Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 March 6b

Recorded locations of the northern (red) and eastern (green) voalavos

The northern voalavo (Voalavo gymnocaudus) is a rodent found in the highlands of northern Madagascar first discovered in 1994. It is the type species of the genus Voalavo, and its closest relative is the eastern voalavo of the Central Highlands. It is found at 1,250 to 1,950 m (4,100 to 6,400 ft) above sea level in montane wet and dry forests in the northern massifs. It is nocturnal, solitary and terrestrial, but it can climb and probably eats plant matter. Despite having a small range, the species is classified as being of least concern because it lacks obvious threats and lives mainly in protected areas. It is a small, mouse-like rodent with soft, gray fur, only slightly darker above than below. The ears are short and rounded. The long tail appears mostly naked and lacks a distinct tuft. The skull is delicate, with a long, narrow front part, narrow space between the eyes, and no development of ridges on the braincase. The molars are relatively high-crowned. It has a body mass of 17 to 25.5 g (0.60 to 0.90 oz). (This article is part of a featured topic: Voalavo.)

Cippus in the form of a warrior head

• ... that Etruscan cippi were sometimes used as cinerary urns in the shape of a human torso with the head as a lid (example pictured)?
• ... that writer James Kendall Hosmer chose to fight on the front lines in the American Civil War instead of serving on the staff of General Nathaniel P. Banks?
• ... that
  2012 Football League Two play-off Final, their first defeat in nine play-off matches
  ?
• ... that in The Age of Phillis (2020), American poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers "fills in the gaps" in a white woman's biography of Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784)?
• ... that the fossil pine Pinus latahensis was named for the wrong geologic formation?
• ... that plant scientist Norman C. Deno's research on seed germination techniques resulted in him writing a book with germination methods for thousands of species?
• ... that while waiting to film London Hughes: To Catch a D*ck for Netflix, London Hughes talked about the word dick in History of Swear Words?
• ... that John Lockhart-Mummery was the king of the rectum?

Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic

• In Zamfara, Nigeria, 279 girls who had been kidnapped from a secondary school by armed bandits are released.
• In
  the men's singles at the Australian Open
  (both winners pictured).
• Porfirije is enthroned as the 46th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
• NASA's Perseverance rover, carrying the Ingenuity helicopter, successfully lands on Mars.

March 6

Alamo Mission

• 961 – With the conclusion of the Siege of Chandax, the Muslim Emirate of Crete was conquered by the Byzantine Empire.
• Alamo Mission (pictured) in San Antonio from Texian
  forces after a 13-day siege.
• 1902 – The Spanish professional football club Real Madrid, one of the world's richest, was founded as Madrid Football Club.
• 1953 – Following Joseph Stalin's death, Georgy Malenkov succeeded him as Premier of the Soviet Union.
• 1988 – The Troubles: In Operation Flavius, the Special Air Service killed three volunteers of the Provisional Irish Republican Army conspiring to bomb a parade of British military bands in Gibraltar.