Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 June 24

Shergar (1978–1983) was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. In 1981 Shergar ran in six races, winning five of them. In June that year he won the 202nd Epsom Derby by ten lengths—the longest winning margin in the race's history. Three weeks later he won the Irish Sweeps Derby by four lengths; a month after that he won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes by four lengths. He was retired to the Ballymany Stud in County Kildare, Ireland, but was stolen by an armed gang in February 1983. In 1999 Sean O'Callaghan, a former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, published details of the theft and said it was an operation to raise money for arms. An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph concluded that the horse was shot four days after the theft. No arrests were made for the theft, and Shergar's body was never recovered. In his honour the Shergar Cup was inaugurated in 1999. (Full article...)

• ... that Canadian nurse Edith Campbell (pictured) was awarded the Military Medal for her bravery during air raids on a First World War hospital in France?
• ... that in 2019, Libro de los Epítomes, a library catalogue by Ferdinand Columbus, was rediscovered after nearly 500 years?
• ... that
  Championship Auto Racing Teams
  motor race?
• ... that theatre in Saarbrücken began as court theatre directed by Iffland, while plans for today's State Theatre were commissioned by Goebbels?
• ... that Caliph Abd al-Malik's scribe Sulayman ibn Sa'd al-Khushani changed the language of Syria's bureaucracy from Greek to Arabic?
• ... that among the varied wildlife of Greece are more than 5,000 species of vascular plant and about 450 species of bird?
• ... that Canadian journalist Katherine Hughes became Alberta's first provincial archivist, but later became a political activist, fighting for Irish self-determination?
• ... that lines on sports fields were once marked by young children, but can now be marked by robots equipped with GPS?

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• At least 184 people are killed by
  a heat wave in India
  .
• Former President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi (pictured) dies during his trial, at the age of 67.
• An outbreak of acute encephalitis in Bihar, India, results in the deaths of more than 100 children.
• A power outage affects Argentina, Uruguay and parts of Paraguay.

June 24

• 1622 – Dutch–Portuguese War: An outnumbered Portuguese force repelled a Dutch attack in the Battle of Macau, the only major military engagement that was fought between two European powers on the Chinese mainland.
• 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Grande Armée under Napoleon crossed the Neman river, marking the start of their invasion of Russia.
• 1880 – "O Canada" (audio featured), today the national anthem of Canada, was first performed in Quebec City, during a Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day banquet.
• 1939 – The first of the Thai cultural mandates was issued, officially changing the country's name from Siam to Thailand.
• 1994 – A United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress crashed at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane County, Washington, killing all four crew members, and later providing a case study on the importance of compliance with safety regulations.

Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens (b. 1704) · Carolyn S. Shoemaker (b. 1929) · Rodrigo (d. 2000)