Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 July 29

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From today's featured article

The red-throated loon or red-throated diver (Gavia stellata) is a migratory aquatic bird found in the northern hemisphere. It breeds mainly in Arctic regions, and winters in northern coastal waters. It is the smallest of the loons. In winter, it is a plain bird, greyish above and white below; in the breeding season, it has a distinctive reddish throat patch. Fish form the bulk of its diet, though amphibians, invertebrates, and plant material are also sometimes eaten. A monogamous species, the red-throated loon forms long-term pair bonds. Both members of the pair help to build the nest, incubate typically two eggs and feed the hatched young. The red-throated loon has a large global population and a significant global range, though some populations are declining due to oil spills, habitat degradation, pollution, and entrapment in fishing nets. Natural predators, including various gull species and foxes, will take eggs and young. This species is protected by international treaties. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

1933 logo of the
National Peasants' Party

... that despite a ban on the National Peasants' Party (logo shown) taking effect on this day in 1947, the party still organized in the Romanian underground, attempting to field a candidate in the 1985 election?
... that Justin James was selected by the Sacramento Kings in the 2019 NBA draft, despite most mock drafts predicting he would not be picked by any team?
... that part of the Malaysian tropical forest reserve Bukit Gasing has been protected from development, while another part has been sold to building contractors?
... that Chitpas Kridakorn, whose family owns Thailand's Singha brewery, had to change her last name due to her political activism?
... that Waylon Jennings and Johnny Dollar were guest disc jockeys for country music station KOYL in Odessa, Texas?
... that after the US banned Chinese students from returning to China, Li Hengde organized a student network which petitioned the Chinese premier, the US president, and the UN for their right to go home?
... that the yellow-footed honeyguide probably includes beeswax in its diet?
... that a lack of help from W. B. Yeats caused one of the founders of the Ulster Literary Theatre to say, "Damn Yeats! We'll write our own plays!"?

In the news

Beji Caid Essebsi

Incumbent President of Tunisia Beji Caid Essebsi (pictured) dies at the age of 92, and Mohamed Ennaceur is named as his interim replacement.
In a European heat wave, national all-time temperature records are broken in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Boris Johnson succeeds Theresa May as the leader of the Conservative Party and becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The French submarine Minerve is discovered 51 years after it disappeared in the Mediterranean Sea.

On this day

July 29

Byzantines defeat the Bulgarians at Kleidion, Madrid Skylitzes

1014 – Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Forces of the Byzantine Empire defeated troops of the Bulgarian Empire at the Battle of Kleidion (pictured) in the Belasica Mountains near present-day Klyuch, Bulgaria.
1862 – American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd was arrested by Union forces after her lover turned her in.
1914 – The first shots of World War I were fired by the Austro-Hungarian river monitor SMS Bodrog upon Serbian defences near Belgrade.
1950 – Korean War: U.S. Army 7th Cavalry Regiment troops concluded four days of shootings of civilians, sparked by fears that columns of refugees might contain North Korean spies.
2010 – An overloaded passenger ferry capsized on the Kasai River in Bandundu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, resulting in at least 80 deaths.

Offa of Mercia (d. 796) · Isidor Isaac Rabi (b. 1898) · Sanjay Dutt (b. 1959)

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From today's featured list

Enrique Iglesias

The Billboard Latin Music Award for Hot Latin Song of the Year is an honor presented annually at the Billboard Latin Music Awards, a ceremony which honors "the most popular albums, songs and performers in Latin music, as determined by the actual sales, radio airplay, online streaming and social data that informs Billboard's weekly charts." The award is given to the best performing singles on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart, which measures the most popular Latin recordings in the United States. Enrique Iglesias (pictured) and Nicky Jam are the most awarded acts in the category, with three wins each. Alejandro Fernández, Wisin & Yandel, Don Omar, Romeo Santos, Ozuna and Nicky Jam are the only acts with two nominated songs in the same year, a milestone achieved twice by Santos. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Vincent van Gogh is an oil-on-canvas portrait by Australian painter John Russell, dated 1886. It depicts Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, who became lifelong friends with Russell after meeting him at Fernand Cormon's atelier in Paris, which they both attended. Painted in a realist and academic manner, the portrait shows hints of the impressionist techniques with which they began experimenting in the latter half of the 1880s. It is the earliest of three portraits painted of Van Gogh by his contemporaries, the other two being Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's Portrait of Vincent van Gogh (1887) and Paul Gauguin's The Painter of Sunflowers (1888). Van Gogh seems to have been particularly attached to Russell's portrait, which Russell gifted to him as a mark of their friendship. The painting passed from Van Gogh to his brother Theo and then to their family; it is now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Painting credit: John Russell

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