Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 August 12

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From today's featured article

Polish infantry moving towards cover

In the Battle of the Falaise Pocket (12–21 August 1944) in the Second World War, Allied forces encircled and destroyed most of the German Army Group B west of the Seine river in a pocket at Falaise in northwestern France. It was the decisive engagement of the Battle of Normandy. The Americans had broken out from the Normandy beachhead, the Third U.S. Army under General George Patton was rapidly advancing, and British and Canadian forces were launching offensives south of Caumont and Caen. Adolf Hitler ordered Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, the commander of Army Group B, to conduct a counter-offensive at Mortain instead of withdrawing. Four depleted panzer divisions were not enough to stop the First U.S. Army, which converged with the British Second Army and the First Canadian Army on the Falaise–Chambois area, directed by the Allied ground forces commander, General Bernard Montgomery. German counter-attacks forced some gaps in the Allied lines, but by the evening of 21 August the pocket had been sealed, with around 50,000 Germans trapped inside. Many escaped, but losses in men and equipment were huge. A few days later, the Allies liberated Paris. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Seth Ledyard Phelps

... that commander Seth Ledyard Phelps (pictured) helped hoist the American flag over the Confederate Fort Henry after it fell to the Union?
... that the scorpion Cheloctonus jonesii has been reported killing the red-billed quelea?
... that four years ago today, Tiffany Daniels left her job at Pensacola State College early after telling her supervisor she would not be back for a few days, and has not been seen since?
... that the CAMS 54 long-range flying boat attempted an east-west transatlantic crossing, but was returned to France by ship from the Azores?
... that actress Lucinda Dryzek secured the role of Jasmine Burrows in Holby City while she was training as a hairdresser?
... that additional fire sprinklers were installed in Seattle's Westlake station to accommodate parties and receptions on the station's mezzanine?
... that "5,6,7,8" is the third-highest selling and most streamed song of Steps' career, despite being one of their lowest charting?
... that Kojo Armah once chaired a parliamentary committee to investigate the substitution of cocaine with corn dough in the Police Narcotics Exhibit Room of the Ghana Police Service?

In the news

Neymar

A 7.0 M_w earthquake in China's Sichuan province kills at least 20 people and injures at least 431 others.
Brazilian footballer Neymar (pictured) joins French club Paris Saint-Germain for a world-record fee of €222 million.
After Nawaz Sharif is disqualified from public office, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi succeeds him as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Flooding in Gujarat, India, kills at least 224 people.
A suicide bombing in Lahore, Pakistan, kills 25 people and wounds 53 others.
In golf, Jordan Spieth wins the Open Championship.

On this day...

August 12

A quagga in London Zoo

1877 – American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars.
1883 – The last known quagga (example pictured), a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
1914 – World War I: Despite the Belgian victory in the Battle of Halen, they were ultimately unable to stop the German invasion of Belgium.
1981 – The IBM Personal Computer, the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform, was introduced.
2000 – The Oscar-class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy suffered an on-board explosion and sank in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.

Guy de Beauchamp (d. 1315) · Helena Blavatsky (b. 1831) · Charles Blackman (b. 1928)

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Today's featured picture

Historic U.S. Route 66 outside Amboy, California. Established on November 11, 1926, it was one of the original highways within the U.S. Highway System. It served as a major path for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and was a part of 1960s popular culture.

Photograph: Dietmar Rabich

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