Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 August 13

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From today's featured article

Bert T. Combs (August 13, 1911 – December 4, 1991) was an American jurist and politician from Kentucky. After being decorated for prosecuting Japanese war criminals before military tribunals during World War II, he returned to his law practice in Prestonsburg. In 1951 he was appointed by Governor Lawrence Wetherby to fill a vacancy on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and was elected to a full term later that year. He was elected the 50th Governor of Kentucky in 1959 on his second run for the office. Combs secured passage early in his term of a larger-than-needed three percent sales tax to pay a bonus to the state's military veterans, and used much of the surplus to improve the state's educational system and expand the state park and highway systems. He was appointed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, serving three years. In 1985 Combs' challenge to the state's education funding model led to a court ruling that declared Kentucky's entire public school system unconstitutional. In 1991 Combs was caught in a flash flood on the road, and died of hypothermia. (Full article...)

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Light rail train arriving at Target Field

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In the news

Uhuru Kenyatta

A white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in the U.S. state of Virginia turns violent, leaving 3 people dead and more than 30 others injured.
Uhuru Kenyatta (pictured) is re-elected President of Kenya.
A 7.0 M_w earthquake in China's Sichuan province kills at least 20 people and injures more than 430 others.
Brazilian footballer Neymar joins French club Paris Saint-Germain for a world-record fee of €222 million.
After Nawaz Sharif is disqualified from public office, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi succeeds him as Prime Minister of Pakistan.

On this day...

August 13:

Cardinal Armand de Richelieu

554 – As a reward for over 60 years of service to the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Justinian I granted Liberius extensive estates in Italy.
1624 – Cardinal Richelieu (pictured) became the chief minister to King Louis XIII, and transformed France's feudal political structure into one with a powerful central government.
1868 – A major earthquake near Arica, Peru (now in Chile), caused an estimated 25,000 casualties, and the subsequent tsunami caused considerable damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.
1898 – Spanish–American War: After a mock battle for Manila, the Spanish commander surrendered to the U.S. in order to keep the city out of the hands of Filipino rebels.
1942 – Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorized the construction of facilities that would house the Manhattan Project.

Maximus the Confessor (d. 662) · George Grove (b. 1820) · Tigran Petrosian (d. 1984)

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Today's featured picture

Luncheon Still Life, an oil painting on canvas completed around 1860 by John F. Francis (1808–1886) is now held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Born in Philadelphia, Francis was predominantly self-taught, and began exhibiting his works at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1845. He later worked exclusively with still lifes, many of which depict fruits and desserts.

Painting: John F. Francis

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