Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 December 29

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From today's featured article

The red-tailed tropicbird is a seabird native to the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. One of three closely related species of tropicbird, it has four subspecies. Superficially resembling a tern in appearance, it has almost all-white plumage with a black mask and a red bill. The sexes have similar plumage. Adults have red tail streamers that are about twice their body length, which gives rise to its common name. Nesting takes place in loose colonies on oceanic islands, the nest itself a scrape found on a cliff face, in a crevice, or a sandy beach. A single egg is laid, being incubated by both sexes for about six weeks. The red-tailed tropicbird eats fish, mainly flying fish, and squid, catching them by plunge-diving into the ocean. This bird is considered to be a least-concern species according to the IUCN, though it is adversely affected by human contact. Rats and feral cats prey on eggs and young at nesting sites. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Meteorite in a blue-ice area
in the Miller Range

... that blue-ice areas are places in Antarctica where snow evaporation and wind have exposed blue-colored ice, which often accumulates meteorites (example pictured)?
... that before entering journalism, G. Gould Lincoln was part of Thomas Edison's team that looked for nickel in Canada?
... that Michler's Palace, a townhouse destroyed in the Warsaw Uprising, is remembered for a wartime song named after it?
... that Culley C. Carson III's research has included treatments for Peyronie's disease, in which the penis curves when erect?
... that China's largest landfill closed in November 2019, having reached capacity 25 years early?
... that baritone Heiko Trinsinger of the Aalto Theatre appeared as Alberich in Der Ring in Minden, in which reviewers noted expressivity in every moment and a thunderous curse of the ring?
... that the Battle of Marshall's Elm has been described as the "first real confrontation" of the First English Civil War?
... that to maintain personal privacy, manga artist Paru Itagaki wears a large chicken mask that obscures her face for all public appearances?

In the news

Jamal Khashoggi

Bek Air Flight 2100 crashes near Almaty, Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 people and injuring 54 others.
A court in Saudi Arabia sentences five people to death for the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi (pictured).
In the Netherlands, the supreme court upholds a ruling that the government must meet established emissions reduction milestones, creating the first legal precedent on the impact of climate change on human rights.

On this day

December 29

Sun Yat-sen

1779 – American Revolutionary War: Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell led a contingent of British soldiers to capture the city of Savannah, Georgia.
1911 – Sun Yat-sen (pictured) was elected the provisional president of the Republic of China in Nanjing.
1940 – The Blitz: The Luftwaffe conducted a major night bombing raid on the British capital, beginning what was later called the "Second Great Fire of London".
1959 – Physicist Richard Feynman gave a speech entitled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" at Caltech, anticipating the field of nanotechnology.

Christina Rossetti (d. 1894) · Adele Zay (d. 1928) · Ann Demeulemeester (b. 1959)

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Today's featured picture

Syed Kirmani (born 29 December 1949) is an Indian former international cricketer who represented his country as a wicket-keeper for nearly two decades. During his international career, his record included 160 catches and 38 stumpings during Test matches. He was a reliable lower-order batsman and, in the 1983 Cricket World Cup, was the recipient of the best wicket-keeper award. He partnered Sunil Gavaskar in a record ninth wicket stand, scoring an unbeaten 143 in the Madras Test. Always a central figure on the field with his closely-shaven head, he could dive and somersault to catch the ball, and was responsible for many batsmen being run out.

Photograph credit: Augustus Binu

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