The Wikipedia article of the day for December 31, 2016 is Eisenhower dollar.
The Eisenhower dollar is a one-dollar coin issued from 1971 to 1978 by the United States Mint. Authorized by law on December 31, 1970, it was the first US dollar coin minted since 1935, the last year of the Peace dollar. Designed by Frank Gasparro, the coin’s obverse depicts President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who died in March 1969. Proposals in Congress to honor him on a coin led to a dispute over whether the new coin was to contain silver. In 1970, a compromise was reached to strike it in base metal for circulation, and in 40% silver as a collectible. Although the collector’s pieces sold well, the new dollars failed to circulate, except in and around Nevada casinos, where they took the place of privately issued tokens. Coins from 1975 and 1976 bear a double date, 1776–1976, and a special reverse by Dennis R. Williams in honor of the Bicentennial. To replace the Eisenhower dollar with a smaller-sized piece, Congress authorized the Susan B. Anthony dollar, struck beginning in 1979, but that coin also failed to circulate.
Archives for December 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for December 31, 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for December 30, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 30, 2016 is No Me Queda Más.
“No Me Queda Más” (“There’s Nothing Left for Me”) is a song by American recording artist Selena for her fourth studio album, Amor Prohibido (1994). Written by Ricky Vela and produced by Selena’s brother A.B. Quintanilla, it was released as the third single from the album in October 1994 by EMI Latin. It is a downtempo mariachi and pop ballad that portrays a woman who wishes the best for her former lover despite her own agony. Praised by music critics for its raw emotion, “No Me Queda Más” was one of the most successful singles of Selena’s career, topping the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart for seven non-consecutive weeks. It was the Song of the Year at the 1995 Broadcast Music Awards and became the most successful US Latin single of 1995. Billboard magazine ranked it ninth on a list of Tejano recordings. A music video, shot in San Antonio’s Amtrak station, received the Music Video of the Year award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards. Many musicians have recorded cover versions, including Mexican singer Pepe Aguilar, American salsa singer Tito Nieves, and Mexican pop group Palomo.
Wikipedia article of the day for December 29, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 29, 2016 is Montreal Laboratory.
The Montreal Laboratory in Montreal, Canada, was established by the National Research Council of Canada during World War II to undertake nuclear research in collaboration with the United Kingdom. After the Fall of France, some French scientists escaped to Britain with their stock of heavy water, and joined the British Tube Alloys project to build an atomic bomb. In 1942, it was decided to relocate the work to Canada. The Montreal Laboratory was established in a house belonging to McGill University, but moved to the Université de Montréal in March 1943. The first laboratory staff arrived at the end of 1942. John Cockcroft became director in May 1944. In August 1943, Mackenzie King, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill (pictured) negotiated the Quebec Agreement, which merged Tube Alloys with the Manhattan Project. Work moved to the Chalk River Laboratories, which opened in 1944, and the Montreal Laboratory was closed in July 1946. Two reactors were built at Chalk River: the small ZEEP, which went critical in September 1945, and the larger NRX, which followed in July 1947, and was for a time the most powerful research reactor in the world.
Wikipedia article of the day for December 28, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 28, 2016 is Pain fitzJohn.
Pain fitzJohn (died 1137) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and administrator, one of King Henry I of England’s “new men”, the ones who owed their positions and wealth to the king. Pain’s family originated in Normandy, but there is little to suggest that he had many ties there, and he appears to have spent most of his career in England and the Welsh Marches. A son of a minor nobleman, he rose to become an important royal official during Henry’s reign. In 1115 he was rewarded with marriage to an heiress, thereby gaining control of the town of Ludlow and its castle, which he augmented with further acquisitions. He became the sheriff in two counties near the border between England and Wales, and heard legal cases as a royal justice in much of western England. He was generous in his gifts of land to monastic houses. After Henry’s death in 1135 Pain supported Henry’s nephew, King Stephen. In July 1137 Pain was ambushed by the Welsh and killed as he was leading a relief expedition to the garrison at Carmarthen.
Wikipedia article of the day for December 27, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 27, 2016 is Ficus rubiginosa.
Ficus rubiginosa, the Port Jackson fig, is a species of flowering plant native to eastern Australia. Beginning as a seedling that grows on other plants (hemiepiphyte) or rocks (lithophyte), it matures into a tree 30 m (100 ft) high and nearly as wide with a yellow-brown buttressed trunk. The leaves are oval and glossy green and measure from 4 to 19.3 cm (1 1⁄2–7 1⁄2 in) long and 1.25 to 13.2 cm (1⁄2–5 1⁄4 in) wide. The fruits are small, round and yellow, and can ripen and turn red at any time of year, peaking in spring and summer. The fruit is known as a syconium, an inverted inflorescence with the flowers lining an internal cavity. F. rubiginosa is exclusively pollinated by the fig wasp species Pleistodontes imperialis. Many species of bird, including pigeons and parrots, eat the fruit. Ranging along the Australian east coast from Queensland to Bega in southern New South Wales, F. rubiginosa grows in rainforest margins and rocky outcrops. It is used as a shade tree in parks and public spaces, and when potted is well-suited for use as an indoor plant or in bonsai.
