Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 September 3

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From today's featured article

James Brown

The Avenue Range Station massacre was the murder of at least nine Aboriginal Tanganekald people, who were shot by white settlers on the Avenue Range pastoral station in the colony of South Australia around September 1848, during the Australian frontier wars. Those confirmed to have been killed were an old blind man, three women, two teenage girls, and three female children, including a baby. The sheep farmer James Brown (pictured) and his overseer, Eastwood, were suspected, and Brown was charged with the murder of "unknown aboriginal natives" in March 1849. The magistrate who committed him for trial said that there was "little question of the butchery or the butcher". Further investigation was ordered, but by the November 1849 sittings of the Supreme Court in the colonial capital of Adelaide, the case had been dropped. At the time there were significant restrictions on the use of evidence given by Aboriginal witnesses, especially where a verdict could involve capital punishment. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Cocoi heron

... that the cocoi heron (pictured) is the largest heron in South America?
... that Ronald Smelser's 2008 book The Myth of the Eastern Front focuses on the myth of the clean Wehrmacht?
... that for his song of praise "Lobet den Herren alle, die ihn ehren", Paul Gerhardt used the Sapphic stanza?
... that Hawaiian diplomat John Mākini Kapena was sent to Japan in 1882 to discuss Japanese immigration to Hawaii?
... that prior to heading Ghana's petroleum authority, lawyer Hassan Tampuli secured the release of a journalist who had been detained for writing about the country's president?
... that the Palembang Light Rail Transit, which opened last month, is the first operational light rail system in Indonesia?
... that clothes created by Matilda Etches in the 1940s were the first modern fashion items to be hounoured as key acquisitions by London's Victoria and Albert Museum?
... that since 2006, Major League Baseball umpires visiting hospitals have given seriously ill children more than 12,500 stuffed animals through their‎ UMPS CARE charity?‎

In the news

National Museum of Brazil fire

A fire (pictured) destroys the National Museum of Brazil.
An explosion kills Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
The government of Puerto Rico revises the death toll in the territory from Hurricane Maria in 2017 from 64 to 2,975, after nearly a year of controversy and criticism.
A hotel fire in Harbin, China, kills 20 people and injures 23 others.
Scott Morrison replaces Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister of Australia, after a change of Liberal party leadership.

On this day

September 3: Krishna Janmashtami (Hinduism, 2018); Labor Day in the United States (2018)

Giuseppe Farina

863 – Arab–Byzantine wars: The Byzantine Empire decisively defeated the Emirate of Melitene in the Battle of Lalakaon, beginning the era of Byzantine ascendancy.
1901 – The National Flag of Australia, a Blue Ensign defaced with the Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross, flew for the first time atop the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
1918 – The Bolshevik government of Russia published the first official announcement of the Red Terror, a period of repression against political opponents.
1950 – Winning the Italian Grand Prix, Giuseppe Farina (pictured) became the first Formula One world champion.
1991 – A fire killed 25 people locked inside a burning chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina, U.S.

Frank Macfarlane Burnet (b. 1899) · Gaston Thorn (b. 1928) · Pauline Kael (d. 2001)

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From today's featured list

Celia Cruz

The Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame is a rare honor presented by American magazine Billboard at the Billboard Latin Music Awards. The accolade was established in 1994 to recognize musical personalities who have commercially and critically impacted the Latin music industry. Potential recipients are nominated by Billboard's editorial committee, which decides the merit of each nominee with regards to their contribution to Latin music. Artists chosen to be inducted into the Latin Music Hall of Fame include individuals who exemplify Latin music, are pivotal or iconic pioneers, and whose works are a developmental milestone in the Latin music industry. Cuban musicians Celia Cruz (pictured) and Cachao were the first artists to be inducted into the Latin Music Hall of Fame at the inaugural Billboard Latin Music Awards in 1994. José José and Marco Antonio Solís have also been recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bee worldwide. It is believed to have originated in either Africa or Asia, and spread naturally through Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Following human introduction into the Americas and Oceania, the species is now found on every continent except Antarctica. Humans have been collecting honey from bees for thousands of years, with evidence in the form of rock art found in France and Spain, dating to around 7000 BC. Along with other insects, the honey bee is an important pollinator, with a large number of the crop species farmed worldwide depending on it.

Photograph: Martin Falbisoner

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