Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 August 28

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From today's featured article

The American twenty-cent piece was a coin struck from 1875 to 1878, but only for collectors in the final two years. In 1874 Nevada's newly elected senator, John P. Jones, began promoting his bill for a twenty-cent piece to alleviate the shortage of small change in the Far West. The bill passed Congress the following year, and Mint Director Henry Linderman ordered pattern coins struck. Although the new coin's edge was smooth rather than reeded, as with other silver coins, the new piece was close to the size of, and immediately confused with, the quarter. Adding to the bewilderment, the obverses (front faces) of the coins were almost identical. After the first year, in which over a million were minted, there was little demand, and the denomination was abolished in 1878. At least a third of the total mintage was later melted by the government. Numismatist Mark Benvenuto called the twenty-cent piece "a chapter of U.S. coinage history that closed almost before it began". (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Team Great Britain

... that Jordanna Bartlett, Sophie Carrigill, Amy Conroy, Joy Haizelden, Charlotte Moore, and Laurie Williams were part of Team Great Britain (pictured), which won the 2015 Women's U25 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Beijing?
... that James T. Brady defended Lew Baker, who fatally shot "Bill the Butcher" Poole at a Manhattan bar in 1855?
... that the cuisine of Jharkhand and Bihari cuisine are often similar, in part because these separate states were at one time the single state of Bihar?
... that Priyanka Chopra attained a muscular physique through three months of extensive training to play the eponymous boxing world champion in the 2014 biopic Mary Kom?
... that Colonel Miller argued that women were "primeval abolitionists" who should be admitted to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840?
... that the Alamgir Mosque, Varanasi, built in the 17th century over the ruins of a Hindu temple, has been described as "like a fist thrust in the face of Hinduism"?
... that the Home Office whistleblower Steve Moxon was deselected as a UK Independence Party candidate in 2012 local elections because of comments he made about Anders Behring Breivik?
... that "Donut Run", an episode of Veronica Mars, was the first professional directing job for series creator Rob Thomas, who was even unsure when to call "action" during filming?

In the news

Okanogan Complex fire

Wildfires across the U.S. state of Washington, including the Okanogan Complex fire (pictured), destroy more than 200 homes and burn 920 square miles (2,400 km²).
The ancient Temple of Baalshamin in Palmyra is destroyed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
At least 11 people are killed when a Hawker Hunter crashes onto a busy road during an airshow in Shoreham-by-Sea, UK.
A bomb explosion in Bangkok, Thailand, kills 20 people and injures more than 120 others.
In golf, Jason Day wins the PGA Championship.

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On this day...

August 28: Feast of the Assumption (Julian calendar)

2015 production of Lohengrin

1850 – German composer Richard Wagner's romantic opera Lohengrin (2015 production pictured), containing the Bridal Chorus, was first performed under the direction of Franz Liszt in Weimar, present-day Germany.
1861 – American Civil War: The Union Army successfully extended its blockage strategy by capturing two Confederate forts on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
1909 – A military coup d'etat against the government of Dimitrios Rallis began in the Goudi neighbourhood of Athens, Greece.
1955 – African American teenager Emmett Till was murdered near Money, Mississippi, for flirting with a white woman, energizing the nascent American Civil Rights Movement.
1973 – Swedish police used gas bombs to end a seven-day hostage situation in Stockholm; during the incident the hostages had bonded with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome".

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From today's featured list

U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards Air Force Base, California

The United States Air Force Pilot School (TPS) graduated notable alumni who made significant contributions to the aerospace field. The school's mission is to produce experimental test pilots, flight test engineers, and flight test navigators to lead and conduct test and evaluation of aerospace weapon systems. It was established on September 9, 1944 as the Flight Test Training Unit at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB) in Dayton, Ohio. To take advantage of the uncongested skies and superb flying weather, the school was moved on February 4, 1951 to its present location at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. Between 1962 and 1972, the Test Pilot School expanded its role to include astronaut training for military test pilots. Thirty-seven TPS graduates of this era were selected for the U.S. space program, and twenty-six went on to earn astronaut's wings by flying in the X-15, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs. Although the school no longer trains astronauts, many TPS graduates since 1972 have been selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for duties in space. (Full list...)

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Katie Green (b. 1987) is an English model from Chichester, West Sussex who began her career in the mid-2000s. She is unusual among models because of her height (5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)) and weight (10 stone 5 pounds (66 kg; 145 lb) in 2011); she refuses to lose weight to conform to norms agencies expect of models, and has initiated a campaign against size zero models. Green continues to model and has represented Ultimo and Sony Bravia, and appeared in numerous publications and campaigns.

Photograph: Nguyen Dinh Quoc-Huy; edit: Keraunoscopia

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