Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 2019
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May 1
May 2
The Pyramid of Unas is a smooth-sided pyramid built in the 24th century BC for the Egyptian pharaoh Unas, the ninth and final king of the Fifth Dynasty. Although Unas reigned for around 30 to 33 years, his pyramid is the smallest from the Old Kingdom. It was built between the complexes of Sekhemket and Djoser in North Saqqara. The pyramid's underground chambers remained unexplored until the Egyptologist Gaston Maspero gained entry in 1881. Inside, Pyramid Texts containing 283 spells for the king's afterlife were found incised into the walls of the subterranean chambers; they constitute the oldest and best-preserved corpus of religious writing from the Old Kingdom. Unas's pyramid is the oldest one in which these funerary texts have been found. Unlike the later Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead, the Pyramid Texts were reserved for pharaohs and were not illustrated. Their function was to guide the ruler into eternal life. (Full article...)
May 3
Scientific Detective Monthly was a pulp magazine published by Hugo Gernsback, first appearing in January 1930. It was intended to focus on detective and mystery stories with a scientific element, but there were also one or two science fiction stories in every issue. The title was changed to Amazing Detective Tales with the June 1930 issue, perhaps to avoid the word "scientific", which may have given readers the impression of "a sort of scientific periodical", in Gernsback's words, rather than a magazine intended to entertain. At the same time, the editor—Hector Grey—was replaced by David Lasser, who was already editing Gernsback's other science fiction magazines. The title change apparently did not make the magazine a success, and Gernsback closed it down in October after releasing 10 issues. He sold the title to publisher Wallace Bamber, who produced at least five more issues in 1931 under the title Amazing Detective Stories. (Full article...)
May 4
Tropical Storm Nicole was a short-lived and unusually asymmetric tropical cyclone that caused extensive flooding in Jamaica during the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the last of a record eight tropical storms to form in September. Originating from a broad monsoonal low, Nicole became a tropical depression over the northwestern Caribbean Sea on September 28. As it tracked northeastward, its wind circulation was poorly defined, and most of its strongest thundershowers were well removed from the center. In Jamaica, the storm triggered widespread power outages affecting more than 288,000 residences. Precipitation of up to 37.42 inches (950 mm) caused disastrous flooding in several parishes, severely damaging or destroying 528 houses. The island's farmland suffered from extensive water pollution. Nicole wrought an estimated US$245.4 million in damage throughout Jamaica, and there were sixteen fatalities. (Full article...)
May 5
SMS Grosser Kurfürst was the second battleship of the four-ship König class of the German Imperial Navy. Her name refers to Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. Launched on 5 May 1913, she served during World War I. She was armed with ten 30.5-centimeter (12.0 in) guns in five twin turrets. Along with her three sister ships, König, Markgraf, and Kronprinz, Grosser Kurfürst took part in most of the fleet actions during the war, including the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. The ship was subjected to heavy fire at Jutland, but was not seriously damaged. She shelled Russian positions during Operation Albion in September and October 1917. In her service career, she collided with König and Kronprinz, grounded several times, was torpedoed once, and hit a mine. After the war, Grosser Kurfürst and most of the capital ships of the High Seas Fleet were interned by the Royal Navy in Scapa Flow, and later scuttled by their German crews. (Full article...)
Part of the Battleships of Germany featured topic.
May 6
May 7
Harta Berdarah (Bloody Treasure) is a 1940 action film from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Directed by the recently hired Rd Ariffien and R Hu for Union Films, the film was written by the journalist Saeroen, who attempted to draw educated Native Indonesian audiences. Starring Zonder and Soelastri, it tells of a young man who convinces a stingy hadji to be more charitable and, in the process, falls in love with the man's daughter. Released during Eid al-Fitr (a Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan), Harta Berdarah was advertised as a "magnificent Indonesian action hit". It used Zonder's silat martial arts skills and Soelastri's fame as a traditional keroncong singer to draw audiences. Reviews for the work were positive, with praise focused on its acting and story. Although Harta Berdarah was screened as late as 1944, as with most contemporary productions it is now likely lost. (Full article...)
Part of the Union Films featured topic.
May 8
Part of the Myst series featured topic.