Wikipedia article of the day for December 26, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 26, 2016 is Tropical Storm Vamei.
Tropical Storm Vamei was a Pacific tropical cyclone, the last storm of the 2001 Pacific typhoon season. On December 26 the storm developed into a tropical depression about 230 km (145 mi) east of Singapore in the South China Sea at 1.4° N, 156 km (97 mi) north of the equator. This was the first recorded occurrence of a tropical cyclone developing near the equator, which had previously been considered impossible because of a lack of Coriolis effect there. It strengthened quickly and made landfall the next day approximately 60 km (35 mi) northeast of Singapore, along extreme southeastern Peninsular Malaysia. The storm rapidly dissipated over Sumatra a day later, and the remnants eventually re-organized in the North Indian Ocean. Though officially designated as a tropical storm, the intensity of Vamei is disputed; some agencies classify it as a typhoon, based on sustained winds of 140 km/h (85 mph) and the appearance of an eye. The storm brought flooding and landslides to eastern Peninsular Malaysia, causing US$3.6 million in damage and five deaths.
Wikipedia article of the day for December 25, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 25, 2016 is Hebron Church (Intermont, West Virginia).
Hebron Church is a mid-19th century Lutheran church in Intermont, Hampshire County, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It was founded in 1786 as Great Capon Church by German settlers in the Cacapon River Valley, making it the first Lutheran church west of the Shenandoah Valley. The congregation worshiped in a log church, which initially served both Lutheran and Reformed denominations. In 1821, records and sermons transitioned from German to English. The church’s congregation built the present Greek Revival-style church building in 1849, when it was renamed Hebron on the Cacapon. The original log church was moved across the road and used as a sexton’s house, Sunday school classroom, and public schoolhouse. To celebrate the congregation’s 175th anniversary in 1961, Hebron Church constructed a building for community functions and religious education, designed to be architecturally compatible with the 1849 brick church. Hebron Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014, cited as a Potomac Highlands church with vernacular Greek Revival architecture.
Wikipedia article of the day for December 24, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 24, 2016 is Themes in Maya Angelou’s autobiographies.
Themes in Maya Angelou’s autobiographies include racism, identity, family, and travel. Angelou (1928–2014), an African-American writer, achieved critical acclaim for her first of seven autobiographies, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). That book and the second in the series, Gather Together in My Name (1974), are about the lives of Black women in America. Her autobiographies all have the same structure, a narrative of how she coped within the larger white society she inhabited. In her third autobiography, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1976), she showed the integrity of the African-American character as she experienced more positive interactions with whites. The series continues with The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002), and Mom & Me & Mom (2013). Angelou’s autobiographies take place from Arkansas to Africa and back to the US, and span almost forty years, from the start of World War II to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wikipedia article of the day for December 23, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 23, 2016 is Richard Dannatt.
Richard Dannatt (born 23 December 1950) is a retired senior British Army officer who served as the Constable of the Tower of London from August 2009 to July 2016. He was commissioned into the Green Howards in 1971, and his first tour of duty was in Belfast as a platoon commander. During his second tour of duty, Dannatt was awarded the Military Cross. He commanded 4th Armoured Brigade in 1994 during its peace operations in Bosnia. In 1999 he simultaneously commanded 3rd Mechanised Division and the British forces in Kosovo. After a brief tour in Bosnia, he was appointed Assistant Chief of the General Staff. Following the attacks of 11 September 2001, Dannatt became involved in planning for subsequent operations in the Middle East. As Commander of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps from 2003, he led the planning for their deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was appointed Chief of the General Staff in 2006, succeeding Sir Mike Jackson. Calling for improved pay and conditions for soldiers, less military focus on Iraq, and more on Afghanistan, Dannatt faced controversy over his outspokenness.
Wikipedia article of the day for December 22, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 22, 2016 is Andrew Sledd.
Andrew Sledd (1870–1939) was an American theologian, university professor and university president. A native of Virginia, he was ordained as a Methodist minister after earning his master’s degree; he later earned a doctorate at Yale. After teaching for several years, Sledd became the last president of the University of Florida at Lake City from 1904 to 1905, and the first president of what is now the University of Florida from 1905 to 1909. He was president of Southern University from 1910 to 1914, and became a professor and an influential biblical scholar at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology from 1914 to 1939. Bibliographies highlight his 1902 magazine article advocating better legal and social treatment of African-Americans, his role in founding the modern University of Florida, his scholarly analysis of biblical texts as literature, his call for an end to racial violence, and his influence on a generation of Methodist seminary students, scholars and ministers.
