The Wikipedia article of the day for June 30, 2016 is Covent Garden.
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin’s Lane and Drury Lane. On the north side are shops centred on Neal’s Yard and Seven Dials; the south side holds the Royal Opera House (also called Covent Garden), the Drury Lane theatre, the London Transport Museum, and other cultural and entertainment venues. Its central square (pictured) is a popular shopping and tourist site. The area was originally the “garden of the Abbey and Convent”, with orchards for Westminster Abbey, around 1200. In 1630 the 4th Earl of Bedford commissioned Inigo Jones to design the Italianate arcaded square, which served as a prototype for other estates as London grew. A small open-air market and its neighbourhood fell into disrepute as taverns, theatres and brothels opened up; the gentry moved away, and rakes, wits and playwrights moved in. Charles Fowler’s neo-classical building was erected in 1830 to cover and organise the market. Further buildings were added: the Floral Hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market. The central building reopened as a shopping centre in 1980 with cafes, pubs, small shops and a craft market.
Archives for June 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for June 30, 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for June 29, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 29, 2016 is Robert of Jumièges.
Robert of Jumièges (died 1052–1055?) was the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury. He had served as prior of the Abbey of St Ouen at Rouen in Normandy, before becoming abbot of Jumièges Abbey (pictured), near Rouen, in 1037. He was a friend and advisor to the king of England, Edward the Confessor, who appointed him Bishop of London in 1044, and then archbishop in 1051. Robert’s time as archbishop lasted only about eighteen months. He had already come into conflict with the powerful Earl Godwin of Wessex, and had made attempts to recover lands lost to Godwin and his family. He also refused to consecrate Spearhafoc, Edward’s choice to succeed Robert as Bishop of London. The rift between Robert and Godwin culminated in Robert’s deposition and exile in 1052, and he died at Jumièges shortly after. Robert commissioned significant building work at Jumièges and was probably involved in the first Romanesque building in England, the church built in Westminster for Edward the Confessor, now known as Westminster Abbey. Robert’s treatment by the English was used as one of the justifications of William the Conqueror for his invasion of England.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 28, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 28, 2016 is George S. Patton slapping incidents.
After he slapped two soldiers, US Lieutenant General George S. Patton was sidelined from combat command by General Dwight Eisenhower and Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall. On 3 August 1943, during the Sicily Campaign of World War II, Patton struck, kicked and berated a soldier he found at an evacuation hospital with no apparent injuries, for being “gutless”; in fact, the soldier had malaria with a temperature of 102.2 °F (39.0 °C). Patton struck another soldier complaining of “nerves” at another hospital seven days later and threatened him with a pistol for being a “whimpering coward”; in fact, the soldier had been begging to rejoin his unit. Both soldiers suffered from what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Patton’s actions were suppressed in the news until journalist Drew Pearson publicized them. Congress and the general public expressed both support and disdain. Patton was removed from combat command for almost a year, but did take a decoy command in Operation Fortitude to mislead German agents as to the location of the planned invasion of Europe. His later successes commanding the US Third Army largely rehabilitated his reputation.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 27, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 27, 2016 is 2010 Sylvania 300.
The 2010 Sylvania 300 was an American stock car racing competition held at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon on September 19. The 300-lap race was the twenty-seventh in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as well as the first in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ended the season. Clint Bowyer (pictured) of the Richard Childress Racing team won the race; Denny Hamlin finished second and Jamie McMurray came in third. Brad Keselowski started at the pole position, but was quickly passed by Tony Stewart. Many participants in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, including Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, and Hamlin, were in the top ten for most of the race, although some encountered problems in the closing laps. Stewart was leading the race with two laps remaining but ran out of fuel, giving the lead, and the win, to Bowyer. There were twenty-one lead changes and eight cautions during the race. It was Bowyer’s first win in the 2010 season, and the third of his career. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers’ Championship, ahead of Toyota and Ford. Attendance was 95,000, and the television audience was 3.68 million.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 26, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 26, 2016 is Seacology.
Seacology is a nonprofit charity headquartered in Berkeley, California, that focuses on preserving island ecosystems and cultures. It originated with the work of ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox in the village of Falealupo in Samoa. When the villagers were being pressured to sell logging rights to their rainforest in 1988 to build a new school, Cox and his wife offered to help secure funds in return for an agreement with the villagers to protect their forest. Cox and the village chief, Fuiono Senio (both pictured), later received the Goldman Environmental Prize for their efforts. As demand increased for similar projects on other islands, Cox, along with Bill Marré and Ken Murdock, founded Seacology in 1991. By 2016, the nonprofit had initiated 200 projects globally, helping to preserve 1,116 square miles (2,890 km2) of marine habitat and 946.7 square miles (2,452 km2) of terrestrial habitat. The organization fosters ecotourism, and has helped raise emergency funds following destructive tsunamis. It was featured in the music video “What About Now” by the American rock band Daughtry.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 25, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 25, 2016 is Hitler Diaries.
