The Wikipedia article of the day for June 10, 2016 is Coinage Act of 1873.
The Coinage Act of 1873 declared that US dollar coins struck from silver bullion were no longer considered legal tender, thus placing the nation firmly on the gold standard and ending bimetallism. In 1869, silver was expensive, and not much of it was being presented at the Mint to be struck into coins, but Deputy Comptroller of the Currency John Jay Knox and others foresaw that cheaper ore from the Comstock Lode and elsewhere would soon became available. To replace the outdated Mint Act of 1837, Knox drafted a bill that took nearly three years to pass. It was rarely mentioned during Congressional debates that the bill would end bimetallism, though this was not concealed. The bill was finally signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant. When silver prices dropped in 1876, producers sought to have their bullion struck at the Mint, only to learn that this was no longer possible. The resulting political controversy lasted the remainder of the century, pitting those who valued the deflationary gold standard against those who called the Act the “Crime of ’73”, believing the free coinage of silver to be necessary for economic prosperity.
Archives for June 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for June 10, 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for June 9, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 9, 2016 is Sonam Kapoor.
Sonam Kapoor (born 9 June 1985) is an Indian film star and one of the highest-paid Bollywood actresses. The daughter of actor Anil Kapoor, she studied theatre and arts at the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore. She became an assistant director to Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the film Black (2005), and made her acting debut in the romantic drama Saawariya (2007). She had her first commercial success three years later in the romantic comedy I Hate Luv Storys (2010), followed by a string of commercial failures. The financially successful Raanjhanaa (2013) marked a turning point in her career, earning her several Best Actress nominations. She played a princess in the melodrama Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015)—one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films—and garnered critical acclaim for portraying the titular role in the biographical thriller Neerja (2016), one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films featuring a female protagonist. She is outspoken in support of breast cancer awareness, LGBT rights, and other causes. She has been nominated for four Filmfare Awards.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 8, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 8, 2016 is Paul McCartney.
Paul McCartney (b. 1942) is an English singer-songwriter and composer. Along with John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he was a member of the Beatles, a 1960s rock band that became the top-selling band of all time, and one of the most critically acclaimed. His Beatles song “Yesterday” has been covered by over 2,200 artists, more than any other copyrighted song in history. After the band’s break-up, he pursued a solo career and formed Wings with Denny Laine and Linda McCartney, his first wife. Wings’ 1977 release “Mull of Kintyre” is one of the all-time best-selling singles in the UK. A two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of the Beatles and as a solo artist) and a 21-time Grammy Award winner, McCartney has written or co-written 32 number one Billboard Hot 100 songs. He has released an extensive catalogue of songs as a solo artist and has composed classical and electronic music. He has supported international charities promoting animal rights, land mine removal, vegetarianism, poverty reduction, and music education. He was knighted for his contributions to music in 1997.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 7, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 7, 2016 is Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption is a 2000 role-playing video game developed by Nihilistic Software. Released by Activision for Microsoft Windows on June 7, 2000, and for Mac OS in 2001, the game is based on White Wolf Publishing’s role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade. It follows the vampire Christof Romuald from the Dark Ages of 12th century Prague and Vienna to modern-day London and New York City in search of his humanity and his kidnapped love, the nun Anezka. The player controls Christof and up to three allies in first- and third-person perspectives. Nihilistic took 24 months to complete the game on a budget of US$1.8 million. The game received a mixed critical response; reviewers praised its graphics and multiplayer functionality, but were polarized by the quality of the story and combat. Its high-quality graphics and sound ran poorly on some computer systems. It received the 1999 Game Critics Awards for Best Role-Playing Game. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, set in the same fictional universe, was released in November 2004.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 6, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 6, 2016 is Omaha Beach.
Omaha Beach was one of five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on D-Day, 6 June 1944, during World War II. The untested 29th Infantry Division and nine companies of U.S. Army Rangers assaulted the western half of the beach; the battle-hardened 1st Infantry Division targeted the eastern half. The opposing German 352nd Infantry Division troops, mostly teenagers with no battalion-level training and some Eastern Front veterans, were largely deployed in strongpoints along the coast. The initial assault waves of tanks, infantry, and combat engineer forces were tasked with reducing the coastal defenses to allow larger ships to land. Little went as planned: most landing craft missed their targets, and the defenses were unexpectedly strong. Troops could not clear the heavily defended exits off the beach, delaying later landings. Groups of survivors eventually improvised assaults, scaling the bluffs between the most heavily defended points. By the end of the day, two small isolated footholds had been won, and the original objective of a beachhead 5 miles deep was achieved within days.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 5, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 5, 2016 is Baleen whale.
