Wikipedia article of the day for September 2, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for September 2, 2020 is Third Silesian War.
The Third Silesian War was a conflict between Prussia and an Austrian alliance that lasted from 1756 to 1763 and confirmed Prussia's control of Silesia (now in south-western Poland). The war was fought mainly in Silesia, Bohemia and Upper Saxony and formed one theatre of the Seven Years' War. It can be viewed as a continuation of the First and Second Silesian Wars of the previous decade. The war was costly on both sides and ended inconclusively when neither of the main belligerents could sustain the conflict any longer. The war began with a Prussian invasion of Saxony in mid-1756, and it ended in a Prussian diplomatic victory with the 1763 Treaty of Hubertusburg. The conflict formed part of the ongoing Austria–Prussia rivalry that would shape German politics for more than a century. The war enhanced the prestige of Prussia, which was recognised as a major European power, and of Frederick, who cemented his reputation as a preeminent military commander. (This article is part of a featured topic: Silesian Wars.)

Wikipedia article of the day for September 1, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for September 1, 2020 is Vespro della Beata Vergine.
Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin) by Claudio Monteverdi is an extended composition for the evening vespers on Marian feasts, printed in 1610. The composer set the usual Latin psalms and Magnificat, but also solo concertos in the style of the emerging opera. The ambitious composition, which uses traditional Gregorian chant as cantus firmus, is scored for soloists, choirs of up to ten parts, and orchestra. Monteverdi wrote it when he was maestro di capella in Mantua, where he served as musician and composer for the Gonzagas, the Dukes of Mantua. He had it printed in Venice, with a dedication to Pope Paul V dated 1 September 1610 (pages from a copy pictured). He then travelled to Rome to deliver it to Pope Paul in person. Monteverdi became director of music at San Marco in Venice in 1613. His Vespers represent a milestone of music history at the transition from Renaissance to Baroque styles.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 31, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 31, 2020 is New York State Route 175.
New York State Route 175 is a west–east state highway located in Onondaga County, New York, in the United States. The 15.46-mile (24.88 km) route begins at an intersection with U.S. Route 20 east of the village of Skaneateles. It heads towards the northeast as Lee Mulroy Road, traversing farmland. It then passes through the village of Marcellus before ending at a junction with U.S. Route 11 in Syracuse. Designated in the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the highway brought about an increase in population and development along its route. The section of Route 175 from downtown Marcellus to New York State Route 173 in Onondaga was built along the historical Seneca Turnpike, which was established in 1800 and dissolved in 1852. At 157 miles (253 km), the turnpike was the longest in the state at the time and was instrumental in the development of the villages of Skaneateles and Marcellus.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 30, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 30, 2020 is House of Music.
House of Music is the fourth and final album by American R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné!, released in 1996 by Mercury Records. Bassist-vocalist Raphael Saadiq (pictured), guitarist-vocalist D'wayne Wiggins, and percussionist-keyboardist Timothy Christian Riley worked on its songs independently before recording them together as a group. While doing most of the production, Tony! Toni! Toné! emphasized musicianship and expanded on their previous work's traditional soul influences with live instrumentation and balladry. Music journalists have noted the album's incorporation of old-fashioned and modern sensibilities, themes of love and romance, and witty, sensitive lyrics. The album charted for 31 weeks on the Billboard 200 and sold over a million units in the United States. Critics praised the musicianship and songwriting, later deeming it a masterpiece of 1990s R&B. Despite its success, the group disbanded shortly after due to creative differences and Mercury's management of the album's short-lived marketing campaign.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 29, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 29, 2020 is Commissioner Government.
The Commissioner Government was a short-lived Serbian collaborationist puppet government established in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II from 30 April to 29 August 1941. It was headed by Milan Aćimović (pictured) and was pro-German, anti-Semitic and anti-communist. The Aćimović government was merely an instrument of the German occupation regime, carrying out its orders within the occupied territory without appearing to moderate its policies. The government actively assisted the Germans in exploiting the population and the economy, and its members regarded their own participation in the Holocaust as "unpleasant but unavoidable". By mid-July, the Germans had decided that the Aćimović regime was incompetent, and the Commissioner Government resigned at the end of August. It was succeeded by the Government of National Salvation, in which Aćimović initially retained the interior portfolio.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 28, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 28, 2020 is Réunion ibis.
