Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 July 31

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From today's featured article

The Rodrigues rail (Erythromachus leguati) was a flightless bird endemic to the Mascarene island of Rodrigues, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The rail was described as having grey plumage, a red beak and legs, and a naked red patch around the eye. The bird fed on tortoise eggs. It was described as being attracted to red objects, which humans exploited while hunting it. The Rodrigues rail is believed to have become extinct in the mid-18th century because of predation by introduced cats and destruction of its habitat by tortoise hunters. The bird was first documented from life by two contemporaneous accounts, first by François Leguat, a French Huguenot refugee marooned on Rodrigues in 1691, and then by Julien Tafforet, marooned on the island in 1726. Subfossil remains (pictured) were later discovered and connected with the old accounts in 1874, and the species was named E. leguati in Leguat's honour. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Flag of Ulster

... that the elements of the Flag of Ulster (pictured) supposedly trace their origins to a cross drawn in Saracen blood and a hand cut off to claim a kingdom?
... that in response to the Hong Kong government refusing to close its border with mainland China to contain COVID-19, Winnie Yu organized a labour strike among hospital workers in February 2020?
... that the English and French translations of Kenjirō Tokutomi's The Cuckoo all omit a key aspect of its most famous line?
... that Sandra Perron, whom other Canadian Armed Forces officers viewed as a threat, was once interrogated and left in the snow for two hours without boots as part of a training exercise?
... that archaeological finds at Danamandıra village in Istanbul Province, Turkey, date its settlement back to the Late Neolithic era?
... that the myth of Czechoslovakia as "a welcoming and tolerant place for Jews" was exploited by Czechoslovak politicians?
... that Emma Lamb was part of the Lancashire Women cricket team that in 2017 won both the Women's County Championship and the Counties Twenty20 competition?
... that despite being illegal, jueteng is played by one out of every seven Filipinos?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Najib Razak

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak (pictured) is found guilty on all seven charges in the first trial related to the 1MDB scandal.
A series of attacks over disputed farmland in Darfur, Sudan, leaves more than eighty people dead and several villages destroyed.
A security breach in the administration system of Twitter results in many prominent accounts promoting a bitcoin scam.

On this day

July 31: First day of Eid al-Adha (Islam, 2020); Lā Hae Hawaiʻi (Flag Day) and Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (Sovereignty Restoration Day) in Hawaii (1843)

K2

1200 or 1201 – John Komnenos the Fat briefly seized the throne of the Byzantine Empire from Alexios III Angelos, but was captured and executed that night.
1667 – The Second Anglo-Dutch War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Breda.
1917 – First World War: The Battle of Passchendaele began near Ypres, Belgium, with the Allies aiming to force German troops to withdraw from the Channel Ports.
1954 – A team of Italian climbers became the first to reach the summit of K2 (pictured), the world's second-highest mountain.
2007 – The Troubles: Operation Banner, the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland, ended after 38 years with a military stalemate and ceasefire.

Friedrich Wöhler (b. 1800)
Gubby Allen (b. 1902)
David Norris (b. 1944)

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From today's featured list

Bruno Mars

American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars has released one concert video and appeared in various music videos, films, television shows, and two television commercials. From his debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans (2010), he released music videos for "Just the Way You Are", "Grenade", "Liquor Store Blues", and "The Lazy Song". In 2011, he received various awards for the "Just the Way You Are" music video, including MTV Video Music Award Japan for Best Male Video and Favorite International Video at the Myx Music Awards. In 2012, Mars's music video for "Locked Out of Heaven", from his second album Unorthodox Jukebox (2012), won Best Male Video at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. In 2016, Mars released his third album, 24K Magic, which spawned music videos for "24K Magic", "That's What I Like", "Versace on the Floor", and "Finesse" featuring Cardi B. The video for "That's What I Like" won several accolades in 2017, including an American Music Award for Video of the Year and Outstanding Music Video at the NAACP Image Awards. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Typhoon Noru was the second-longest lasting tropical cyclone of the northwest Pacific Ocean on record. The fifth named storm of the 2017 Pacific typhoon season, it formed on July 19 and reached peak intensity on July 31 with 175 km/h (110 mph) 10-minute sustained winds. By this time, as shown in this satellite image, the typhoon was located south of Iwo Jima, and had taken on annular characteristics, with a symmetric ring of deep convection surrounding a 30 km (19 mi) well defined eye and fairly uniform cloud top temperatures. Traveling northwestward over an area of low ocean heat content, the eye became enlarged and ragged as the system weakened. By the time Noru made landfall over Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, on August 7, it had been downgraded to a severe tropical storm. It then dissipated over the Sea of Japan on August 9 as an extratropical cyclone.

Photograph credit: NASA; edited by Meow

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