Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 2007

Today's featured articles for June 2007

Today's featured article archive

June 1

Solidus celebrating Basiliscus

Basiliscus was a Byzantine Emperor of the House of Leo, who ruled briefly (9 January 475-August 476), when Emperor Zeno had been forced out of Constantinople by a revolt. Basiliscus was the brother of Empress Aelia Verina, the wife of Emperor Leo I. His relationship with the emperor allowed him to pursue a military career that, after minor initial successes, ended in 468, when he led the disastrous Byzantine invasion of Vandal Africa, in one of the largest military operations of Late Antiquity. Basiliscus succeeded in seizing power in 475, exploiting the unpopularity of Emperor Zeno, the "barbarian" successor to Leo, and a plot organized by Verina that had caused Zeno to flee Constantinople. However, during his short rule, Basiliscus alienated the fundamental support of the Church and the people of Constantinople, promoting the Monophysite christological position in opposition to the widely accepted Chalcedonian faith. So, when Zeno tried to regain his empire, he found virtually no opposition, triumphally entering Constantinople, and capturing and killing Basiliscus and his family. The struggle between Basiliscus and Zeno impeded the intervention of the Eastern Empire in the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which happened in early September 476. (more...)

Recently featured: Smells Like Teen Spirit – Sydney Roosters – Caspian expeditions of the Rus

June 2

Harriet Arbuthnot was an early 19th-century English diarist, social observer and political hostess on behalf of the Tory party. During the 1820s she was the "closest woman friend" of the hero of Waterloo and British Prime Minister, the 1st Duke of Wellington. She maintained a long correspondence and association with the Duke, all of which she recorded in her diaries, which are consequently extensively used in all authoritative biographies of the Duke of Wellington. Born into the periphery of the British aristocracy and married to a politician and member of the establishment, she was perfectly placed to meet all the key figures of the Regency and late Napoleonic eras. Recording meetings and conversations often verbatim, she has today become the "Mrs Arbuthnot" quoted in many biographies and histories of the era. Her observations and memories of life within the British establishment are not confined to individuals but document politics, great events and daily life with an equal attention to detail, providing historians with a clear picture of the events described. Her diaries were themselves finally published in 1950 as The Journal of Mrs Arbuthnot. (more...)

Recently featured: Basiliscus – Smells Like Teen Spirit – Sydney Roosters

June 3

Taiwanese aborigines are the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. Although each group holds a variety of creation stories, contemporary research suggests their ancestors may have been living on the islands for approximately 8,000 years before major Han Chinese immigration began in the 1600s. The Taiwanese Aborigines are Austronesian peoples, with linguistic and genetic ties to other Austronesian ethnic groups, such as peoples of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Oceania. For centuries Taiwan's Aboriginal peoples experienced economic competition and military conflict with a series of conquering peoples. Centralized government policies designed to foster language shift and cultural assimilation, as well as continued contact with the colonizers through trade, intermarriage and other dispassionate intercultural processes, have resulted in varying degrees of language death and loss of original cultural identity. The bulk of contemporary Taiwanese Aborigines reside in the mountains and the cities. Many Aboriginal groups are actively seeking a higher degree of political self-determination and economic development since the early 1980s. (more...)

Recently featured: Harriet Arbuthnot – Basiliscus – Smells Like Teen Spirit

June 4

Excel Saga is a manga series by Koushi Rikudou, and a TV anime series based on it and directed by Shinichi Watanabe (pictured). Both the anime and the manga are absurdist comedies following the attempts of the "secret ideological organization," Across, to conquer the city of Fukuoka as a first step towards world domination. Excel, the title character, is a key member of Across and ranks below only the organization's enigmatic leader, Ilpalazzo. In both the manga and anime, the city is defended by a shadowy government agency led by Dr. Kabapu, whose subordinates engage Excel and her junior officer, Hyatt on several occasions. The manga focuses on the development of its principal characters by means of satirizing life and culture in Japan. The English-language reception of the Excel Saga anime was generally positive, likening the humor in nature and quality to the works of Tex Avery and Monty Python. The Excel Saga manga began publication in Japan in the mid-1990s, serialized in Shonen Gahosha's Young King OURs, and as of August 2006 sixteen collected volumes have been published. (more...)

Recently featured: Taiwanese aborigines – Harriet Arbuthnot – Basiliscus

June 5

Frank Klepacki is an American video game music composer and sound director best known for his work on the Command & Conquer series. Having learned to play drums in childhood, he joined Westwood Studios as a composer at age 17. He scored several games there, including the Lands of Lore series, the Dune games, the The Legend of Kyrandia series, Blade Runner, and the Command & Conquer series. His work in Command & Conquer: Red Alert won two awards. He lives in Las Vegas, where he has shaped a solo career and played and produced for several local bands. His personal and band work touches upon several genres, including orchestral, rock music, hip hop music, alternative rock, progressive rock, soul music, and funk. (more...)

