Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 July 15

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From today's featured article

Fossil site on Fernando de Noronha,
off the coast of Brazil

Noronhomys vespuccii, Vespucci's rodent, was a rat from the islands of Fernando de Noronha off northeastern Brazil. Numerous but fragmentary fossil remains of the extinct species, of uncertain but probably Holocene age, were discovered in 1973 and described in 1999. N. vespuccii was larger than the black rat (Rattus rattus), with high-crowned molars and several ridges on the skull that anchored the chewing muscles. A member of the family Cricetidae and subfamily Sigmodontinae, it shared several distinctive characters with the tribe Oryzomyini. Its close relatives, including Holochilus and Lundomys, are adapted to a semiaquatic lifestyle, spending much of their time in the water, but features of the Noronhomys bones suggest that it lost its semiaquatic lifestyle after arrival at its remote island. Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci may have seen it on a visit to Fernando de Noronha in 1503. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Djamaa el Djazaïr mosque under construction

... that the new Djamaa el Djazaïr mosque (pictured) is the tallest building in Africa?
... that the Irish musician Gregory Gray, who started his career in a boy band, became the cult indie musician Mary Cigarettes?
... that in 1974, a United States Army private first class stole a helicopter and landed it on the White House lawn?
... that Catherine Despard helped compose the speech that her husband, the ringleader of the Despard Plot, gave at the gallows?
... that American pool player John Schmidt holds the record for the longest straight pool run at 626?
... that Strombosia pustulata is one of over two hundred species of tree growing in the Omo Forest Reserve?
... that Damiano Michieletto, known for directing Rossini's operas, recently staged Schreker's Der ferne Klang at the Oper Frankfurt, where the world premiere had been performed in 1912?
... that a three-story structure in Beatrice, Nebraska, was built for a Schmuck?

In the news

Megan Rapinoe

A skull found in Apidima Cave, Greece, in 1978, is dated to 215,000 years ago, making it possibly the earliest Homo sapiens known to have lived outside of Africa.
In association football, the FIFA Women's World Cup concludes with the United States (Golden Ball winner Megan Rapinoe pictured) defeating the Netherlands in the final.
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement becomes operational.
Iran announces an increase in uranium enrichment beyond the limit set in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

On this day

July 15: Marine Day in Japan (2019)

Rosetta Stone

1410 – The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald, the decisive engagement of the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.
1799 – French soldiers uncovered the Rosetta Stone (pictured) in Fort Julien, near the Egyptian port city of Rashid.
1959 – Five hundred thousand American steelworkers went on strike, closing nearly every steel mill in the country.
1983 – Armenian extremist organization ASALA bombed the Turkish Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport, killing 8 and injuring 55, as part of its campaign for the recognition of and reparations for the Armenian Genocide.
2009 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashed in northwestern Iran, killing all 168 people aboard.

Jean-Antoine Houdon (d. 1828) · Betty Wagoner (b. 1930) · Donald Mackay (d. 1977)

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From today's featured list

Cannington Court

There are 53 Grade I listed buildings in Sedgemoor, 14 of which are on Castle Street, Bridgwater. Sedgemoor is a local government district in the English county of Somerset. In the United Kingdom, the term listed building refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance; Grade I structures are those considered to be "buildings of exceptional interest". From 1723 to 1728, Castle Street was built on the site of the demolished Bridgwater Castle, as homes for the merchants trading in the town's port. Outside the town of Bridgwater, the largest concentration of Grade I listed buildings are in the village of Cannington, where the 12th-century Cannington Court (pictured) and 14th-century St Mary's Church were both associated with a Benedictine nunnery. Most of the Grade I listed buildings in Sedgemoor are Norman- or medieval-era churches, many of which are included in the Somerset towers, a collection of distinctive, mostly spireless Gothic church towers. (Full list...)

Part of the Grade I listed buildings in Somerset series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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Today's featured picture

Rembrandt (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch draughtsman, painter and printmaker. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history. Unlike most Dutch masters of the 17th century, Rembrandt's works depict a wide range of style and subject matter, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, biblical and mythological themes, as well as animal studies. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age, when Dutch art (especially Dutch painting), although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative, giving rise to important new genres. Like many artists of the period, such as Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt was also an avid art collector and dealer.

This picture is an oil-on-canvas painting, entitled Self-Portrait at the Age of 63, painted by Rembrandt in 1669, the year of his death. It was the last in his long series of self-portraits. The painting is now in the collection of the National Gallery in London.

Painting credit: Rembrandt

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