Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 March 6

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From today's featured article

"Death on the Rock" was a 1988 British television documentary produced by Thames Television as part of the current affairs series This Week on ITV. It examined the shooting deaths of three Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members by the British Special Air Service in Gibraltar on 6 March 1988. The series' editor, Roger Bolton, had dispatched journalists to Gibraltar and Spain to interview witnesses to the shootings and Spanish police officers who had surveilled the IRA team. The documentary presented evidence that the team were unarmed, and were shot without warning or while attempting to surrender. The British government denounced the programme, and Geoffrey Howe, the foreign secretary, tried to get the broadcast postponed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority. An independent inquiry, the Windlesham–Rampton report, found that the documentary was made in "good faith and without ulterior motives". It was praised within the television industry and won that year's BAFTA Award for Best Documentary. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Cuetlajuchitlán archeological site

... that Mexican Federal Highway 95D passes under an archeological site (pictured) uncovered during its construction?
... that investigative journalist Andrew Schneider's work earned back-to-back Pulitzer Prizes in 1986 and 1987?
... that Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball was developed in just 61 days?
... that bus rapid transit was chosen for Seattle's RapidRide G Line, because Madison Street was considered too steep for streetcar service?
... that Abu Omar al-Turkistani, an al-Qaeda militant from China who fought in the Battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan, eventually died during the Syrian Civil War?
... that the Packhorse Inn, a Somerset pub, has been designated as an asset of community value?
... that Bobby Egan, the owner of a New Jersey roadside barbecue restaurant, has been criticized for participating in diplomatic negotiations between North Korea and the United States?
... that a tiny embryonic skeleton found inside the fossil dinosaur egg Continuoolithus died approximately 8 to 10 days into development, making it the youngest fossil vertebrate ever discovered?

In the news

The Leekfrith torcs

Scientists announce the discovery of possible microfossils within rocks dated between 3.77 and 4.28 billion years old from Northern Quebec, Canada, potentially making them the oldest known fossils of life on Earth.
The discovery of the Leekfrith torcs (pictured), believed to be the oldest Iron Age gold jewellery found in Britain, is announced.
Moonlight wins Best Picture and La La Land wins in six categories at the Academy Awards.
The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captures Al-Bab from ISIL.
Astronomers announce that the star TRAPPIST-1 hosts seven exoplanets, some orbiting in its habitable zone.

On this day...

March 6: National Heroes and Benefactors Day in Belize (2017); Independence Day in Ghana (1957)

Dmitri Mendeleev

1665 – The first joint Secretary of the Royal Society, Henry Oldenburg, published the first issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, the world's longest-running scientific journal.
1836 – Texas Revolution: Mexican forces captured the Alamo in San Antonio from the Texians after a 13-day siege.
1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev (pictured) presented the first periodic table of elements to the Russian Chemical Society.
1902 – Real Madrid, one of the world's richest football clubs, was founded as Madrid Football Club.
1967 – Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defected to the United States.

Princess Clémentine of Orléans (b. 1817) · Ayn Rand (d. 1982)

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From today's featured list

Mahanoy Creek looking downstream, below all its named tributaries

There are eleven officially named tributaries of Mahanoy Creek, a 51-mile-long (82 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River in Schuylkill County and Northumberland County, in Pennsylvania, in the United States. Of these, six are direct tributaries and five are sub-tributaries. These include seven creeks and four runs. The largest tributary by both length and watershed area is Schwaben Creek, which is 10.7 miles (17.2 km) long and drains an area of 30.2 square miles (78 km²). The second-largest by these measures is Zerbe Run, which is 8.3 miles (13.4 km) long and drains an area of 13.1 square miles (34 km²). Many of the tributaries of Mahanoy Creek have been impacted by mining, including Zerbe Run, Shenandoah Creek, and North Mahanoy Creek. Schwaben Creek and Little Mahanoy Creek are the only large tributaries that are not affected by mining. Many of the upper tributaries are in the Western Middle Anthracite Field. In March 2001, the pH ranged from 4.7 for Lost Creek to 8.4 for Schwaben Creek. Some streams were downstream of abandoned mine drainage discharges accounting for their acidity. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Fatata te Miti is an oil painting on canvas completed by the French artist Paul Gauguin in 1892. Painted during the artist's first trip to Tahiti, it depicts two Tahitian women jumping into the sea while a man spearfishes in the background. Fatata te Miti has been identified as a genre painting that epitomizes a romantic and exotic view of Tahitians. The painting is now held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Painting: Paul Gauguin

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