The Wikipedia article of the day for May 16, 2016 is Blonde on Blonde.
Blonde on Blonde is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on May 16, 1966, by Columbia Records. The album completes a rock trilogy, with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. Unsatisfied with the initial recording sessions, Dylan brought his keyboardist Al Kooper and guitarist Robbie Robertson to the CBS studios in Nashville, Tennessee, where all but one of the songs were recorded in February and March. Combining the expertise of Nashville session musicians with a modernist literary sensibility, the album’s songs have been described as operating on a grand scale musically, while featuring lyrics that the writer Michael Gray called “a unique blend of the visionary and the colloquial”. One of the first rock double albums, it peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 chart in the US, where it eventually went double-platinum, and reached No. 3 in the UK. Blonde on Blonde spawned two top twenty singles in the US: “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” and “I Want You”. “Just Like a Woman” and “Visions of Johanna” made Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. The album has consistently ranked high in greatest-albums polls.
Wikipedia article of the day for May 16, 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for May 15, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for May 15, 2016 is Epacris impressa.
Epacris impressa, also known as common heath, is a plant of the heath family, Ericaceae, that is native to southeast Australia: the states of Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and New South Wales. French botanist Jacques Labillardière collected the species in 1793 and described it in 1805. Four forms have been identified, but no subspecies are recognised. Growing in heathland, shrubland or open forest, it is generally a small shrub around 0.5 to 1 m (1 ft 8 in – 3 ft 3 in) tall, with small stiff leaves. The red, pink or white tube-like flowers appear from late autumn to early spring. Honeyeaters, particularly the eastern spinebill, feed upon the nectar of the flowers. It regenerates after bushfire by seed or by resprouting. A pink-flowered form is the floral emblem of the state of Victoria. E. impressa is difficult to propagate reliably, which has limited its use in horticulture and revegetation. It grows best in well-drained but moist soil in a semishaded position. A highly regarded garden plant, the common heath was first cultivated in England in 1825 with over seventy named cultivars, most of which have now vanished.
Wikipedia article of the day for May 14, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for May 14, 2016 is Eardwulf of Northumbria.
Eardwulf was king of Northumbria from 796 until at least 806. Northumbria in the last years of the eighth century was the scene of dynastic strife between several noble families, and in 790, Æthelred I attempted to have Eardwulf assassinated. Æthelred himself was assassinated in 796. The reign of his successor Osbald lasted only twenty-seven days before he was deposed, and Eardwulf became king on 14 May 796. In 798 Eardwulf fought a battle at Billington Moor against a nobleman named Wada, who had been one of those responsible for King Æthelred’s death; Wada was defeated and driven into exile. In 801 Eardwulf led an army against Coenwulf of Mercia, perhaps because of Coenwulf’s support for other claimants to the Northumbrian throne. Eardwulf was deposed in 806. According to a Frankish source, he returned to his kingdom in 808, but no record has survived of his death or the end of his reign. He was possibly buried at the Mercian royal monastery of Breedon on the Hill, which carries a dedication to Saint Mary and Saint Hardulph, identified as Eardwulf by several historians.
Wikipedia article of the day for May 13, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for May 13, 2016 is Carolina Panthers.
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Under head coach Ron Rivera, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Founder Jerry Richardson and his family have a controlling interest in the club. The team plays at Bank of America Stadium, one of the few stadiums owned by an NFL team. The Panthers were announced as the league’s 29th franchise in 1993. The team played well in their first two years, finishing 7–9 in 1995 (an all-time best for an NFL expansion team’s first season) and 12–4 the following year, and winning the NFC West championship. In the 2003 season they reached Super Bowl XXXVIII, losing to the New England Patriots. After recording a playoff appearance in 2005, they won NFC South division championships in the 2008, 2013 and 2014 seasons. The next season, they defeated the Seattle Seahawks and the Arizona Cardinals to advance to Super Bowl 50, where they lost to the Denver Broncos.
Wikipedia article of the day for May 12, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for May 12, 2016 is British contribution to the Manhattan Project.
British scientists were crucial to the success of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs during World War II. After Rudolf Peierls and Otto Frisch at the University of Birmingham calculated that a small sphere of pure uranium-235 could explode with the power of thousands of tons of dynamite, their memorandum led to Britain’s own atomic bomb project. This project shared research with the US, but was eventually subsumed by the Manhattan Project under the 1943 Quebec Agreement. A British mission led by the Australian physicist Mark Oliphant assisted in the development of electromagnetic separation processes for enriching uranium; Wallace Akers led a similar mission assisting with gaseous diffusion. James Chadwick (pictured) was the head of a distinguished team of British scientists working on bomb design at the Los Alamos Laboratory that included Niels Bohr, Peierls, Frisch, Geoffrey Taylor, and James Tuck, as well as Klaus Fuchs, who was later revealed to be a Soviet atomic spy. American and British cooperation ended with the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. In October 1952, Britain became the third country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon.
