Wikipedia article of the day for July 25, 2016

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 25, 2016 is 1880 Democratic National Convention.
The 1880 US Democratic National Convention met June 22–24, 1880, at the Music Hall (pictured) in Cincinnati, Ohio, nominating Winfield S. Hancock of Pennsylvania for president and William H. English of Indiana for vice president. Six men were officially candidates for nomination at the convention, and several more received votes. The two leading candidates were Hancock and Thomas F. Bayard, a conservative senator from Delaware. Many Democrats believed that Samuel J. Tilden of New York had been unjustly deprived of the presidency in 1876 and hoped to rally around him in the 1880 campaign, but his intentions were unclear. The first round of balloting was inconclusive. After learning of Tilden’s withdrawal before the second round of balloting, the delegates flocked to Hancock, a career soldier and Civil War hero, who was nominated. English, a conservative from a swing state, was nominated for vice president. Hancock and English were narrowly defeated by Republicans James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur that autumn.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 24, 2016

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 24, 2016 is Chalciporus piperatus.
The fungus Chalciporus piperatus, commonly known as the peppery bolete, is a small mushroom of the family Boletaceae found in mixed woodland in Europe and North America, and occasionally in Brazil. It has also become naturalised in Tasmania, under native myrtle beech trees. A small bolete, it has a 1.6–9 cm (0.6–3.5 in) orange-fawn cap with cinnamon or brown pores underneath, and a 4–9.5 cm (1.6–3.7 in) stalk. The rare variety hypochryseus, found only in Europe, has yellow pores and tubes. Described by Pierre Bulliard in 1790 as Boletus piperatus, it is only distantly related to other members of the genus Boletus and was reclassified as Chalciporus piperatus by Frédéric Bataille in 1908. Chalciporus was an early branching lineage in its family and appears to be related to boletes with parasitic properties. Previously thought to be symbiotic with tree roots, C. piperatus is now suspected of being parasitic on the mushroom Amanita muscaria. The flesh of C. piperatus has a very peppery taste, and can be used as a condiment or flavouring.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 23, 2016

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 23, 2016 is Ian Dougald McLachlan.
Ian Dougald McLachlan (23 July 1911 – 14 July 1991) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). A Duntroon cadet before he joined the Air Force, McLachlan took command of No. 3 Squadron in December 1939, leading it into action in the Middle East less than a year later. He was posted to the South West Pacific in 1943, commanding successively Nos. 71 and 73 Wings. He took over Southern Area Command in 1944, and No. 81 Wing in the Dutch East Indies the following year. Raised to air commodore in 1946, McLachlan served with the British Commonwealth Air Group in Japan until 1948. After leading North-Eastern Area Command in 1951–53, he attended the Imperial Defence College, London. Promoted to air vice marshal, he returned to Australia in 1957 as Air Officer Commanding Training Command, carrying out major reviews on the RAAF’s educational and command systems. He was Deputy Chief of the Air Staff in 1959–61, and then Head of the Australian Joint Services Staff in Washington, DC, until 1963. McLachlan’s final post before retiring in 1968 was as Air Member for Supply and Equipment. He was a consultant to Northrop after leaving the RAAF.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 22, 2016

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 22, 2016 is Mischief Makers.
Mischief Makers is a 1997 side-scrolling platform video game, the first for the Nintendo 64, developed by Treasure and published by Enix and Nintendo. The player assumes the role of Marina, a robotic maid who grabs, shakes and throws objects in her journey to rescue her creator from the emperor of Planet Clancer. The game is presented in 2½D, with pre-rendered 3D backgrounds behind 2D gameplay. A 12-person team developed the game over two years as Treasure’s first title for a Nintendo console. It was first shown at the 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo and released later that year. The game’s reviews were mixed: they praised its inventiveness, personality, and boss fights, but criticized its brevity, low difficulty, low replay value, sound, and harsh introductory learning curve. Retrospective reviewers disagreed with the originally poor reception, and several highlighted Marina’s signature “Shake, shake!” sound bite. In 2009, GamesRadar called it “possibly the most underrated and widely ignored game on the N64”.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 21, 2016

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 21, 2016 is History of Liverpool F.C. (1959–85).
The history of Liverpool Football Club from 1959 to 1985 opens with the appointment of Bill Shankly as manager of Liverpool, then a Second Division club. Shankly overhauled the team and created the “Boot Room”, a meeting place to discuss strategy. The club quickly won promotion to the First Division, and within four years won their first League championship since 1946–47 and their first FA Cup. They won further League championships in 1965–66 and 1972–73, the FA Cup in 1974, and their first European trophy, the UEFA Cup, in 1973. Shankly retired and his assistant Bob Paisley took over. Paisley won three European Cups, the UEFA Cup and six League championships in nine years before retiring at the end of 1982–83; he was replaced by his assistant, Joe Fagan. Liverpool won three trophies during Fagan’s first season as manager: a fourth European Cup, the League championship and the Football League Cup. At the European Cup Final in 1985, Liverpool fans were responsible for crowd trouble at the Heysel Stadium. In the resulting panic, a wall collapsed; 39 fans, mostly Italian, died, and English clubs were banned from European competition for five years.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 20, 2016

