Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 June 20

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From today's featured article

The echo parakeet (Psittacula eques) is a species of parrot endemic to the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius and formerly Réunion. It is the only living native parrot of these islands; all others have become extinct due to human activity, including the subspecies P. e. eques, the Réunion parakeet. The echo parakeet is 34–42 cm (13–17 in) long and weighs 167–193 g (5.9–6.8 oz), with a wing-span of 49–54 cm (19–21 in). It is generally green; the male has one black and one pink collar, and the female has one green and one black. It is largely restricted to the canopy of the Black River Gorges National Park in the south west of Mauritius, feeding mainly on the fruits and leaves of native plants. Due to destruction and alteration of its native habitat, its numbers declined throughout the 20th century, reaching as few as 8–12 in the 1980s, when it was referred to as "the world's rarest parrot". While it is still endangered, an intensive effort of captive breeding has prevented its extinction. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Herbert Maryon

... that when Elizabeth II asked Herbert Maryon (pictured) what he did as she appointed him to the Order of the British Empire, he replied, "Well, Ma'am, I am a sort of back room boy at the British Museum"?
... that Scanning Kelvin Probe, a technique based on Lord Kelvin's work, has been used to investigate fingerprints and meteorites?
... that after German tenor Herbert Schachtschneider was a prisoner of war in England during and shortly after the Second World War, he remained in the country to study voice with a cousin of Arnold Schoenberg?
... that historical significance is often subjective and open to challenge?
... that Nujeen Mustafa, a teenage Syrian refugee with cerebral palsy, travelled 5,600 kilometres (3,500 mi) in a wheelchair to seek asylum in Germany?
... that the Gothic architecture of the Église Saint-Maurice in Soultz-Haut-Rhin has been described as refined and light?
... that after Fu Xinqi retired as an architect in his eighties, he took up painting and held a personal exhibition to celebrate his one-hundredth birthday?

In the news

Mohamed Morsi

A heat wave in India leaves more than 184 people dead.
Former President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi (pictured) dies during his trial, at the age of 67.
An outbreak of acute encephalitis in Bihar, India, results in the deaths of more than 100 children.
A power outage affects Argentina, Uruguay and parts of Paraguay.
In golf, Gary Woodland wins the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

On this day

June 20: Feast of Corpus Christi (various Western Christian churches, 2019); Flag Day in Argentina

SS Savannah

1789 – French Revolution: Members of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath, pledging not to separate until a new constitution was established.
1819 – Arriving in Liverpool, SS Savannah (pictured) became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
1959 – The extratropical remnants of an Atlantic hurricane reached the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Canada, capsizing at least twenty-two fishing boats and causing thirty-five fatalities.
1979 – Bill Stewart, an American journalist, was executed by Nicaraguan Guardia forces.
1994 – A bomb explosion in the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran, left at least twenty-five dead and more than seventy injured.

Margareta Ebner (d. 1351) · Jacques Offenbach (b. 1819) · Edith Windsor (b. 1929)

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Today's featured picture

Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is the title of two series of woodblock prints by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige. They depict Mount Fuji in differing seasons and weather conditions from a variety of different places and distances. The 1852 series, published by Sanoya Kihei, are in landscape orientation using the chūban format, while the 1858 series are in the portrait ōban format and were published by Tsutaya Kichizō. The same subject had previously been dealt with by Hokusai in two of his own series, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji and One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji.

This picture is the twenty-seventh print of the 1858 series, entitled "Futami Bay in Ise Province". It depicts Meoto Iwa, two large stacks just off the shore at Ise, with a network of ropes, a torii gate and a Shinto shrine. Mount Fuji is visible in the background. This copy is in the collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Print credit: Hiroshige

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