Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 August 14

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From today's featured article

The Sega Genesis, or Mega Drive, is a 16-bit home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Released in Japan in 1988, in North America in 1989, and worldwide in 1990, it was adapted from Sega's System 16 arcade system board, with a Motorola 68000 processor and a Zilog Z80 sound controller chip. In Japan, the Mega Drive fared poorly against its two main competitors, Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System and NEC's PC Engine. The Genesis achieved considerable success in North America, Brazil, and Europe, thanks to its library of arcade game ports, the popularity of Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, several popular sports franchises, and aggressive youth marketing. It was succeeded in 1994 by the Sega Saturn. More than 30 million first-party Genesis units were sold worldwide. (Full article...)

Part of the Sega Genesis series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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Did you know...

Continental Currency dollar coin

... that the Continental Currency dollar coin (obverse pictured), the first pattern coin of the United States, was designed by Benjamin Franklin?
... that Raja ibn Haywa, an adviser to the Umayyad caliphs, supervised the financing for the construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem?
... that the ornate rainbowfish can survive in water as acidic as orange juice?
... that Myrtle Driver Johnson can translate into a language that has been declared to be in a state of emergency?
... that the album Open Here by Field Music has what one band member calls "definitely the angriest songs I have ever written", inspired by Brexit?
... that Green Bay Packers lawyer Gerald Francis Clifford served as assistant Attorney General of Wisconsin, was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and lost a congressional election in 1934?
... that the Swan Canal, one of the oldest canals in Saint Petersburg, is crossed by the Upper and Lower Swan Bridges, the former being one of the oldest stone bridges in the city?
... that according to legend, Gabriel Boughton treated Jahanara Begum's burns and in return received the right to free trade for the East India Company from her father Shah Jahan?

In the news

Typhoon Lekima

Typhoon Lekima (satellite image shown) impacts the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan and East China, killing at least 80 people.
At least 75 people are killed and more than 50 others injured in a fuel tanker truck explosion in Morogoro, Tanzania.
A suicide bombing near a police station in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 14 people and injures 145 others.
American novelist Toni Morrison dies at the age of 88.

On this day

August 14: Independence Day in Pakistan (1947)

Defeat of the Villasur expedition depicted on buffalo hide

1720 – The Spanish Villasur expedition, intended to slow the progress of French influence on the Great Plains of North America, ended in failure when it was ambushed (depicted) by a Pawnee and Otoe force.
1973 – The current Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan came into effect.
1975 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show premiered in Los Angeles, the first in its record-breaking run in cinemas, which continues in limited release.
2007 – Four coordinated suicide bomb attacks detonated in the Yazidi communities of Qahtaniya and Jazeera, Iraq, killing an estimated 796 people and wounding 1,562 others.
2018 – The Ponte Morandi bridge collapsed in Genoa, Italy, killing 43 people.

Qian Hongzuo (b. 928) · Pieter Coecke van Aelst (b. 1502) · Mila Kunis (b. 1983)

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Today's featured picture

Lyriothemis acigastra is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae, found in India. Until 2013, it was thought to be restricted to the northeastern states of Assam and West Bengal, but it has now also been recorded in the southern state of Kerala. It is a small dragonfly with brown-capped greenish-yellow eyes and a blackish-brown thorax marked with yellow. Laterally, there are three stripes. Its wings are transparent, palely tinted with yellow at the base. The female is similar to the male, but the abdomen is cylindrical instead of tapered from base to end and reddish yellow instead of blood red. This picture shows a male L. acigastra individual.

Photograph credit: Jeevan Jose

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