Barons' War: Royal forces under Prince Edward defeated baronial forces under Simon de Montfort, at the Battle of Evesham near Evesham, Worcestershire.
1783 – A climactic eruption of Mount Asama, one of the most active volcanoes in Japan, killed roughly 1,400 people and exacerbated a famine, resulting in another 20,000 deaths.
1914 – World War I: Adhering to the terms in the 1839 Treaty of London, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in response to the latter's invasion of Belgium.
1964 – The National Security Agency falsely claimed that a U.S. Navy destroyer (pictured) was attacked a second time by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, leading Congress to authorize the use of military force.
2007 – An airport police officer discovered a suitcase containing US$800,000 as it went through security at Jorge Newbery Airfield, sparking an international scandal involving Venezuela and Argentina.

Peter de Montfort (d. 1265) · Laura Knight (b. 1877) · Jessica Mauboy (b. 1989)

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Today's featured picture

The Trinity and Mystic Pietà is an oil-on-oak painting by German artist Hans Baldung, produced in 1512. The painting shows God the Father supporting his crucified son, Jesus, a motif not often found in paintings from outside the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. The Holy Spirit is depicted above them, represented by a dove; they are joined by the weeping figures of the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Apostle. Beneath the holy figures are a series of smaller individuals, who are assumed by art historians to be the family who commissioned the painting; this is likely to be the Bettschold and Rothschild families, given the coats of arms present in the lower corners. During the Middle Ages, donors were often depicted much smaller than the holy figures, in order to emphasise the difference between them. The painting is now in the collection of the National Gallery in London.

Painting credit: Hans Baldung

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