The forged diaries of Adolf Hitler are a series of sixty volumes of journals created by Konrad Kujau (pictured) between 1981 and 1983. They were purchased in 1983 for 9.3 million Deutsche Marks (US$3.7 million) by the West German news magazine Stern through one of their journalists, Gerd Heidemann. Stern sold serialisation rights to several news organisations, including The Sunday Times. In April 1983, at a press conference to announce the forthcoming publication, several historians—including two who had previously authenticated the diaries—raised questions over their validity, and subsequent forensic examination quickly confirmed they were forgeries. As Stern’s scoop began to unravel, it became clear that Heidemann, who had an obsession with the Nazis, had stolen a significant proportion of the money provided. Kujau and Heidemann both spent time in prison for their parts in the fraud, and several newspaper editors lost their jobs. The scandal has been adapted for the screen twice: as Selling Hitler (1991) for the British ITV channel, and the following year as Schtonk!, a German film.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 24, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 24, 2016 is Horse-fly.
Horse-flies are large flies of the family Tabanidae that feed mainly on nectar. The males have weak mouthparts; only the females bite animals, including humans, to obtain enough protein from the blood to produce eggs. For this they use a stout stabbing organ and two pairs of sharp cutting blades to bite, and a spongelike part to lap up the blood that flows from the wound. They can transfer blood-borne diseases from one animal to another. They can also reduce growth rates in cattle and lower the milk output of cows if suitable shelters are not provided; some animals have lost up to 300 millilitres of blood in a single day to the insects. Horseflies prefer to fly in sunlight, avoiding dark and shady areas, and are inactive at night. They are found all over the world except for some islands and the polar regions. The larvae are predaceous and grow in semiaquatic habitats. Horse-flies have appeared in literature since Aeschylus in Ancient Greece wrote about them driving people to madness. Gadflies (horse-flies and botflies) are mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 23, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 23, 2016 is Len Hutton.
Len Hutton (23 June 1916 – 6 September 1990) was a Test cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England as an opening batsman. Marked out as a potential star from his teenage years, Hutton made his debut for Yorkshire in 1934 and by 1937 was playing for England. He set a record in 1938 for the highest individual innings in a Test match, scoring 364 runs against Australia, a milestone that stood for nearly 20 years. During the Second World War, he received a serious arm injury that never fully recovered. In 1946, he assumed a role as the mainstay of England’s batting; the team depended greatly on his success for the remainder of his career. In 1952, he became the first professional cricketer of the 20th century to captain England in Tests; under his captaincy in 1953, England won the Ashes for the first time in 19 years. As a batsman, Hutton was cautious and built his style on a sound defence. He remains statistically among the best batsmen to have played Test cricket, and was knighted for his contributions to the game in 1956. He went on to be a Test selector, a journalist and broadcaster, an engineering firm director and, in 1990, Yorkshire’s president.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 22, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 22, 2016 is Sons of Soul.
Sons of Soul is the third studio album by American R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!, released on June 22, 1993, by Wing Records and Mercury Records. The group recorded at several studios in California before moving their sessions to the Caribbean Sound Basin studio in Trinidad, where they wrote, recorded, and produced most of the album. They used session musicians and vintage and contemporary recording equipment. Incorporating live instrumentation and elements from funk and hip hop, including samples and scratches, they also paid homage to their musical influences, classic soul artists of the 1960s and 1970s. Lead singer and bassist Raphael Wiggins wrote the music and quirky, flirtatious lyrics for most of the songs. A commercial success, Sons of Soul charted for 43 weeks on the Billboard 200 and was certified double platinum in the US. It was acclaimed by music critics and named the best album of 1993 by The New York Times and Time magazine. With its success, Tony! Toni! Toné! became one of the most popular R&B acts during the genre’s commercial resurgence in the early 1990s.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 21, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 21, 2016 is Mortara case.
The Mortara case was a controversy precipitated by the Papal States’ seizure of Edgardo Mortara, a six-year-old Jewish child, from his family in Bologna, Italy, in 1858. The city’s inquisitor, Father Pier Feletti, heard from a servant that she had administered emergency baptism to the boy when he fell sick as an infant, and the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition held that this made the child irrevocably a Catholic. Because the Papal States had forbidden the raising of Christians by members of other faiths, it was ordered that he be taken from his family and brought up by the Church. After visits from the child’s father, international protests mounted, but Pope Pius IX would not be moved. The boy grew up as a Catholic with the Pope as a substitute father, trained for the priesthood in Rome until 1870, and was ordained in France three years later. In 1870 the Kingdom of Italy captured Rome during the unification of Italy, ending the pontifical state; opposition across Italy, Europe and the United States over Mortara’s treatment may have contributed to its downfall.