May 9
The
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May 11
May 12
Jules Massenet (12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas. The two most frequently staged are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892). After winning the country's top prize in music, the Prix de Rome, in 1863, he composed prolifically in many genres. He wrote more than 40 stage works in a wide variety of styles, from opéra-comique to grand-scale depictions of classical myths, romantic comedies, and lyric dramas. He also composed oratorios, ballets, cantatas, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, and songs. Massenet had a good sense of the theatre and of what would succeed with the Parisian public, and he became the most popular composer of opera in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although critics do not rank him among operatic geniuses such as Mozart, Verdi and Wagner, his operas are now widely accepted as well-crafted and intelligent products of the Belle Époque. (Full article...)
May 13
Interstate 94 (I-94) in Michigan is a part of the U.S. Interstate Highway System that runs east from the Indiana state line near Lake Michigan through the southern Lower Peninsula to Detroit, then northeast to Port Huron. I-94 extends west to Billings, Montana. In Michigan, it is a state trunkline highway serving Benton Harbor, St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Jackson, Ann Arbor, and The Thumb, terminating on the Blue Water Bridge at the Canadian border. By 1960, I-94 was completed from New Buffalo to Detroit, and most of the rest of the route was completed in the 1960s. The highway has one auxiliary route in Michigan, I-194 in Battle Creek, and eight business routes. In 1987, a plane crashed on the freeway during take-off from the airport in Detroit. The routing of I-94 contains the first full freeway-to-freeway interchange in the United States, and comprises the first complete border-to-border toll-free freeway in a U.S. state. (Full article...)
Part of the Interstate Highways in Michigan featured topic.
May 14
Part of the Faryl Smith featured topic.
May 15
Tropical Depression Nineteen-E was a weak tropical cyclone that caused flooding in northwestern Mexico and the United States during the 2018 Pacific hurricane season. By September 7, 2018, the storm had entered the northeastern Pacific Ocean, after crossing Central America. Despite disorganization and its close proximity to land, the meandering disturbance developed into a tropical depression in the Gulf of California on September 19, with peak maximum sustained winds reported as 35 mph (55 km/h). Although the storm quickly deteriorated after landfall, thirteen people were killed in Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Sonora, and recorded agricultural losses exceeded US$40 million. Overall, the storm affected eleven Mexican states, with torrential rainfall and flooding in Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, and Sonora. Remnant moisture from Nineteen-E led to severe flooding in the U.S. states of Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, with damage estimates totalling about $250 million. (Full article...)
May 16
May 17
May 18
Ludwigsburg Palace is a 452-room palace complex of 18 buildings in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the largest palatial estate in the country and has been called the "Versailles of Swabia". Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg, began construction of the palace in 1704. The son of his successor, Charles Eugene, completed it and refurbished parts in the Rococo style, especially its theatre. Charles Eugene abandoned the palace in 1775, and it began a decline until the future Duke, and then King, Frederick moved in in 1795. As King, Frederick, and his Queen, Charlotte, renovated the entirety of the palace in the Neoclassical style. The palace was opened to the public in 1918. It underwent periods of restoration, including for its tricentenary in 2004. It has hosted the Ludwigsburg Festival annually since 1947. The palace is surrounded by gardens named Blooming Baroque (Blühendes Barock), laid out in 1954 as they might have appeared in 1800. (Full article...)
May 19
In the United States Senate Democratic primary election in Pennsylvania on May 18, 2010, Congressman Joe Sestak (pictured) defeated incumbent Arlen Specter, who had been in the Senate for five terms as a Republican. Just before the primary campaign, Specter switched to the Democratic Party in anticipation of a difficult primary challenge by Pat Toomey. Sestak was ultimately defeated by Toomey in the general election. Political observers and journalists described the race between Specter and Sestak as one of the bitterest and most watched of all the 2010 primary elections. Specter led Sestak by more than 20 percentage points for most of the race, but this lead narrowed in the final month of the campaign, when Sestak concentrated his funds and efforts on television commercials questioning Specter's Democratic credentials. Political observers said that Sestak's commercials and a national swing in momentum against incumbents harmed Specter's chances. (Full article...)
May 20
Homer Davenport (1867–1912) was a political cartoonist and writer from the United States. He is known for drawings that satirized figures of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, especially Ohio Senator Mark Hanna. Although Davenport had no formal art training, he became one of the highest paid political cartoonists in the world. He was also one of the first major American breeders of Arabian horses and one of the founders of the Arabian Horse Club of America. In 1893 he studied and drew the Arabian horses exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition. In 1904 he drew a favorable cartoon of President Theodore Roosevelt that boosted Roosevelt's election campaign. The president in turn helped Davenport in 1906 when the cartoonist required diplomatic permission to travel abroad in his quest to purchase pure desert-bred Arabian horses. The 27 horses Davenport purchased and brought to America had a lasting impact on Arabian horse breeding. (Full article...)