Baleen whales are a widely distributed and diverse parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals. They include 15 species from the families Balaenidae (including right whales), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), Eschrichtiidae (the gray whale), and Balaenopteridae (the rorquals, including the blue whale, the largest animal on earth). Cetaceans were thought to have descended from the extinct mesonychids, but molecular evidence supports their descent from even-toed ungulates. Baleen whales split from toothed whales around 34 million years ago. The meat, blubber, baleen, and oil of baleen whales have traditionally been used by the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. Once relentlessly hunted by commercial industries for these products, cetaceans are now protected by international law, but Japan, Norway and Iceland continue to catch whales for various purposes. Baleen whales also face threats from marine pollution, ocean acidification, collisions with ships, and entanglement in nets. Sonar can cause strandings and disrupt their communication. They have rarely survived for long in captivity.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 4, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 4, 2016 is Circinus.
Circinus is a small, faint constellation in the southern sky, first defined in 1756 by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. Its name is Latin for compass, a tool that draws circles. Its brightest star is the slightly variable Alpha Circini, the brightest rapidly oscillating Ap star in the night sky, with an apparent magnitude of 3.19. AX Circini is a Cepheid variable visible with the unaided eye, and BX Circini is a faint star thought to have been formed from two merged white dwarfs. The sun-like star HD 134060 has two small planets, and another, HD 129445, has a Jupiter-like planet. Supernova SN 185 appeared in Circinus in 185 AD and was recorded by Chinese observers. Two novae were observed in the 20th century. The Milky Way runs through the constellation, featuring prominent objects such as the open cluster NGC 5823 and the planetary nebula NGC 5315 (pictured). The Circinus Galaxy, discovered in 1977, is the closest Seyfert galaxy to the Milky Way. The Alpha Circinids meteor showers, discovered the same year, radiate from this constellation.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 3, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 3, 2016 is No. 77 Squadron RAAF.
No. 77 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force squadron headquartered at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales. It operates F/A-18 Hornet multi-role fighters (pictured) and is controlled by No. 81 Wing. Formed at Pearce, Western Australia, in 1942, the squadron flew P-40 Kittyhawks in the South West Pacific during World War II. After the war, it re-equipped with P-51 Mustangs and deployed to Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. The squadron was about to return to Australia when the Korean War broke out in 1950; it converted to Gloster Meteor jets in 1951 and claimed five MiG-15s and over 5,000 buildings and vehicles destroyed during the war for the loss of almost 60 aircraft. Re-equipped with CAC Sabres, the squadron briefly saw action during the Malayan Emergency in 1959–60. It operated Mirage III supersonic jets from 1969 to 1987, when it converted to Hornets. The squadron supplied aircraft to Diego Garcia in 2001–02 to support the war in Afghanistan, and deployed to the Middle East as part of the military intervention against ISIL in 2015–16. No. 77 Squadron is due to re-equip with F-35 Lightnings in 2021.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 2, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 2, 2016 is Red rail.
The red rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia), now extinct, was a flightless rail, found only on Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. A little larger than a chicken, it had reddish, hairlike plumage, dark legs, and a long, curved beak. The wings were small; rail species often became flightless when adapting to isolated islands, free of mammalian predators. It is believed to have fed on invertebrates, and snail shells have been found with damage matching an attack by its beak. Until subfossil remains were described in 1869, scientists only knew the red rail from 17th-century descriptions and illustrations, incorrectly thought to represent several species. It has been suggested that all late 17th-century accounts of the dodo actually referred to the red rail, after the former had become extinct. The last mention of a red rail sighting is from 1693. The species is thought to have been hunted to extinction around 1700 by introduced species and also by humans, who took advantage of red rails’ attraction to red coloured cloth to lure them and beat them with sticks.
Wikipedia article of the day for June 1, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for June 1, 2016 is Marilyn Monroe.
Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American model and actress. One of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s, she played stereotypically “dumb blonde” characters that were emblematic of the era’s attitudes towards sexuality. She began her career as a pin-up model. After two short-lived film contracts, she was signed by 20th Century-Fox in 1951. The next year, scandalous nude photographs of her were featured in a popular calendar. She became one of the most bankable Hollywood actors with starring roles in comedies such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Disappointed in being typecast and underpaid, Monroe formed her own production company in 1955 and successfully fought for a better contract with Fox. She received critical acclaim for her performances in Bus Stop (1956) and Some Like It Hot (1959), winning a Golden Globe for Best Actress for the latter. Her last completed film was the drama The Misfits (1961). Troubled by mental health and addiction problems, Monroe died of a barbiturate overdose in 1962. She continues to be considered a popular culture icon.