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 20, 2016 is Format of Sesame Street.
Sesame Street’s format includes skits featuring Jim Henson’s Muppets as well as animation and short films to help its preschool audience prepare for school. An American children’s television program, it uses music, humor, and sustained action to capture young viewers’ attention. Premiering in 1969, it was the first television show to base its contents and production values on laboratory and scientific research, and the first to base its curriculum on what its researchers termed “measurable outcomes”. It was also the first to use an authentic inner-city street and neighborhood setting for a children’s program. The producers switched in 1998 from a magazine-based structure to a more narrative format after the show’s ratings dominance was challenged by programs such as Barney and Friends and Blue’s Clues. The popular fifteen-minute segment “Elmo’s World”, hosted by the Muppet Elmo, was added the same year to make the show more accessible to a younger audience. The new format was expanded to the entire show in 2002.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 19, 2016

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 19, 2016 is Pedro Afonso, Prince Imperial of Brazil.
Pedro Afonso (1848–1850) was the Prince Imperial and heir apparent to the throne of the Empire of Brazil. Born at the Palace of São Cristóvão in Rio de Janeiro, he was the second son and youngest child of Emperor Pedro II and Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza. His aunt was the reigning Queen of Portugal, Dona Maria II. Pedro Afonso was seen as vital to the future viability of the monarchy, which had been put in jeopardy by the death of his older brother Afonso almost three years earlier. Pedro Afonso’s early death from fever at the age of one devastated the Emperor, and the imperial couple had no further children. Pedro Afonso’s older sister Isabel became heiress, but Pedro II was unconvinced that a woman could ever be accepted as monarch by the ruling elite. He excluded Isabel from matters of state, and failed to provide training for her possible role as empress. With no surviving male children, the Emperor started to believe that the imperial line was destined to end with his own death.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 18, 2016

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 18, 2016 is California State Route 56.
State Route 56 (SR 56) is an east–west state highway in the U.S. state of California. It runs 9.2 miles (14.8 km) from Interstate 5 (I-5) in the Carmel Valley neighborhood of San Diego to I-15. It is named after Ted Williams, a baseball player born in San Diego. The eastern terminus of the highway meets the western end of the Ted Williams Parkway. SR 56 serves as an important connector between I-5 and I-15, being the only east–west freeway between SR 78 in north San Diego County, several miles away, and SR 52 near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. SR 56 was added to the state highway system in 1959 as Legislative Route 278, and was renumbered SR 56 in the 1964 state highway renumbering. A plan in 1964 to connect SR 56 to the north end of SR 125 and continue east to SR 67 did not come to fruition. The eastern end from Black Mountain Road to I-15 was opened in 1993; the western end from I-5 to Carmel Creek Road was delayed until 1995 by several lawsuits. The two ends were not connected until the freeway was completed in 2004; the delay was largely due to funding issues and environmental concerns.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 17, 2016

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 17, 2016 is Operation Mascot.
Operation Mascot was an unsuccessful British air raid on the German battleship Tirpitz which took place during the early hours of 17 July 1944. One of a series of aircraft carrier strikes between April and August 1944 against the battleship at anchor in Kaafjord, Norway, the raid was conducted by 44 British dive bombers and 40 fighters from three carriers. They were detected en route by German radar stations, and Tirpitz was protected by a smoke screen by the time they arrived. Few of the British airmen were able to spot the battleship, and their attacks did not inflict any significant damage. German losses were limited to a patrol craft damaged beyond repair; three British aircraft were destroyed or damaged beyond repair by Kaafjord’s defenders. Two U-boats from a group attempting to intercept the carrier force were sunk by British patrol aircraft, and several others were damaged. Despite the failure of Operation Mascot, the Royal Navy attempted four further carrier raids against Tirpitz during August 1944. These attacks were also unsuccessful, and the task of sinking the battleship was transferred to the Royal Air Force.

Wikipedia article of the day for July 16, 2016

The Wikipedia article of the day for July 16, 2016 is Requiem (Reger).
The Requiem by Max Reger is a late Romantic setting of Friedrich Hebbel’s poem “Requiem” for alto or baritone solo, chorus and orchestra. The text begins with a plea not to forget the dead. Composed in 1915, Reger dedicated it “to the memory of the German heroes” who died in the World War. He had composed Requiem settings before: in 1912 a motet for male chorus, set to the same poem, and in 1914 an unfinished setting of the Latin Requiem, in memory of victims of the war. The 1915 Requiem, Reger’s last completed work for chorus and orchestra, was published by N. Simrock in 1916, after the composer’s death. It was paired with another choral composition, Der Einsiedler (The Hermit), set to a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff, titled Zwei Gesänge für gemischten Chor mit Orchester (Two songs for mixed chorus with orchestra), Op. 144. Both works were first performed in Heidelberg on 16 July 1916 as part of a memorial concert for Reger, conducted by Philipp Wolfrum. Reger thought that The Hermit and the Requiem were “among the most beautiful things” he had ever written.

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