Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 February 9

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From today's featured article

Adele Spitzeder (9 February 1832 – 27 or 28 October 1895) was a German actress, folk singer, and confidence trickster. Initially a promising young actress, Spitzeder became a private banker in Munich when her theatrical success dwindled. Running what was possibly the first recorded Ponzi scheme, she offered large returns on investments by continually using the money of new investors to pay back the previous ones. At the height of her success, contemporary sources considered her the wealthiest woman in Bavaria, although she maintained the persona of a pious Christian woman who helped the poor. Brought to trial in 1872, she was convicted of bad accounting and mishandling customers' money, since Ponzi schemes were not yet illegal, and sentenced to three years in prison. In her later years, Spitzeder performed as a folk singer, living off friends and benefactors, but never completely left her criminal life, resulting in further trials and periods of incarceration. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Edwin S. Votey (right)
with the player piano

... that Edwin S. Votey, while president of the Farrand & Votey Organ Company with William R. Farrand as partner, is credited with inventing the first practical player piano (pictured)?
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... that Kapoli Kamakau, who composed music with a future queen and a princess, later contracted leprosy and died in exile?
... that the 2001 International Formula 3000 Championship featured the series's first round in the modern era to be held outside Europe?
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In the news

Bahçesaray

At least 29 people are killed and more than 50 others injured in a mass shooting in Korat, Thailand.
Two avalanches near the Turkish town of Bahçesaray (pictured) kill at least 41 people.
The United States Senate votes to acquit President Donald Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The Malawian Constitutional Court annuls the results of the 2019 general election which re-elected President Peter Mutharika, ordering a fresh election.

On this day

February 9

Wreckage of the Ehime Maru,
off Oahu, Hawaii

1825 – After no candidate received a majority of electoral votes in the previous year's presidential election, the United States House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams as president in a contingent election.
1920 – The Svalbard Treaty was signed in Paris, recognizing Norwegian sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
1945 – World War II: A force of Allied aircraft unsuccessfully attacked a German destroyer in Førde Fjord, Norway.
2001 – The American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally collided with the Ehime Maru (wreckage pictured), a Japanese training vessel operated by a high school, sinking the latter ship and killing nine people on board.

Agnès Sorel (d. 1450) · Thomas Paine (b. 1737) · Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (d. 2002)

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Today's featured picture

This picture shows a ten-sen banknote, in use during the 1914–1922 Japanese occupation of Tsingtao (Qingdao), China, as part of the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I. Issued by the Bank of Japan, the currency was based on the silver standard. This banknote, dated 1914, is in the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Before the outbreak of World War I, German naval ships were located in the Pacific; Tsingtao developed into a major seaport while the surrounding Kiautschou Bay area was leased to Germany since 1898. During the war, Japanese and British Allied troops besieged the port in 1914 before capturing it from the German and Austro-Hungarian Central Powers, occupying the city and the surrounding region. It served as a base for the exploitation of the natural resources of Shandong province and northern China, and a "New City District" was established to furnish the Japanese colonists with commercial sections and living quarters. Tsingtao eventually reverted to Chinese rule by 1922.

Banknote design credit: Bank of Japan; photographed by Andrew Shiva

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