The Réunion ibis (Threskiornis solitarius) is an extinct bird formerly endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Réunion. Subfossil remains were found in 1974, and it was formally described in 1987. Early travellers described a white bird on Réunion that flew with difficulty, later assumed to refer to a white relative of the dodo. The ibis subfossil suggested that the tales referred to this bird instead. The ibis was mainly white, although its wing tips and plume feathers on its rear were black. The neck and legs were long, and the beak was relatively straight and short for an ibis. Similar to its extant relatives but more robust, it was about 65 cm (25 in) long. Subfossil wing-bones indicate that it had reduced flight capabilities. The diet of the ibis was invertebrates foraged from the soil. In the 17th century it lived only in mountainous areas, perhaps due to predation by introduced animals and hunting by humans for its tasty meat. These factors had driven the ibis to extinction by the early 18th century.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 27, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 27, 2020 is Operation PBFortune.
Operation PBFortune was a covert United States operation to overthrow the democratically elected Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz (pictured) in 1952. The operation was planned by the Central Intelligence Agency and authorized by President Harry Truman. It was motivated by US fears that Árbenz was being influenced by communists, and lobbied for by the United Fruit Company. The operation was planned with the support of Anastasio Somoza García, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo and Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the dictators of Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, respectively. The plan involved providing weapons to the exiled Guatemalan military officer Carlos Castillo Armas, who was to lead an invasion from Nicaragua. US secretary of state Dean Acheson became concerned that the coup attempt would damage the image of the US and terminated the operation. Two years later, another covert CIA action, Operation PBSuccess, toppled the Árbenz government and ended the Guatemalan Revolution.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 26, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 26, 2020 is Battle of Crécy.
The Battle of Crécy was fought on 26 August 1346 in north-east France during the Hundred Years' War. It resulted in a victory for a greatly outnumbered English army led by King Edward III over the French led by King Philip VI and heavy loss of life among the French. The English prepared a defensive position on a hillside near Crécy-en-Ponthieu. After the French mercenary crossbowmen were routed by English longbowmen, French cavalry made repeated charges. They had to force their way uphill over muddy ground across pits dug by the English, while taking heavy casualties from the longbowmen. The ensuing hand-to-hand combat against the English men-at-arms was described as "murderous, without pity, cruel, and very horrible". The French charges continued late into the night, all with the same fierce fighting, until the French were repulsed. The battle established the effectiveness of the longbow as a dominant weapon on the Western European battlefield.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 25, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 25, 2020 is Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is a 2005 action-adventure video game, the first in the Castlevania series by Konami to be released on the Nintendo DS. It was written and produced by Koji Igarashi (pictured) and directed by Satoshi Kushibuchi. Incorporating many elements from its predecessor, Aria of Sorrow, it was commercially successful, selling more than 15,000 units in its first week in Japan and 164,000 in the United States within three months. The protagonist, Soma Cruz, manages to escape the fate of becoming the new Dracula with the help of allies. The game has platform and role-playing elements, with a dark, gothic atmosphere. It introduces a multiplayer mode and a "Magic Seal" system that requires the use of the DS stylus to draw a pattern to defeat enemies. The game received high scores from many video game publications and was considered one of the best games on the Nintendo DS for 2005. (This article is part of a featured topic: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.)

Wikipedia article of the day for August 24, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 24, 2020 is California Pacific International Exposition half dollar.
The California Pacific International Exposition half dollar is a fifty-cent piece that was struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1935 and 1936 as a commemorative coin. Its obverse depicts Minerva and other elements of the Seal of California; the reverse shows buildings from the California Pacific International Exposition (held 1935–1936), which the coin was issued to honor. Legislation for the half dollar moved through Congress without opposition in early 1935, and Robert I. Aitken was hired to design it. The San Francisco Mint produced 250,000 coins, but expected sales did not materialize. The Exposition Commission, left with over 180,000 pieces they could not sell, sought and obtained legislation authorizing new coins. Although there was a spike in prices for many commemorative coins in 1936, the Exposition Commission's new coins also sold poorly, and 150,000 pieces were returned to the Mint.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 23, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 23, 2020 is Parachute Jump.
