Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 August 16

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From today's featured article

Kalidas is a lost 1931 Indian biographical film directed by H. M. Reddy and produced by Ardeshir Irani. No print, gramophone record, or songbook of the film is known to survive. It was the first sound film to be made in South India and the first in Tamil, with additional dialogue in Telugu and Hindi. Based on the life of the Sanskrit poet Kālidāsa, it featured P. G. Venkatesan in the title role and T. P. Rajalakshmi as the female lead, with L. V. Prasad, Thevaram Rajambal, T. Susheela Devi, J. Sushila, and M. S. Santhanalakshmi in supporting roles. It was shot in Mumbai on the sets of India's first sound film Alam Ara (1931) and was completed in eight days. Despite its mythological theme, the film featured songs from modern times, including the compositions of Carnatic musician Tyagaraja, publicity songs of the Indian National Congress, and songs about Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian independence movement. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Warming stripes for 1850 to 2018

... that a British climate scientist invented a graphic (shown) depicting historical global temperatures using coloured stripes to portray global warming to non-scientists?
... that President Gerald Ford delayed the signing ceremony for the 1974 Jackson–Vanik amendment because Mark E. Talisman's wife was in labor?
... that the only building in England designed by the artist Piet de Jong could be turned into a Wetherspoons?
... that German physician Wolf-Dieter Montag was the inaugural recipient of the Paul Loicq Award for contributions to international ice hockey?
... that the Manhattan blackout of July 2019 occurred exactly 42 years after the New York City blackout of 1977?
... that despite being the majority language in the Indonesian town of Belang before World War II, the Ponosakan language had only four fluent speakers left in 2014?
... that Suzy Dietrich was part of the first women's team to finish an international-standard 24-hour motor race?
... that among the many uses of Erythrophleum ivorense and Lannea welwitschii, trees growing in Assagny National Park, are rope-making, canoe-building and to poison fish?

In the news

Typhoon Lekima

Typhoon Lekima (satellite image shown) impacts the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan and East China, killing at least 80 people.
At least 75 people are killed and more than 50 others injured in a fuel tanker truck explosion in Morogoro, Tanzania.
A suicide bombing near a police station in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 14 people and injures 145 others.
American novelist Toni Morrison dies at the age of 88.

On this day

August 16: Tu B'Av (Judaism, 2019)

Depiction of the 1819 massacre, published by Richard Carlile

1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans, led by General John Stark, routed British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.
1819 – In Manchester, England, 15 people were killed and 400 to 700 others injured when cavalry charged into a crowd (depiction shown) demanding the reform of parliamentary representation.
1891 – San Sebastian Church in Manila, the only all-steel church in Asia, was officially consecrated.
1906 – An estimated 8.2 M_W earthquake hit Valparaíso, Chile, killing 3,882 people.
2009 – At the World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Usain Bolt ran the 100 metres in 9.58 seconds, breaking his own record set a year earlier.

Marianos Argyros (d. 963) · George Meany (b. 1894) · Georgette Heyer (b. 1902)

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Carlos Carrera

The Ariel Award for Best Director is presented by the Academia Mexicana de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas (AMACC) in Mexico. It is given in honor of a film director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in the Mexican film industry. In 1947, the 1st and 2nd Ariel Awards were held, with Roberto Gavaldón and Emilio "El Indio" Fernández winning for the films La Barraca and Enamorada, respectively. With the exception of the years 1959 to 1971, when the Ariel Awards were suspended, the award has been given annually. Nominees and winners are determined by a committee formed every year consisting of academy members (active and honorary), previous winners and individuals with at least two Ariel nominations; the committee members submit their votes through the official AMACC website. Carlos Carrera (pictured) and Fernández hold the record for most wins in the category, with four each. As of the 2019 ceremony, Alfonso Cuarón is the most recent winner in this category for his work on Roma. (Full list...)

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Diospyros kaki, also known as the persimmon or the Oriental persimmon, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Diospyros. The persimmon is a sweet, slightly tangy fruit with a soft to occasionally fibrous texture. Although its first botanical description was not published until 1780, D. kaki is among the oldest cultivated plants, having been in use in China for more than 2000 years. In some rural Chinese communities, the fruit is seen as having a great mystical power that can be harnessed to cure headaches, back pains and foot ache. This species, native to China, is deciduous, with broad, stiff leaves. Cultivation extended first to other parts of East Asia, including Japan, where it is very popular. It was later introduced to California and southern Europe in the 19th century and later to Brazil in the 1890s.

Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg

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