Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 August 27

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Jacobo Árbenz

Operation PBFortune was a covert United States operation to overthrow the democratically elected Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz (pictured) in 1952. The operation was planned by the Central Intelligence Agency and authorized by President Harry Truman. It was motivated by US fears that Árbenz was being influenced by communists, and lobbied for by the United Fruit Company. The operation was planned with the support of Anastasio Somoza García, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo and Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the dictators of Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, respectively. The plan involved providing weapons to the exiled Guatemalan military officer Carlos Castillo Armas, who was to lead an invasion from Nicaragua. US secretary of state Dean Acheson became concerned that the coup attempt would damage the image of the US and terminated the operation. Two years later, another covert CIA action, Operation PBSuccess, toppled the Árbenz government and ended the Guatemalan Revolution. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Acampe rigida

... that the orchid Acampe rigida (pictured) is pollinated by raindrops?
... that in July 2020 the Chinese Consulate-General in Houston, the People's Republic of China's first consulate in the United States, was given just 72 hours to close down?
... that Soegondo Djojopoespito was banned from teaching after he joined the Indonesian Nationalist Education organization?
... that Deep Purple called their new album Whoosh! because of its onomatopoeic qualities?
... that Drew Perkins served as the majority leader, vice president, and president of the Wyoming Senate?
... that Farrah Fawcett's iconic 1976 red swimsuit poster, regarded as the best-selling poster, is exhibited in the Smithsonian together with the swimsuit?
... that the Washington District is entirely in Virginia?
... that Kirkandrews in Dumfries and Galloway used to host an annual fair, dedicated to St Lawrence, that a 17th-century minister complained was full of drink, debauchery, and "great lewdness"?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; Testing; Impact; Portal

Takuma Sato

The Africa Regional Certification Commission declares that wild polio has been eliminated in Africa.
Two bombings in Jolo, Philippines, kill 15 people and wound 75 others.
In motorsports, Takuma Sato (pictured) wins the Indianapolis 500.
In association football, the UEFA Champions League concludes, with Bayern Munich defeating Paris Saint-Germain in the final.

On this day

August 27

Nguyễn Khánh

1810 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy defeated the Royal Navy, preventing them from capturing the harbour of Grand Port on Mauritius.
1928 – The first three of more than sixty nations signed the Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of national policy.
1964 – South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Khánh (pictured) entered into a triumvirate power-sharing arrangement with rival generals Trần Thiện Khiêm and Dương Văn Minh, who had both been involved in plots to unseat Khánh.
1990 – American musician Stevie Ray Vaughan, one of the most influential guitarists in the revival of blues in the 1980s, was killed in a helicopter crash.

Francisco de Zurbarán (d. 1664)
Giorgio Mitrovich (b. 1795)
Jim Thome (b. 1970)

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Today's featured picture

Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) was a Prussian architect and city planner. He was one of the most prominent architects in Germany and designed both Neoclassical and Neo-Gothic buildings, the most famous of which are found in and around Berlin. He was also a painter and a designer of furniture and stage sets.

This oil-on-canvas painting, entitled Castle by the River, was created by Schinkel in 1820. As an artist, his architectural talent shone through, and his buildings and landscapes are carefully drafted and meticulously executed. The painting is in the collection of the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

Painting credit: Karl Friedrich Schinkel

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