Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 December 28

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From today's featured article

Louie Nunn (1924–2004) was the 52nd governor of Kentucky (1967–1971), the only Republican elected to that office between 1947 and 2003. The first Republican county judge in the history of Barren County, Kentucky, he ran for governor in 1963, but lost a close race to his Democratic opponent Ned Breathitt. In 1967, Nunn again ran for governor. After defeating Marlow Cook in the Republican gubernatorial primary, he eked out a victory over Democrat Henry Ward. Despite a Democratic majority in the General Assembly, Nunn was able to enact most of his priorities, including tax increases that funded improvements to the state park system and the construction of a statewide network of mental health centers. His administration was marred by race riots in Louisville and a violent protest against the Vietnam War at the University of Kentucky. Following his term as governor, he lost to Walter "Dee" Huddleston in the 1972 senatorial election, and to John Y. Brown Jr. for governor in 1979. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

A ribosome translates mRNA into the encoded protein

... that modified mRNA (mRNA translation depicted) is a key technology in the Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines against COVID-19?
... that Dick Kaegel began working as a full-time sportswriter while he was still in high school?
... that 50 years ago today, a military tribunal handed down six controversial death sentences to members of the Basque separatist group ETA?
... that William Gates LeDuc led a bison through the streets of New York City as part of the Minnesota exhibition at the 1853 World's Fair?
... that trench nephritis caused 35,000 British casualties during the First World War?
... that "Filipino Baby", a song about a sailor's love for a Filipino girl, described as "my treasure and my pet", was a top-five hit for three different artists in 1946?
... that Canadian modernist architect and urban planner Geoffrey Massey was part of a movement that prevented freeways from being built in Vancouver?
... that the first official resolution of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology was that they would never meet in a place with anti-sodomy laws?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

Chang'e 5

The closest great conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn since 1623 occurs.
The Chang'e 5 (illustration shown) sample-return mission returns lunar material to Earth.
Nana Akufo-Addo is re-elected for a second term as President of Ghana.

On this day

December 28: Proclamation Day in South Australia (1836)

Neptune

484 – Alaric II succeeded his father Euric as King of the Visigoths.
1065 – Westminster Abbey, built by Edward the Confessor as the first Romanesque church in England, was first consecrated.
1612 – Galileo Galilei became the first person to observe the planet Neptune (pictured), despite mistakenly cataloguing it as a fixed star.
1908 – An earthquake registering 7.1 M_w struck near Messina, which, along with the subsequent tsunami, killed at least 75,000 people in southern Italy.
1967 – American businesswoman Muriel Siebert became the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

Antoine Furetière (b. 1619)
Albert Christoph Dies (d. 1822)
Susan Sontag (d. 2004)

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From today's featured list

The second season of Prison Break, an American serial drama television series, commenced airing in the United States on August 21, 2006, on Mondays at 9:00 pm (EST) on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Prison Break was produced by Adelstein-Parouse Productions, in association with Rat Entertainment, Original Film and 20th Century Fox Television. The season contains 22 episodes, and concluded on April 2, 2007. Prison Break revolves around two brothers: one who has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and his younger sibling, a genius who devises an elaborate plan to help him escape prison. The brothers, along with six other prisoners at Fox River State Penitentiary, manage to escape, and the second season follows a massive manhunt chasing the group. For the season, three characters are downgraded from series regular to recurring status, and a new character is introduced. Filming took place in Dallas, Texas, due to a close proximity of rural and urban settings. For the final three episodes, scenes were filmed in Pensacola, Florida, to represent Panama. (Full list...)

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Thomas Ewing (December 28, 1789 – October 26, 1871) was a country lawyer from Ohio who was elected to the United States Senate in 1830 as a Whig. He later served as Secretary of the Treasury and the first Secretary of the Interior. In the latter capacity, he earned the nickname "Butcher Ewing" because he replaced so many officials with political appointees. This line engraving of Ewing was produced around 1902 by the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) as part of a BEP presentation album of the first 42 secretaries of the treasury.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva

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