Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 September 9

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From today's featured article

Michelle Williams (born September 9, 1980) is an American actress. Her accolades include two Golden Globe Awards, and she has been nominated for four Academy Awards and one Tony Award. She made her feature film debut in Lassie (1994), and starred in the television teen drama series Dawson's Creek (1998–2003). She earned her first Academy Award nomination playing the wife of a gay man in Brokeback Mountain (2005). Williams played troubled characters in the independent dramas Wendy and Lucy (2008), Blue Valentine (2010), and Manchester by the Sea (2016). For portraying Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn (2011) and Gwen Verdon in Fosse/Verdon, she won two Golden Globe Awards. Her highest-grossing releases came with the thriller Shutter Island (2010), the fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), the musical The Greatest Showman (2017), and the superhero film Venom (2018). She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the role of a sexually abused woman in Blackbird. (Full article...)

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Ekaterina

... that a painting of Ekaterina (pictured), officer Adam Laxman's vessel on his 1792 expedition to Japan, may be found at Nemuro City Museum of History and Nature in Hokkaido?
... that among the U.S. women's high school basketball class of 2016, ESPNW ranked Crystal Dangerfield as the best point guard?
... that supplied-air respirators, unlike N95 masks, can be used in atmospheres that are oxygen-deficient or immediately dangerous to life or health?
... that LaNada War Jack, a leader of the Third World Strike at UC Berkeley and the Occupation of Alcatraz during her student days, is today a distinguished professor of Native law and governance?
... that the Friends of the Soviet Union was founded in 1941 with poet Rabindranath Tagore as its patron?
... that Bronx Skate Park was built to prevent accidents in a nearby McDonald's parking lot?
... that contralto Simone Schröder performed as a soloist at the Bayreuth Festival while she was still studying, and went on to sing there in three different productions of Parsifal ?
... that a one-legged engineer rode the escalators at Earl's Court tube station on their first day of operation to reassure passengers of their safety?

In the news

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

Andrew Holness

Andrew Holness (pictured) is sworn in as prime minister after the Jamaica Labour Party win the general election.
Scientists confirm the first detection, using gravitational-wave astronomy, of a black hole in the upper mass gap.
Parliamentary elections in Montenegro result in the first victory for opposition parties in 30 years.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan announces his intention to resign due to medical concerns.

On this day

September 9:

Explosion damage in San Bruno, California

1141 – Yelü Dashi, the Liao general who founded the Qara Khitai, defeated Seljuq and Kara-Khanid forces at the Battle of Qatwan near Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan.
1320 – Byzantine forces defeated Achaean troops at the Battle of Saint George, taking control of the Arcadia region of Greece.
1954 – An earthquake registering 6.7 M_w struck near Chlef, Algeria, leaving at least 1,243 people dead, and forcing the government to implement comprehensive reforms in building codes.
2010 – A natural-gas pipeline in San Bruno, California, exploded (damage pictured) and "shot a fireball more than 1,000 feet (300 m) in the air", killing eight people.

Thomas Hutchinson (b. 1711)
Louise Lehzen (d. 1870)
Yusuf al-Qaradawi (b. 1926)

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Today's featured picture

This historical depiction of the coat of arms of California was illustrated by American engraver Henry Mitchell in State Arms of the Union, published in 1876 by Louis Prang. A state in the Pacific region of the U.S., California was admitted into the Union on September 9, 1850. The escutcheon depicts the goddess Minerva, representing the political birth of the state, seated underneath the state motto Eureka. At her feet crouches a grizzly bear, feeding upon bunches of grapes that, with the plough and sheaf of wheat on the right, are emblematic of the state's bounty. On the left, a miner at work, with a rocker and bowl at his side, illustrates the golden wealth of the land, while the snow-clad peaks of the Sierra Nevada and shipping on the Sacramento River make up the background. A similar design appears on the current Great Seal of California.

Illustration credit: Henry Mitchell; restored by Andrew Shiva

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