Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 May 7

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From today's featured article

Vergina Sun, an emblem of Macedonia

Macedonia was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the Argead dynasty, followed by the Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties. Home to the ancient Macedonians, it originated on the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula. Before the 4th century BC, it was a small kingdom outside of the area dominated by the city-states of Athens, Sparta and Thebes, and briefly subordinate to Achaemenid Persia. During the reign of the Argead king Philip II (359–336 BC), Macedonia subdued mainland Greece and the Thracians' Odrysian kingdom through conquest and diplomacy, and defeated Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea. His son Alexander the Great, commanding the whole of Greece, destroyed Thebes after the city revolted. During Alexander's subsequent campaign of conquest, he overthrew the Achaemenid Empire and conquered as far as the Indus River. (Full article...)

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Depiction of the Umm al-Amad ruins in 1839

... that Ernest Renan abandoned his excavations of Umm al-Amad (depicted) in Lebanon when he found that the ruins were only about two thousand years old?
... that the Slovak authorities suspended restitution to Holocaust survivors after the Partisan Congress riots, as many partisans were unhappy at returning property to its original Jewish owners?
... that American ice hockey coach Lou Vairo introduced European coaching concepts to the United States?
... that early drafts of the television drama "CasualtyXHolby" included a vehicle striking an electrical substation to cause a blackout, before a cyberattack was substituted instead?
... that at New Albion, the Coast Miwok people honored Sir Francis Drake as if he were being proclaimed king?
... that NASA Astronaut Group 7 consisted of seven pilots who transferred to NASA from the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory spy-satellite program?
... that British police officer Suzette Davenport was responsible for crime in Staffordshire and intelligence in the West Midlands?
... that New York City Subway riders could get their clothes dry cleaned at the Church Avenue station?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center

Astronomers announce the discovery of first black hole located in a visible stellar system.
In the Philippines, the leading television network ABS-CBN (headquarters pictured) is ordered to cease and desist by the National Telecommunications Commission.
Canada bans the sale of assault-style firearms after a mass killing in Nova Scotia leaves twenty-two victims dead.

On this day

May 7: National Day of Prayer in the United States (2020)

Northern facade of Stockholm Palace

1697 – The 13th-century Tre Kronor castle in Stockholm burned down; plans for the current royal palace (pictured) were presented within the year.
1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre established the Cult of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First Republic.
1940 – A three-day debate began in the British House of Commons, which resulted in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain being replaced by Winston Churchill.
1960 – Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev announced that the Soviet Union was holding American pilot Francis Gary Powers, whose spy plane had been shot down six days earlier.
2010 – A draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome was published, demonstrating that today's modern humans have Neanderthal ancestors.

Ibn Hisham (d. 833)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (b. 1840)
Rendra Karno (b. 1920)

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Today's featured picture

Wat Phra Kaew, commonly known in English as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, is regarded as the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand. The complex consists of a number of buildings within the precincts of the Grand Palace in the historical center of Bangkok. It houses the statue of the Emerald Buddha, which is deeply revered and venerated as the country's palladium.

This photograph, taken from the Outer Court of the Grand Palace, shows the principal buildings of Wat Phra Kaew behind the gallery that encloses the temple area. At the center, from rear to front, are the Royal Pantheon, the library, and the main stupa, which houses relics of the Buddha. To the right is the main building, or Ubosot, which was built to house the Emerald Buddha in 1783.

Photograph credit: Ninaras; edited by TSP

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