Wikipedia article of the day for May 11, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for May 11, 2016 is Assassination of Spencer Perceval.
On 11 May 1812, Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was shot and killed in the lobby of the House of Commons in London. His assailant, John Bellingham, a Liverpool merchant, was tried and convicted, and on 18 May was hanged at Newgate Prison. Despite initial fears that the assassination might be linked to a general uprising, Bellingham had in fact acted alone, as a protest against the government’s failure to compensate him for his imprisonment in Russia for a trading debt. After Perceval’s death, parliament made generous provision to his widow and children, but his ministry was soon forgotten and his policies reversed. He had led the Tory government during a critical phase of the Napoleonic Wars, and his determination to prosecute the war using the harshest of measures had caused widespread poverty and unrest. He is generally better known for the manner of his death than for any of his achievements. Later historians have characterised Bellingham’s hasty trial and execution as contrary to the principles of justice.
Wikipedia article of the day for May 10, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for May 10, 2016 is How a Mosquito Operates.
How a Mosquito Operates (1912) is a silent animated film by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. The six-minute short, about a giant mosquito tormenting a dozing man who tries in vain to shoo it away, is one of the earliest works of animation. It is considered far ahead of its contemporaries in its technical quality. McCay had a reputation for his proficiency as a cartoonist, exemplified in the children’s comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland. He delved into the infant art of animation with the 1911 film Little Nemo, and followed its success by adapting an episode of his comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend into How a Mosquito Operates. McCay gives the animation naturalistic timing, motion, and weight, and displays a more coherent story and developed character than in Little Nemo. The film was enthusiastically received when McCay first unveiled it during a chalk talk (a vaudeville act with drawings) and in a theatrical release that soon followed. In 1914 McCay further developed his character animation style in his best-known animated work, Gertie the Dinosaur.
Wikipedia article of the day for May 9, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for May 9, 2016 is 2007 Atlantic hurricane season.
The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season was unusually active, with 17 tropical cyclones, 15 tropical storms, 6 hurricanes, and 2 major hurricanes. The first named storm, Subtropical Storm Andrea, developed on May 9, and the last, Tropical Storm Olga, dissipated on December 13. The season was one of only four on record with more than one Category 5 hurricane, Dean and Felix. Tied for the seventh most intense Atlantic hurricane of all time, Dean hit Mexico as the third most intense Atlantic hurricane at landfall. Felix also made landfall at Category 5 intensity, in Central America. None of the season’s other hurricanes exceeded Category 1. Five cyclones made landfall in the US: Hurricane Humberto, Tropical Storm Gabrielle, and three tropical depressions. Three storms directly affected Canada, although none severely. The combined storms killed at least 423 people and caused about $3 billion in damage. The names Dean, Felix and Noel were later retired from the list of Atlantic tropical storm names.
Wikipedia article of the day for May 8, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for May 8, 2016 is Music for a Time of War.
Music for a Time of War is a 2011 Oregon Symphony concert recording of four compositions: Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question (1906), John Adams’ The Wound-Dresser (1989), Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem (1940) and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 4 (1935). The program was performed on May 7 and May 8 under the artistic direction of Carlos Kalmar at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (pictured) in Portland, Oregon, and again on May 12 at Carnegie Hall. A concert album, the orchestra’s first in eight years, was released five months later on CD by Dutch record label PentaTone Classics. The live performances and album received favorable reviews; the recording debuted at number 31 on Billboard’s Classical Albums chart, and made several lists of the best classical recordings of 2011. The album earned two nominations from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for the 2013 Grammy Awards, and producer Blanton Alspaugh received the Grammy for Producer of the Year, Classical, for his contributions to this and other recordings.
Wikipedia article of the day for May 7, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for May 7, 2016 is American Pharoah.
American Pharoah (foaled February 2, 2012) is a Thoroughbred racehorse who in 2015 became the 12th American Triple Crown winner, and the first since Affirmed in 1978. He also became the only horse to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic along with all three Triple Crown races—the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. He was bred and owned throughout his racing career by Ahmed Zayat’s Zayat Stables, trained by Bob Baffert, and ridden in most of his races by Victor Espinoza. After the Belmont, he easily won the Haskell Invitational on August 2. On August 29, he finished a close second at Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, snapping a winning streak of eight races. After a layoff of two months, he shipped to Keeneland for the 2015 Breeders’ Cup and contended in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where he challenged older horses for the first time and won by 6 1⁄2 lengths, breaking the track record. He was retired at the conclusion of his 2015 racing year and now stands at stud at Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