May 21
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The
May 24
Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, 6.2 miles (10.0 km) east of Manchester. "Ashton", deriving from Old English for "settlement by ash trees", probably dates from the Anglo-Saxon period. In the Middle Ages, Ashton-under-Lyne was a parish and township and Ashton Old Hall was held by the de Asshetons, lords of the manor. Granted a Royal Charter in 1414, the manor spanned a rural area of marshland, moorland, villages and hamlets. By the mid-19th century Ashton had emerged as an important mill town at a convergence of newly constructed canals and railways. The transport network allowed for an economic boom in cotton spinning, weaving, and coal mining, which led to the granting of municipal borough status in 1847. (Full article...)
May 25
The Crawford expedition was a campaign on the western front of the American Revolutionary War, and one of the final operations of the conflict. Led by Colonel William Crawford (pictured), the campaign began May 25, 1782. Its goal was to destroy American Indian towns along the Sandusky River in the Ohio Country, with the hope of ending attacks on American settlers. The expedition was one in a long series of raids that both sides had conducted against enemy settlements throughout the war. Crawford led about 500 volunteer militiamen, mostly from Pennsylvania. The Indians and their British allies from Detroit gathered a force and surrounded the Americans. Seventy were killed, including Crawford, who was tortured and executed, probably in retaliation for the Gnadenhutten massacre two months earlier. Indian and British losses were minimal, and the rest of the Americans escaped and found their way back to Pennsylvania. (Full article...)
May 26
The
Part of the Aston Villa F.C. featured topic.
May 27
Arthur Mold (27 May 1863 – 29 April 1921) was an English professional cricketer. He began his cricket career playing for Banbury and Northamptonshire in the mid-1880s, then played first-class cricket for Lancashire as a fast bowler between 1889 and 1901. A Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1892, he was selected for England in three Test matches in 1893. Mold was one of the most effective bowlers in England during the 1890s but his career was overshadowed by controversy over his bowling action; many critics thought he threw rather than bowled the ball. He was penalised in 1900 and 1901 by the umpire Jim Phillips, who had targeted several prominent bowlers with dubious bowling actions. Although Mold took 1,673 wickets in first-class matches, many commentators viewed his achievements as tainted. After his departure from the game, throwing ceased to be a concern in English cricket for 50 years. (Full article...)
May 28
The black stork (Ciconia nigra) is a large bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae. Measuring on average 95 to 100 cm (37 to 39 in) from beak tip to end of tail with a 145-to-155 cm (57-to-61 in) wingspan, the adult black stork has mainly black plumage, with white underparts, long red legs and a long pointed red beak. A widespread, but uncommon, species, it breeds in scattered locations across Europe (predominantly in Spain, and central and eastern Europe) and Asia. It is a long-distance migrant, with European populations wintering in tropical Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asian populations in the Indian subcontinent. Unlike the closely related white stork, the black stork is a shy and wary species. It is seen singly or in pairs, usually in marshy areas, rivers or inland waters. It feeds on amphibians, small fish and insects, generally wading slowly in shallow water to stalk its prey. (Full article...)
May 29
New York State Route 74 and Vermont Route 74 (NY 74 and VT 74) are two state highways connected by a cable ferry in the northeastern United States. Together they extend 34 miles (55 km) through Essex County, New York, and Addison County, Vermont. The connecting ferry route, predating both NY 74 and VT 74, began operation in 1759. The ferry operation upgraded to a cable system in 1946. NY 74 begins at exit 28 off Interstate 87 in the hamlet of Severance in the Adirondack Mountains region of northern New York State. It extends 20.44 miles (32.89 km) to the western shore of Lake Champlain in Ticonderoga. There, the seasonal Fort Ticonderoga – Larrabees Point Ferry carries cars across the state border to VT 74, which starts at the lake's eastern shore and terminates 13.26 miles (21.34 km) later at a junction with VT 30 in the town of Cornwall. Segments of NY 74 follow the alignment of the historic Ticonderoga and Schroon Turnpike, a privately owned highway chartered in 1832. (Full article...)
May 30
May 31