The Parachute Jump is a defunct amusement ride on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and protected as a New York City designated landmark, it consists of a 250-foot-tall (76-meter), 170-short-ton (150-metric-ton) open-frame, steel parachute tower. The ride has twelve cantilever steel arms radiating from the top of the tower. When it was in operation, riders were belted into a suspended two-person canvas seat, lifted to the top, and dropped; a parachute and shock absorbers slowed their descent. The jump was the tallest structure built for the 1939 New York World's Fair at Flushing Meadows. The ride was moved to its current location in 1941, where it operated until the 1960s, when the Steeplechase amusement park shut down. After a period of neglect, the frame was restored and fitted with a light-show system in 2006.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 22, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 22, 2020 is John W. Beschter.
John W. Beschter (1763–1842) was a Catholic priest from the Duchy of Luxembourg who emigrated to the United States in 1807 to become a missionary of the Society of Jesus. He took up ministry in rural Pennsylvania, and was soon made the pastor of St. Mary's Church in Lancaster. As pastor, Beschter was praised by Archbishop John Carroll for ministering to Catholic congregations of three distinct ethnic and linguistic groups, and quieting a parochial dispute over the nationality and language of their pastor. In 1812, Beschter went to Maryland to become the master of novices at the new Jesuit novitiate in White Marsh. After two years, he returned to ministering in rural Pennsylvania and Maryland. He became the pastor of the German congregation of St. John the Evangelist in Baltimore, a position he held until 1828. The following year, he became the president of Georgetown College. After several months, he left the office, and returned to ministering in Paradise, Pennsylvania, where he lived out his final years.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 21, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 21, 2020 is Tropical Storm Ileana (2018).
Tropical Storm Ileana was a small tropical cyclone that affected western Mexico in early August 2018. The eleventh tropical cyclone and ninth named storm of the 2018 Pacific hurricane season, Ileana originated from a tropical wave that left the west coast of Africa and traveled across the Atlantic Ocean before crossing into the eastern Pacific Ocean early on August 4. The system began to strengthen on August 5, becoming Tropical Storm Ileana. On August 6, it began to develop an eyewall structure as it reached its peak intensity with winds of 65 mph (100 km/h) and a pressure of 998 mbar (29.47 inHg). The storm became intertwined with Hurricane John; the circulation of John disrupted Ileana before absorbing it on August 7. Paralleling the coast of Mexico for much of its existence, Ileana killed four people in Guerrero and four others in Chiapas. There was flooding in the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Estado de México.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 20, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 20, 2020 is George Tucker (politician).
George Tucker (August 20, 1775 – April 10, 1861) was an American lawyer, politician, author, and educator. He wrote the first in-depth biography of Thomas Jefferson, the first fictional account of colonial life in Virginia, and the four-volume History of the United States. Despite a social life which had been profligate, and at times even scandalous, at age 50 he was named Professor of Moral Philosophy at Jefferson’s newly founded University of Virginia and served in that post for twenty years. A son of the first mayor of Hamilton, Bermuda, he immigrated to Virginia at age 20, was educated at the College of William and Mary, and was admitted to the bar. He was elected in 1816 to the Virginia House of Delegates, then served in the United States House of Representatives from 1819 to 1825. In 1827 he wrote A Voyage to the Moon, one of America's earliest works of science fiction. He also produced diverse compositions on slavery, suffrage, morality, intracoastal navigation, wages, and banking.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 19, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 19, 2020 is Hyborian War.
Hyborian War is a play-by-mail game set during Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age in the world of Conan the Barbarian. The Origins Award–winning game, published by Reality Simulations, Inc., has been continuously available for play since 1985. The game’s genre is heroic fantasy, also known as sword and sorcery. Conan appears as a wandering hero whom players can employ until fortune takes him elsewhere. The game designer wove multiple aspects of Howard's stories into Hyborian War including diverse landscapes and cultures, grand armies, large-scale battles, powerful wizards, and courageous and heroic deeds. Gameplay is multifaceted and complex. Players choose from 36 kingdoms of small, medium, and large sizes, each with different victory conditions. A central focus of the game is conquest and expansion through military action and diplomacy. Intrigue, magic, and other tools of statecraft in a fantasy setting are available to players. The game retains an active player base in the 21st century.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 18, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 18, 2020 is Battle of Lagos.
