Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 December 27

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Ficus rubiginosa, the Port Jackson fig, is a species of flowering plant native to eastern Australia. Beginning as a seedling that grows on other plants (hemiepiphyte) or rocks (lithophyte), it matures into a tree 30 m (100 ft) high and nearly as wide with a yellow-brown buttressed trunk. The leaves are oval and glossy green and measure from 4 to 19.3 cm (1 ¹⁄₂–7 ¹⁄₂ in) long and 1.25 to 13.2 cm (¹⁄₂–5 ¹⁄₄ in) wide. The fruits are small, round and yellow, and can ripen and turn red at any time of year, peaking in spring and summer. The fruit is known as a syconium, an inverted inflorescence with the flowers lining an internal cavity. F. rubiginosa is exclusively pollinated by the fig wasp species Pleistodontes imperialis. Many species of bird, including pigeons and parrots, eat the fruit. Ranging along the Australian east coast from Queensland to Bega in southern New South Wales, F. rubiginosa grows in rainforest margins and rocky outcrops. It is used as a shade tree in parks and public spaces, and when potted is well-suited for use as an indoor plant or in bonsai. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Gamaliel Painter

... that graduates of Middlebury College receive a replica of a cane owned by Gamaliel Painter (pictured)?
... that perfumes made from the pungent Warionia saharae desert plant are reputed to employ its "supernatural powers" to make women more seductive?
... that Natalie Sims co-wrote the Iggy Azalea song "Work", which sold over one million copies in the US?
... that the Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds, Washington, is located inside a former Safeway grocery store?
... that despite being a prolific artist of 19th-century London, Robert Blemmell Schnebbelie died of starvation in Camden Town?
... that when a Beecroft's flying squirrel brings food to its offspring, its cheeks expand to the size of a tangerine?
... that Kalanimoku caused the death of his wife Likelike and their son Lanihau with cannon fire outside their house?
... that publicists promoted the 1999 edition of FHM's 100 Sexiest Women by projecting a 60-foot (18 m) naked image of the TV presenter Gail Porter onto the Palace of Westminster?

In the news

George Michael

English singer, songwriter, and record producer George Michael (pictured) dies at the age of 53.
A Tupolev Tu-154 crashes near Sochi, Russia, killing all 92 people on board, including 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble.
The United Nations Security Council adopts a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Syrian government forces retake control of the besieged areas of Aleppo.
More than 30 people are killed by government security forces as protests break out across the Democratic Republic of the Congo following Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down after the completion of his scheduled term in office.

On this day...

December 27

Cave of Swallows

1657 – Citizens of New Netherland presented the Flushing Remonstrance to Director-General Peter Stuyvesant, requesting an exemption to his ban on Quaker worship.
1831 – Aboard HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin left Plymouth, England, on what became a historic expedition to South America that made his name as a naturalist.
1916 – German Togoland, occupied by the Allies in World War I, was partitioned between Britain and France.
1966 – The Cave of Swallows (pictured), the largest known cave shaft in the world, in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico, was first descended.
2007 – Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto was assassinated while she was leaving a political rally of Pakistan Peoples Party supporters at Liaquat National Bagh in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

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Today's featured picture

Charles Hodge (1797–1878) was a Presbyterian theologian and principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878. He was a leading exponent of the Princeton theology, an orthodox Calvinist theological tradition in America during the 19th century. He argued strongly for the authority of the Bible as the Word of God. Many of his ideas were adopted in the 20th century by Fundamentalists and Evangelicals.

Painting: Rembrandt Peale

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