Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 July 23

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From today's featured article

Arthur Blackburn (1892–1960) was an Australian soldier, lawyer, politician, and recipient of the Victoria Cross. Enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force in 1914, he fought with his unit for most of the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, during which he was commissioned. On 23 July 1916, during the Battle of Pozières in France, he led four sorties to drive Germans from a strong point using hand grenades and captured 370 yards (340 m) of trench. He fought in the Battle of Mouquet Farm in August, then was evacuated to Australia due to illness. He served as a member of the South Australian parliament in 1918–1921. After the outbreak of World War II, Blackburn led the 2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion during the Syria–Lebanon campaign in 1941, personally accepting the surrender of Damascus. In early 1942, his battalion was deployed to Java in the Dutch East Indies. Captured by the Japanese, Blackburn spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war. After the war, he served on the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Emma Twigg

... that New Zealand world-champion rower Emma Twigg (pictured) came out of retirement to compete in her fourth Olympic Games today?
... that the coat of arms of Jersey was allowed to be featured on its stamps during the occupation in World War II, with the Germans unaware that it was also the royal arms of England?
... that when Ingrid Haubold recorded the role of Senta in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, reviewer Alan Blyth found "a certain raw edge" of her soprano voice apt for the role?
... that 200,000 copies of the Mumbai Mirror were distributed on its inaugural print run in 2005, giving it the second-largest circulation in Mumbai?
... that in 2021, Lisa Barbelin won her European Archery Championships event, and briefly became the world's number one ranked player?
... that Ripon Spa Baths is the only spa in the United Kingdom to have been ceremonially opened by a member of the royal family?
... that one of Leila Velez's reasons for expanding her Brazilian beauty-salon company is to fight racism against black women and their natural afro-textured hair?
... that the "Cuddle with a Koala" experience at Featherdale Wildlife Park was stopped in 1988 when New South Wales law was changed to restrict koala handling?

In the news

Brisbane

The Australian city of Brisbane (pictured) is announced as the host city of the 2032 Summer Olympics.
In sumo, Terunofuji Haruo becomes the 73rd yokozuna.
Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City in England is stripped of its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to modern development in the area.
In basketball, the Milwaukee Bucks defeat the Phoenix Suns to win the NBA Finals.
Investigative journalists at Project Pegasus report that multiple governments have used cyberweapons against heads of state, journalists, human rights activists, political opponents and dissidents.

On this day

July 23: Birthday of Haile Selassie (Rastafari); Sports Day in Japan (2021)

Megawati Sukarnoputri

1319 – A fleet led by the Knights Hospitaller sank 22 of 28 ships of the Turkish Aydınid emirate.
1860 – The trial of the Eastbourne manslaughter, which later became an important legal precedent in the United Kingdom for discussions of corporal punishment in schools, began in Lewes.
1921 – The first National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party opened in a house in Shanghai.
1984 – Vanessa Williams, the first African-American Miss America, was forced to resign after the magazine Penthouse published nude photos of her without consent.
2001 – Megawati Sukarnoputri (pictured) became the first female president of Indonesia after her predecessor Abdurrahman Wahid was removed from office.

Bridget of Sweden (d. 1373)
Louis T. Wright (b. 1891)
Amy Winehouse (d. 2011)

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From today's featured list

M. Night Shyamalan

Indian-American filmmaker and actor M. Night Shyamalan has directed fourteen feature-length narrative films to date. He rose to prominence after writing and directing The Sixth Sense in 1999, a film that earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. The filmmaker would later go on to write and direct Unbreakable (2000) in his second collaboration with actor Bruce Willis, which spawned two sequels, known as the Eastrail 177 Trilogy. In 2002 and 2004, respectively, Shyamalan created Signs and The Village, films that further established him as a filmmaker known for his original surprise endings. However, the negative reception of Lady in the Water (2006), The Happening (2008), The Last Airbender (2010), and After Earth (2013) earned him eight nominations at the Golden Raspberry Awards, with The Last Airbender being considered one of the worst films ever made. After the box office success of the horror film The Visit in 2015, which earned him the Razzie Redeemer Award, his latest project, Old, was released on July 23, 2021. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Leptosia nina, known as the psyche, is a species of butterfly in the family Pieridae (the sulphurs, yellows and whites), found in the Indian subcontinent, southeastern Asia, and Australia. It has a small wingspan of 2.5 to 5 cm (1 to 2 in). The upper side of the otherwise white forewing has a large, somewhat pear-shaped, black spot; this spot is also present on the underside which is scattered with greenish dots and speckles, sometimes arranged in bands. This L. nina butterfly was photographed in Kerala, India.

Photograph credit: Jeevan Jose

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