Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 August 17

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From today's featured article

HMS Formidable was an Illustrious-class aircraft carrier ordered for the Royal Navy before World War II. Transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as a replacement for the crippled sister ship Illustrious, Formidable's aircraft played a key role in the Battle of Cape Matapan in early 1941, then provided cover for Allied ships and attacked Axis forces until the carrier was badly damaged by German dive bombers in May. Assigned to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean in early 1942, the carrier covered the invasion of Diego Suarez in Vichy Madagascar in mid-1942 against the possibility of a sortie by the Japanese into the Indian Ocean. The ship participated in Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa, in November, and covered the invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy in 1943. Formidable made several attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway with the Home Fleet in mid-1944, and in 1945 attacked targets in the Japanese Home Islands. After repatriating liberated Allied prisoners of war and soldiers and ferrying British personnel across the globe, the ship was placed in reserve, and finally sold for scrap in 1953. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Male and female saffron siskin

... that despite occurring in six protected areas in Ecuador, the saffron siskin (pictured) is rated a "vulnerable species"?
... that while in the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District, Vidal Llerenas Morales presented initiatives supporting the legalization of marijuana?
... that KGB mole Aldrich Ames enabled the Soviet Union and Russia to funnel disinformation to the CIA for eight years?
... that Jim Morrison recorded some vocals for the Doors' L.A. Woman in a bathroom doorway?
... that the desert dormouse hibernates for nearly half the year?
... that Charles Soule, creator of the comic book series Star Wars: Poe Dameron, writes English dialogue for the droid BB-8 which is later translated into "bleeps and bloops" for the comic?
... that two hands can sound like three?

In the news

Greenland shark

In eSports, The International Dota 2 championships conclude with Wings Gaming defeating Digital Chaos in the final.
The Syrian Democratic Forces capture the city of Manbij from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Scientists identify the Greenland shark (pictured) as the world's longest-living vertebrate.
At least 90 people are killed by police during protests against human rights abuses and corruption in Ethiopia.

On this day...

August 17: Independence Day in Indonesia (1945)

Michael Phelps

986 – Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: The Bulgarians defeated the Byzantine forces at the Gate of Trajan near present-day Ihtiman, with Byzantine Emperor Basil II barely escaping.
1560 – The Scottish Parliament adopted a Protestant confession of faith to initiate the Scottish Reformation and disestablishing Catholicism as the national religion.
1943 – Second World War: The Royal Air Force began a strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany's V-weapon programme by attacking the Peenemünde Army Research Center.
1980 – Two-month-old Australian Azaria Chamberlain was taken from her family's campsite at Uluru by a dingo, for which her mother was later convicted of murder.
2008 – With the victory in the 4×100 m medley relay at the Beijing Summer Olympics, Michael Phelps (pictured) set the records for the most gold medals won by an individual in a single Olympics (8) as well as total career gold medals (14) in modern Olympic history.

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Today's featured picture

Sulfur mining near the one-kilometer-wide turquoise-colored acidic crater lake at the Ijen volcano complex, a group of stratovolcanoes in the Banyuwangi Regency of East Java, Indonesia. During the mining process, sulfur-laden baskets are carried by hand from the crater floor. The work is paid well relative to the cost of living in the area, but very onerous.

Photograph: Sémhur

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