The naval Battle of Lagos took place between a British fleet commanded by Sir Edward Boscawen and a French fleet under Jean-François de La Clue-Sabran over 18–19 August 1759 during the Seven Years' War. The French Mediterranean Fleet successfully passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, but was sighted by a British ship. The British fleet in Gibraltar was undergoing a major refit and left port amidst great confusion, with many ships delayed and sailing in a second squadron. Aware that he was pursued, La Clue changed course, but half of his ships failed to follow him in the dark. The British caught the French south west of the Gulf of Cádiz, fierce fighting ensued, and one French ship was captured. The British pursued the remaining six French ships overnight and two managed to escape. The four survivors attempted to shelter in neutral Portuguese waters near Lagos, but Boscawen violated that neutrality, capturing two of the ships and destroying the other two.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 17, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 17, 2020 is Illustrated Daily News.
The Daily News was a newspaper published in Los Angeles from 1923 to 1954, founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt IV as the first of several papers he wanted to manage. After quickly going into receivership, it was sold to Manchester Boddy, a local businessman. Boddy was able to make the newspaper succeed, and it remained profitable through the 1930s and 1940s, taking a mainstream Democratic perspective at a time when most Los Angeles newspapers supported the Republican Party. The newspaper began a steep decline in the late 1940s, continuing into the early 1950s. In the 1950 election, Boddy ran in both the Democratic and Republican primaries for the United States Senate. He finished a distant second in each, and lost interest in the newspaper. He sold his stake in the paper in 1952 and publication ceased in December 1954. The business was sold to the Chandler family, who merged it with their publication, the Los Angeles Mirror, firing all Daily News employees without severance pay.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 16, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 16, 2020 is 2019 World Snooker Championship.
The 2019 World Snooker Championship was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 20 April to 6 May at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. It was the 43rd consecutive year the World Snooker Championship had been held at the Crucible, and the 20th and final ranking event of the 2018–19 season. The winner of the title was Judd Trump (pictured), who defeated John Higgins 18–9 in the final to claim his first World Championship, completing the Triple Crown. Defending champion Mark Williams lost 9–13 to David Gilbert in the second round. The tournament featured 100 century breaks, the highest number ever recorded at an official snooker event. The final match alone included 11 centuries, the most ever scored in the final of a ranking event. Higgins compiled the highest break, a 143, in his semifinal win over Gilbert. Shaun Murphy defeated Luo Honghao in the first round 10–0, the first whitewash at the World Championship since 1992.

Wikipedia article of the day for August 15, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 15, 2020 is Surrender of Japan.
The surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, brought the hostilities of World War II to a close. Together with the British Empire and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. Japan's leaders privately made entreaties to the publicly neutral Soviet Union to mediate more favorable peace terms. On August 6, the United States detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. On August 8, the Soviet Union invaded the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Hours later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki. Emperor Hirohito intervened and ordered that the Allies' terms for ending the war be accepted. Hirohito gave a recorded radio address transmitted across the Empire on August 15, announcing the surrender of Japan. The surrender ceremony was held aboard the battleship USS Missouri, at which officials from the Japanese government signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender (pictured).

Wikipedia article of the day for August 14, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 14, 2020 is Almost There (album).
Almost There is the first studio album by the American Christian rock band MercyMe (singer and drummer pictured), released on August 14, 2001, by INO Records. Characterizing it as contemporary worship and pop rock, music critics praised the album's songwriting, especially on "I Can Only Imagine", but gave its sound mixed reviews, ranging from "fresh" and "innovative" to derivative. CCM Magazine cited it in the 25th anniversary edition of their 100 Albums You Need to Own list. "Bless Me Indeed (Jabez's Song)" was released as the album's lead single, but it underperformed on the charts. The second single, "I Can Only Imagine", boosted sales for the album, and crossed over to mainstream radio in 2003. The album peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Billboard Christian Albums chart. Billboard ranked it as the fourth best-selling Christian album of 2000–2009 in the United States. Both the album and the single "I Can Only Imagine" have sold more than 3 million copies.