Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 August 17

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From today's featured article

First edition of the Illustrated Daily News, September 3, 1923

The Daily News was a newspaper published in Los Angeles from 1923 to 1954, founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt IV as the first of several papers he wanted to manage. After quickly going into receivership, it was sold to Manchester Boddy, a local businessman. Boddy was able to make the newspaper succeed, and it remained profitable through the 1930s and 1940s, taking a mainstream Democratic perspective at a time when most Los Angeles newspapers supported the Republican Party. The newspaper began a steep decline in the late 1940s, continuing into the early 1950s. In the 1950 election, Boddy ran in both the Democratic and Republican primaries for the United States Senate. He finished a distant second in each, and lost interest in the newspaper. He sold his stake in the paper in 1952 and publication ceased in December 1954. The business was sold to the Chandler family, who merged it with their publication, the Los Angeles Mirror, firing all Daily News employees without severance pay. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Jacob Philadelphia touching Barack Obama's hair

... that five-year-old Jacob Philadelphia asked US president Barack Obama (both pictured) if his "hair is like mine"?
... that Saint Blaesilla has been described as the first recorded victim of anorexia nervosa?
... that scientists are studying an underwater sinkhole off the Florida coast named the Green Banana Hole?
... that Mooky Greidinger, now CEO of Cineworld, began in the cinema industry by working for his father as an usher?
... that one of the survivors of the Battle of Fakhkh, Idris ibn Abdallah, went on to establish his own dynasty in Morocco?
... that King Ram Shah of Gorkha introduced criminal codes to the kingdom?
... that the title of Ava Max's song "Sweet but Psycho" was inspired by her parents telling her "you're sweet, but you're a little psycho" when she was younger?
... that scientists accidentally created a hybrid of two endangered fish species, called the sturddlefish?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Ronnie O'Sullivan

Ronnie O'Sullivan (pictured) wins the World Snooker Championship, defeating Kyren Wilson in the final.
Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei sets a new world record in the men's 5000 metres.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates agree to establish diplomatic relations.
Pro-democracy protests intensify in Belarus after the contested reelection of incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko.

On this day

August 17: Independence Day in Indonesia (1945)

Sukarno proclaiming Indonesia's independence, with Hatta on the right

1560 – The Reformation Parliament of Scotland approved a Protestant confession of faith, initiating the Scottish Reformation and disestablishing Catholicism as the national religion.
1916 – World War I: Romania signed a secret treaty with the Entente Powers to enter the war in return for territorial concessions in Austria-Hungary.
1945 – The independence of Indonesia was proclaimed (pictured) by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.
1977 – The Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika became the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.

Katharina von Zimmern (d. 1547)
Maureen O'Hara (b. 1920)
Tarja Turunen (b. 1977)

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From today's featured list

Six extant mustelid genera

The 23 genera and 59 species of Mustelidae, a family of mammals in the order Carnivora, are split into 8 subfamilies: Guloninae, martens and wolverines; Helictidinae, ferret-badgers; Ictonychinae, African polecats and grisons; Lutrinae, otters; Melinae, Eurasian badgers; Mellivorinae, the honey badger; Mustelinae, weasels and minks; and Taxidiinae, the American badger. A member of this family is called a mustelid; Mustelidae is the largest family in Carnivora. They are found on all continents except Antarctica and Australia, and are a diverse family; sizes (including tails) range from the widespread 17 cm (6.7 in) least weasel to the 1.8 m (5.9 ft) giant otter of Amazonian South America. Habitats vary widely as well, from the arboreal marten to the fossorial European badger to the marine sea otter. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The pacu jawi is a traditional bull race in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia. In the race, a jockey stands holding on to a pair of loosely tied bulls while the bulls run across a muddy track in a rice field. Recently, it has become a tourist attraction supported by the government, and the subject of multiple award-winning photographs. Dramatic high-speed action, mud splashing, and the jockeys' distinctive facial expressions add to its aesthetic value.

Photograph credit: Rodney Ee

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