Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 September 5

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From today's featured article

Liquid oxygen

Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. A member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table, it is a highly reactive nonmetal and oxidizing agent that forms oxides with most elements as well as other compounds. By mass, oxygen is the most abundant element in the Earth's crust and the third-most abundant in the universe, after hydrogen and helium. Two atoms of the element can bind to form dioxygen, a colorless and odorless gas that constitutes 20.8% of the Earth's atmosphere, produced by photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide. Oxygen is present in water, proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and fats. Its name was coined in 1777 by Antoine Lavoisier, whose experiments helped to discredit the then-popular phlogiston theory of combustion and corrosion. Common uses of oxygen include residential heating, internal combustion engines, production of steel, plastics and textiles, brazing, welding and cutting of steels and other metals, rocket propellant, oxygen therapy, and life support systems in aircraft, submarines, spaceflight and diving. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Visual kei fans at Jingu Bashi

... that Jingu Bashi bridge in Tokyo is a tourist attraction frequented daily by cosplay, visual kei (pictured), and gothic Lolita fashion fans?
... that the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki co-wrote the German libretto of Ubu Rex, his only opera buffa, based on the French play Ubu Roi?
... that though Mohsin Raza was made the Minority Affairs Minister of an Indian state, he was a member of neither the state legislative assembly nor the legislative council?
... that evidence of beavers was first detected on Opossum Brook in 1929 by a man on his way to Hell's Kitchen?
... that Danish historian Elisabeth Munksgaard was given a "fine finale" to her career with a costumed eleventh-century king?
... that a marine species of dinoflagellate was implicated when 200 Italian beachgoers became ill in 2005?
... that Adeline Palmier Wagoner wrote Madame Beaulieu: A Colonial Dame, a biography of her ancestor, a social leader in Cahokia?
... that the online game slither.io was the most Googled game in the United States in 2016?

In the news

Uhuru Kenyatta (left) and Raila Odinga

Monsoon flooding kills nearly 1,300 people and affects 45 million others in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
North Korea conducts its sixth nuclear test.
The European x-ray free-electron laser is inaugurated in Hamburg, Germany.
The Supreme Court of Kenya rules that the country's presidential election (candidates pictured) was conducted improperly, nullifying its results and ordering a new election within 60 days.
In boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeats Conor McGregor.
The Women's Rugby World Cup concludes with New Zealand defeating England in the final.

On this day...

September 5

Voyager 1

917 – Liu Yan declared himself emperor, establishing the Southern Han state in southern China, at his capital of Panyu (present-day Guangzhou).
1781 – American Revolutionary War: French naval forces handed Britain a major strategic defeat in the Battle of the Chesapeake.
1882 – A group of London school boys led by Bobby Buckle founded Tottenham Hotspur F.C. so they could continue to play sports during the winter months.
1921 – Popular American comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle attended a party during which a woman was fatally injured; although he was eventually acquitted of manslaughter, the trial's scandal derailed his career.
1977 – NASA launched the robotic space probe Voyager 1 (pictured), currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth.

Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland (b. 1641) · Amy Beach (b. 1867) · Jochen Rindt (d. 1970)

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Today's featured picture

Cancer is a medium-size constellation and one of the twelve constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for crab, and it is commonly represented as one. Cancer's stars are rather faint, with its brightest star Beta Cancri having an apparent magnitude of 3.5. It contains two stars with known planets. Located at the center of the constellation is Praesepe (Messier 44), one of the closest open clusters to Earth and a popular target for amateur astronomers.

Cancer is shown here as depicted in Urania's Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London in about 1825.

Illustration: Sidney Hall; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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