Wikipedia:Today's featured list/May 2022

May 13

Skyline of downtown Spokane

As of January 2022, there are 40 high-rise buildings in the U.S. city of Spokane, located in the east of the state of Washington. The city is the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region of the United States, where it serves as a hub for retail trade and services. High-rise development began in 1891, shortly after the Great Spokane Fire of 1889, with the completion of the 146-foot (45 m) Review Building featuring a traditional brick-and-stone construction. After the advent of steel frame building construction, allowing for increased strength to support more floors, local applications of this technology began showing up in a significant way in the early 20th century in the form of the U.S. Bank Building (built 1910) and the Paulsen Medical and Dental Building (built 1929), both of which became the tallest in the city. The current tallest building in Spokane, surpassing the Paulsen Medical and Dental Building, is the 288-foot-tall (88 m) Bank of America Financial Center, which was completed in 1981 and has held the distinction for 41 years. (Full list...)

May 16

1895–96 champions Club Français, pictured in 1898

French football champions are the winners of the highest league of association football in France, Ligue 1. Since the National Council of the French Football Federation voted in support of professionalism in French football in 1930, the professional football championship of France has been contested through Ligue 1, formerly known as Division 1 from 1933 to 2002. The first champions of French football were Standard Athletic Club, who defeated The White Rovers 2–0 in Courbevoie on 6 May 1894. The first French football champions of the professional era were Olympique Lillois, a predecessor of Lille, who defeated Cannes 4–3 on 14 May 1933 at the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir in Colombes. Sète were crowned champions the following season and, in 1939, became the first professional club in France to win two titles. Saint-Étienne, Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain have the most titles in French football, with ten each. Paris Saint-Germain won seven of their ten titles in a ten-year span from 2013 to 2022. Nantes and Monaco are jointly fourth, with eight titles each, while Lyon has seven. (Full list...)

May 20

Dore Holm

The Shetland archipelago is located 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of mainland Scotland and the capital Lerwick is almost equidistant from Bergen in Norway and Aberdeen in Scotland. The Shetland archipelago comprises about 300 islands and skerries, of which 16 are inhabited. In addition to the Shetland Mainland the larger islands are Unst, Yell and Fetlar. The geology of Shetland is complex with numerous faults and fold axes. These islands are the northern outpost of the Caledonian orogeny and there are outcrops of Lewisian, Dalradian and Moine metamorphic rocks with similar histories to their equivalents on the Scottish mainland. The islands all fall within the Shetland Islands Council local authority. They have been continuously inhabited since Neolithic times and experienced Norse rule for several centuries, the first written records being the Norse sagas. (Full list...)

May 23

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Jimi Hendrix, an American guitarist and singer-songwriter, appeared in several commercially released films of concerts and documentaries about his career, including two popular 1960s music festival films – Monterey Pop (1968) and Woodstock (1970). A short documentary, Experience (1968), also known as See My Music Talking, was also screened. At the time of his death, two concert films were in development. Jimi Plays Berkeley (1971) was the first film featuring Hendrix to be issued posthumously. A second, tentatively titled The Last Experience, was a film of the last British concert of Hendrix's band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience (pictured). However, legal difficulties have prevented its release. Over the years, many concert films and documentaries have been released. (Full list...)

May 27

Statue of Augustus, also known as Octavian

The Roman emperors were the rulers of the Roman Empire from the granting of the title Augustus to Octavian (pictured) in 27 BC. The English word emperor derives from imperator, an ancient honorific that served as one of the several titles of the emperor. Early emperors ruled behind a republican facade and avoided monarchical titles, but this changed over the following centuries, after which the position became more akin to an absolute monarchy. After the Crisis of the Third Century, the empire was split into a Greek East and Latin West, each with its own emperor. The Western Empire fell to foreign invaders in 476, marking the traditional start of the Middle Ages in Europe. The Eastern Empire, or Byzantine Empire, continued for another thousand years until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, marking the end of the medieval period, although its power and extent had long been in decline. Several foreign rulers have also claimed the title of Roman emperor, regarding themselves as the true successors to Roman civilization. (Full list...)

May 30

Pershing House

Pershing House, on Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, was built in 1881 as the residence of the base commanding officer. Designed by local architect Alfred Giles, the residence was originally designated as "Quarters No. 6, Staff Post". Its first occupant was Major General Christopher C. Augur, an American Civil War veteran. The house acquired its current name after General of the Armies John J. Pershing lived there in 1917 following his participation in the Pancho Villa Expedition. The officers who resided in the home have all been top military commanders whose aggregate careers have spanned the American Indian Wars, the Mexican Revolution, both World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, up through current military engagements. During the 1953–1955 tenure of General Isaac D. White, his wife Julia Cotton White created a commanding officer chronology of the house on two brass-plated plaques. On July 30, 1974, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places. (Full list...)