Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 August 7

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From today's featured article

The Siberian accentor (Prunella montanella) is a small passerine bird that breeds in northern Russia from the Ural Mountains eastwards across Siberia. It is migratory, wintering in Korea and eastern China. Typically breeding in subarctic deciduous forests and open coniferous woodland, often near water, it is also found in bushes and shrubs in winter, frequently near streams. It has brown upperparts and wings, with bright chestnut streaking on its back and a greyish-brown rump and tail. The head has a dark brown crown and a long pale yellow "eyebrow". All plumages are similar. The nest is an open cup into which the female lays four to six eggs that hatch in about ten days. Adults and chicks feed mainly on insects, typically picked off the ground, and may also eat seeds in winter. Breeding over a huge area, this accentor has a large and apparently stable population. October and November 2016 saw an unprecedented influx of this species into western Europe as far west as the UK. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Sonny West in 2010

... that Sonny West (pictured), the co-writer of Buddy Holly's hits "Oh, Boy!" and "Rave On", took 40 years to finish the follow-up songs?
... that fronds of the seaweed Halimeda tuna each consist of a single cell?
... that after fleeing Chihuahua due to death threats, Patricia Mayorga dedicated her 2017 CPJ International Press Freedom Award to two murdered journalists?
... that the Hong Kong commercial–residential high-rise Ocean One has a concert hall on its first floor?
... that paediatric surgeon Robert Zachary and his colleagues improved the survival rate of babies with spina bifida from 10% to 90% by operating within hours of birth?
... that in 2015, Nanjing Golden Dragon Bus announced a joint research agreement with San Diego State University to develop electric batteries and other technologies?
... that Turkey's Aksungur MALE UAV has a designed maximum payload nearly four times that of its predecessor?
... that footballer Alice Griffiths represented Wales for the first time after playing as the only girl in an otherwise all-boys league?

In the news

Toni Morrison

American novelist Toni Morrison (pictured) dies at the age of 88.
India revokes Jammu and Kashmir's special status and establishes Ladakh as a separate 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.
The United States formally withdraws from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia.
A prison riot in Altamira, Brazil, leaves 62 people dead.

On this day

August 7: Qixi Festival (traditional Chinese, 2019)

Alice Huyler Ramsey with her Maxwell automobile

768 – The papacy of Stephen III, who convened the Lateran Council of 769, began.
1461 – Ming general Cao Qin staged a failed coup against the Emperor Yingzong.
1909 – Fifty-nine days after leaving New York City with three passengers, Alice Huyler Ramsey (pictured) arrived in San Francisco to become the first woman to drive an automobile across the contiguous United States.
1914 – World War I: France launched its first attack of the war in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover the province of Alsace from Germany.
1944 – IBM presented the first program-controlled calculator to Harvard University, after which it became known as the Mark I.

Hugh Foliot (d. 1234) · Art Houtteman (b. 1927) · Peter Jennings (d. 2005)

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Today's featured picture

Farmhouse in Provence, also known as Entrance Gate to a Farm with Haystacks, is an oil-on-canvas painting by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, produced in 1888, at the height of his career. It was painted while Van Gogh was living in Arles, in southern France. Partially due to having been inspired by painter Adolphe Monticelli, he sought the Provence region of France to further expand his painting skill and experience. Van Gogh used several pairs of complementary colors in the painting, the color contrast bringing an intensity to his work. The painting now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., as part of the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection.

Painting credit: Vincent van Gogh

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