Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 September 17

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From today's featured article

Horatio Bottomley (1860–1933) was an English financier, newspaper proprietor, Member of Parliament (MP), and swindler. Brought up in an orphanage, he began as an errand boy; his hard work enabled him, at 24, to found a publishing company through which he launched, among other titles, the Financial Times. As a financier his methods often brought him into conflict with the law, but by 1900 he had amassed a fortune as a promoter of shares in dubious gold-mining companies. Bottomley entered parliament as a Liberal Party MP in 1906, and founded John Bull magazine as a platform for his populist views. In 1912 he was declared bankrupt and forced to resign from parliament, but following the outbreak of war in 1914 he became a leading propagandist for the patriotic cause. In 1918, having been discharged from bankruptcy, he re-entered parliament and launched a fraudulent "Victory Bonds" scheme which led to his conviction and imprisonment in 1922. Released in 1927, he eked out a living with lectures and appearances in music halls, before his death in poverty. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Bahram Gur killing a wolf

... that pages of the Great Mongol Shahnameh (illustration pictured), a Persian manuscript of the 1330s, were pulled apart to increase their value?
... that Rollers selected to compete in Rio include Joshua Allison, Adam Deans, Matthew McShane, Tom O'Neill-Thorne, and Shawn Russell, who will be playing in their first Paralympics?
... that a committee of eight Portland, Oregon, residents purchased the Madison Street Bridge in 1891 for $145,000?
... that Hazel P. Heath paid children to pick wild berries for her jam and jelly business?
... that the philosopher Clare Palmer argues that humans are usually permitted to aid wild animals in need, and are sometimes required to?
... that the 1993 book Scarlet Memorial: Tales of Cannibalism in Modern China alleges that victors in a factional battle ate the flesh of losers in Guangxi during China's Cultural Revolution?
... that the entomologist Alice Gray became known as the "Bug Lady" for her work with the public at the American Museum of Natural History?
... that pioneer doctor Priddy Meeks once told sick patients by messenger to "jump all over the city creek, crawl back into your tent and cover up warm"?

In the news

Artist's impression of OSIRIS-REx

The Chess Olympiad concludes with the United States winning the open event and China the women's event.
The wreck of HMS Terror, last seen in 1845 while on Franklin's lost expedition, is found off the south-west coast of King William Island, in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
Passenger services begin on the 54-kilometre (34 mi) Moscow Central Circle rail line.
North Korea conducts its fifth and largest nuclear test to date.
NASA launches OSIRIS-REx (artist's impression pictured), a probe sent to return samples from the asteroid 101955 Bennu.
Genetic analysis shows that the giraffe genus, previously thought to contain one extant species, actually consists of four.

On this day...

September 17: Constitution Day in the United States

Harriet Tubman

1716 – French soldier Jean Thurel enlisted in the Régiment de Touraine at the age of 18, beginning a career of military service that would span 75 years.
1849 – American slave Harriet Tubman (pictured) escaped; she later orchestrated the rescues of more than 70 other slaves via the "Underground Railroad".
1939 – World War II: The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, sixteen days after Nazi Germany's attack on that country from the west.
1978 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords after twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David.
2006 – Mass protests across Hungary erupted after Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány's private speech was leaked to the public, in which he admitted that the Hungarian Socialist Party had lied to win the 2006 election.

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Today's featured picture

Lilium bulbiferum is a herbaceous European lily with underground bulbs, belonging to the Liliaceae. It reaches an average height of 20–90 centimetres (7.9–35.4 in), with bulbs that can reach about 1.5 centimetres (0.59 in) of diameter. L. bulbiferum has two varieties, L. bulbiferum var. croceum and L. bulbiferum var. bulbiferum; only the latter always produces secondary aerial bulbs.

Photograph: Uoaei1

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