Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 December 26

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From today's featured article

The turkey vulture is the most widespread of the New World vultures. One of three species in the genus Cathartes, in the family Cathartidae, it ranges from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of South America, inhabiting subtropical forests, shrublands, pastures, and deserts. Like all New World vultures, it is not related to the Old World vultures of Europe, Africa, and Asia, but looks nearly identical to them because of convergent evolution, in which unrelated animals adapting to the same conditions are similarly shaped by natural selection. The turkey vulture is a scavenger and feeds almost exclusively on carrion. It finds its food using its keen eyes and sense of smell, flying low enough to detect the gases produced by decaying animal corpses. In flight, it uses thermals to move through the air, flapping its wings infrequently. It roosts in large community groups. Lacking a vocal organ, its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses. It nests in caves, hollow trees, or thickets. Each year it generally raises two chicks. It has very few natural predators, and has legal protection in the United States under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that during its occupation of the Dutch East Indies, the Empire of Japan issued both gulden and roepiah (example pictured)?
... that New York Giants safety Nat Berhe is the first player of Eritrean descent to be drafted into the NFL?
... that the Derbendcis Ottoman constabulary units were so poorly motivated that the Ottomans had to hire mercenaries to ensure their loyalty?
... that it was theorized that Ukrainian-American rapper Your Old Droog was actually Nas secretly recording under an alias?
... that a group of Swedish businessmen spent more than $2.5 million to renovate the Lady Hutton?
... that after its closure, Dr. Holbrook's Military School served as headquarters of a New York Guard regiment protecting the Croton Aqueduct during World War I?
... that the wife of sculptor Jacob Epstein hoped that he would have an affair with his Kashmiri model Sunita Devi or her sister?

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In the news

Beji Caid Essebsi (pictured) wins the Tunisian presidential election.
India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk III successfully completes its first flight, carrying the crew vehicle demonstrator CARE.
U.S. aid worker Alan Gross and three members of the Cuban Five are released by Cuba and the United States, respectively, as both nations move to resume diplomatic relations.
In an effort to curtail the rapid decline of the ruble, the Central Bank of Russia raises interest rates to 17%.
At least 141 people are killed as Taliban gunmen storm a school in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Ongoing: Ebola outbreak – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Recent deaths: K. Balachander – Joe Cocker

On this day...

December 26: Boxing Day in Commonwealth countries; St. Stephen's Day (Western Christianity); Kwanzaa begins in Canada and the United States

1806 – War of the Fourth Coalition: French troops under Napoleon engaged Russian forces in both the Battles of Pultusk and Golymin.
1825 – Imperial Russian Army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession.
1900 – A relief crew arrived at the lighthouse (pictured) on the Flannan Isles of Scotland and discovered that the previous crew had disappeared without a trace.
1968 – The Communist Party of the Philippines, which is fighting an insurgency, was established by Jose Maria Sison.
1996 – The Federation of Korean Trade Unions called upon its 1.2 million members to walk off the job, beginning the largest organized strike in the nation's history,

More anniversaries: December 25 – December 26 – December 27

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It is now December 26, 2014 (UTC) – Reload this page

From today's featured list

There are 67 confirmed moons of Jupiter (partial montage pictured). This gives it the largest retinue of moons with reasonably secure orbits of any planet in the Solar System. The most massive of them, the four Galilean moons, were discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei and were the first objects found to orbit a body that was neither Earth nor the Sun. From the end of the 19th century, dozens of much smaller Jovian moons have been discovered and have received the names of lovers, conquests, or daughters of the Roman god Jupiter, or his Greek equivalent, Zeus. The Galilean moons are by far the largest and most massive objects in orbit around Jupiter, with the remaining 63 moons and the rings together comprising just 0.003 percent of the total orbiting mass. Eight of Jupiter's moons are regular satellites. The Galilean satellites would be considered dwarf planets if they were in direct orbit about the Sun. There are 17 recently discovered irregular satellites of Jupiter that have not yet been named. (Full list...)

Part of the Jupiter series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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Today's featured picture

Blackness Castle is a fortress located on the south shore of the Firth of Forth near Blackness, Scotland. Built by Sir George Crichton in the 1440s, the castle passed to King James II of Scotland in 1453. During its more than 500 years as crown property, the castle has served as a prison, artillery fortification, and ammunition depot. The castle is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, in the care of Historic Scotland.

Photograph: John Wells

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