Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 December 15

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From today's featured article

The Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft was in Yugoslav service from 1938 to 1941 and 1944 to 1951. The Royal Yugoslav Air Force obtained 24 of the British fighters commencing on 15 December 1938 from early production batches, the first foreign sale of the aircraft. Twenty additional fighter aircraft were built by Zmaj under licence in Yugoslavia. When the country was drawn into World War II by the German-led Axis invasion of April 1941, the aircraft achieved some successes against the Luftwaffe, but all the Yugoslav Hurricanes were destroyed or captured during the 11-day invasion. In mid-1944, the Yugoslav Partisans formed two Royal Air Force squadrons, Nos. 351 and 352, which both operated Hurricane fighter-bombers. No. 351 Squadron flew Hurricane Mk IICs during training and was later equipped with Hurricane Mk IVs, and No. 352 briefly flew Hurricane Mk IICs during training before re-equipping with Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vs. Both squadrons operated as part of No. 281 Wing RAF of the Balkan Air Force, conducting ground attack missions in support of the Partisans. Hurricanes remained in service with the post-war Yugoslav Air Force until the early 1950s. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

An 18th-century portrait of Lady Gouyi

... that more than 2,100 years after Lady Gouyi (pictured) was ordered by the emperor to die, her mausoleum was robbed and more than 1,100 artifacts were stolen?
... that the goal of the Science Moms documentary is to challenge the anti-GMO, anti-vaccination, pro-alternative medicine culture affecting parents?
... that former NASA engineer Joseph Anokye was deported from Kenya because some people feared he could manipulate election results?
... that UNESCO has added East Rennell to its List of World Heritage in Danger?
... that before becoming director of the United States Census Bureau, Martha Farnsworth Riche earned a doctorate in French literature?
... that "The Luck of the Irish" received an Apple Records catalogue number despite never being released as a single?
... that Marijke Nel represented South Africa in rugby union and Canada in tennis?
... that the edible mushroom Termitomyces eurhizus grows out of termite mounds?

In the news

Ajit Pai

The United States Federal Communications Commission (Chairman Ajit Pai pictured) votes to repeal Title II Net neutrality rules.
The Walt Disney Company announces that it will buy most of 21st Century Fox's entertainment divisions, valued at roughly $52.4 billion.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declares victory against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, after capturing the group's remaining territory in the country.
The Parliament of Australia passes legislation to allow same-sex marriage.
Halszkaraptor, a duck-like dinosaur genus thought to have been semiaquatic, is described from a Mongolian fossil.

On this day...

December 15: Kingdom Day in Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten (1954); Zamenhof Day in Esperanto culture

1906 GNP&BR poster

687 – Sergius was elected pope, ending the last disputed sede vacante of the Byzantine Papacy.
1467 – Troops under Stephen III of Moldavia defeated the forces of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary in present-day Baia, Romania.
1906 – The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (poster pictured), a 14.17-kilometre (8.80 mi) long deep-level underground tube railway connecting Hammersmith and Finsbury Park, London, opened.
1942 – World War II: The Americans engaged Imperial Japanese forces at the Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse in the hills near the Matanikau River area on Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
1961 – Former Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death after being found guilty on fifteen criminal charges, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

David Teniers the Younger (b. 1610) · Sarah Trimmer (d. 1810) · Frankie Dettori (b. 1970)

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From today's featured list

Bruno Mars

American singer and songwriter Bruno Mars has received numerous awards and nominations. Mars initially came to prominence as an acknowledged music producer and lyricist, who composed songs for other artists along with his production team The Smeezingtons. They were responsible for composing Mars' first collaboration with B.o.B, the single "Nothin' on You", which won Song of the Year at the 2010 Soul Train Music Awards and at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. Mars' debut studio album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, released in 2010, produced two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, "Just the Way You Are" and "Grenade". The former won a Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, while the latter received three nominations including Song of the Year at the following ceremony. Mars' second studio album, Unorthodox Jukebox, was nominated for four Grammy Awards at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best Pop Vocal Album and Record of the Year for "Locked Out of Heaven"; it won the former award. Mars received seven awards at the 2017 American Music Awards, including Artist of the Year. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Horse Fair is an oil painting on canvas completed by the French artist Rosa Bonheur between 1852 and 1853. Depicting dealers selling horses on the streets in Paris, the work was first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1853. In 1887, having been held by several private collectors, the painting was donated by Cornelius Vanderbilt II to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is one of Bonheur's most popular works, such that Queen Victoria requested a private viewing at Buckingham Palace during the painting's 1855–1857 tour of England.

Painting: Rosa Bonheur

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