Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 May 29

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From today's featured article

The snoring rail (Aramidopsis plateni) is a large flightless rail. The only species of its genus, it is endemic to Indonesia, and is found in dense vegetation in wet areas of Sulawesi and nearby Buton. The rail has grey underparts, a white chin, brown wings and a rufous patch on the hindneck. The sexes are similar, but the female has a brighter neck patch and a differently coloured bill and iris. The typical call is the snoring ee-orrrr sound that gives the bird its common name. The snoring rail, with a retiring nature, is rarely seen in its inaccessible habitat, and little is known of its behaviour. Only the adult plumage has been described, and the breeding behaviour is unrecorded. It feeds on small crabs and probably other small prey such as lizards. Although protected under Indonesian law since 1972, the rail is evaluated as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List; it is threatened by habitat loss, even within nature reserves, and by introduced species. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Williamson County Courthouse

... that 23-year-old African-American Amos Miller was lynched in 1888 in Franklin, Tennessee, on the balcony of the Williamson County Courthouse (pictured)?
... that the Russian occupations of Beirut in 1772 and 1773 marked the first period in over 250 years that Beirut was ruled by a power other than the Ottoman Empire?
... that during apartheid, music producer Rashid Vally owned a record shop that was among the few places in Johannesburg where people of different racial backgrounds could socialize?
... that Ortwin Gamber, an expert on medieval weapons and armour, is a recipient of the Theodor Körner Prize?
... that the launch of the Costa Rican satellite Irazú was partly funded through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign?
... that the German cellist Julius Berger recorded all twelve concertos by Luigi Boccherini on the composer's own Stradivari instrument?
... that forest fires are a threat to the fiery minivet?
... that following his research for Epidemiology in Country Practice, William Pickles observed that "studies in epidemiology sometimes reveal romances"?

In the news

Gareth Bale in 2015

In association football, the UEFA Champions League concludes with Real Madrid defeating Liverpool in the final (man of the match Gareth Bale pictured) to win their third consecutive title.
In a referendum, Ireland votes to allow the legalisation of abortion.
The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect, imposing strict privacy controls for European citizens worldwide.
The Man Booker International Prize is awarded to the novel Flights by Olga Tokarczuk.

On this day...

May 29

Armenian troops at the Battle of Sardarabad

1453 – With the conquest of Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire fell to the Ottomans.
1913 – During the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a near-riot in the audience.
1918 – World War I: Armenian forces (pictured) defeated Ottoman troops at the Battle of Sardarabad, not only stopping the Turkish invasion but also preventing the complete destruction of the Armenian nation.
1953 – New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary and Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
1954 – The first annual Bilderberg Group meeting of leaders from European countries and the United States opened in Oosterbeek, Netherlands.

Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier (b. 1627) · Patrick Henry (b. 1736) · John Barrymore (d. 1942)

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Today's featured picture

The Four Continents is a painting by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens made in the 1610s. It is held to depict female personifications of four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa and America) sitting with the personifications of their respective major rivers: the Danube, the Ganges, the Nile and the Río de la Plata. Other interpretations have suggested that these four female figures are nymphs representing the headwaters of four major rivers. The painting is held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Painting: Peter Paul Rubens

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