Recently featured: Excel Saga – Taiwanese aborigines – Harriet Arbuthnot

June 6

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is two and a half times as massive as all of the other planets in the Solar System combined. Jupiter, along with Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, is classified as a gas giant. When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude of -2.8, making it the fourth brightest object in the night sky. The planet was known by astronomers of ancient times and was associated with the mythology and religious beliefs of many cultures. Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen with only a small proportion of helium; it may also have a rocky core of heavier elements. The outer atmosphere is visibly segregated into several bands at different latitudes, resulting in turbulence and storms along their interacting boundaries. A prominent result is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm that is known to have existed since at least the seventeenth century. Surrounding the planet is a faint planetary ring system and a powerful magnetosphere. There are also at least 63 moons, including the four large moons called the Galilean moons that were first discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Jupiter has been explored on several occasions by robotic spacecraft, most notably during the early Pioneer and Voyager fly-by missions and later by the Galileo orbiter. (more...)

Recently featured: Frank Klepacki – Excel Saga – Taiwanese aborigines

June 7

The Battle of Midway was a pivotal naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. It took place from June 4 to June 7, 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, and six months after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor that had led to a formal state of war between the United States and Japan. During the battle, the United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll (located northwest of Hawaii) and destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser while losing a carrier and a destroyer. The battle was a crushing defeat for the Japanese and is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of World War II. The battle permanently weakened the Japanese Navy, particularly through the loss of over 200 naval aviators. Strategically, the U.S. Navy was able to seize the initiative in the Pacific and go on the offensive. (more...)

Recently featured: Jupiter – Frank Klepacki – Excel Saga

June 8

The Ancient Greek word "atheoi", from Ephesians 2:12, translated as "[those who are] without God"

Atheism is the philosophical position that either affirms the nonexistence of gods or rejects theism. In its broadest definition, atheism is the absence of belief in deities, sometimes called nontheism. Although atheists are commonly assumed to be irreligious, some religions, such as Buddhism, have been characterized as atheistic. Many self-described atheists share common skeptical concerns regarding supernatural claims, citing a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Other arguments for atheism are philosophical, social or historical. Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism, rationalism, and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere. The term atheism originated as a pejorative epithet applied to any person or belief in conflict with established religion. With the spread of freethought, scientific skepticism, and criticism of religion, the term began to gather a more specific meaning and was sometimes used as a self-description by atheists. (more...)

Recently featured: Battle of Midway – Jupiter – Frank Klepacki

June 9

Aaron Sorkin is an American screenwriter, producer and playwright. His stageplay A Few Good Men caught the attention of Hollywood producer David Brown, who bought the film rights before the play even premiered. Castle Rock Entertainment hired Sorkin to adapt A Few Good Men for the big screen. The movie, directed by Rob Reiner, became a box office success. Sorkin spent the early 1990s writing two other screenplays at Castle Rock for the films Malice and The American President. In the mid-1990s he worked as a script doctor on films such as Schindler's List and Bulworth. In 1998 his television career began when he created the TV comedy series Sports Night for the ABC network. Sports Night's second season was its last, and in 1999 overlapped with the debut of Sorkin's next TV series, the multiple Emmy-award-winning political drama The West Wing, this time for the NBC network. In 2006, after a three year hiatus, he returned to television with a dramedy called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, about the backstage drama at a late night sketch comedy show, once again for the NBC network. His most recent feature film screenplay is Charlie Wilson's War, which is set to open in movie theaters on Christmas day 2007. (more...)

Recently featured: Atheism – Battle of Midway – Jupiter

June 10

The flag of Portugal consists of a rectangle vertically divided into green, at the hoist, and red, at the fly, with a simple version of the national coat of arms (armillary sphere and Portuguese shield) centered over the boundary between the colors. It was officially adopted on 30 June 1911, replacing the flag used under the constitutional monarchy, after being chosen from several proposals by a special commission whose members included Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, João Chagas and Abel Botelho. The new background colors, especially green, were not traditional and represented a radical republican-inspired change of this national symbol, breaking a bond with the former religious monarchical flag. The current flag represents a sweeping change in the evolution of the Portuguese flag, which was always intimately associated with the royal arms. Since the country's foundation, the national flag developed from King Afonso I's blue-cross-on-white armorial square banner to the liberal monarchy's royal arms on a blue-and-white rectangle. In between, major changes associated with important political events contributed to the evolution of the national shield into its current design. (more...)

Recently featured: Aaron Sorkin – Atheism – Battle of Midway

June 11

The cougar is a mammal of the Felidae family, native to the Americas. This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any terrestrial mammal other than humans in the Western Hemisphere, extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. An adaptable, generalist species, the Cougar is found in every major New World habitat type. It is the second heaviest cat in the New World, after the Jaguar, and the fourth heaviest in the world, after the Tiger, Lion, and Jaguar, although it is most closely related to smaller felines. A capable stalk-and-ambush predator, the Cougar pursues a wide variety of prey. Its primary food is ungulates such as deer, particularly in the northern part of its range, but it hunts species as small as insects and rodents. It prefers habitats with dense underbrush for stalking, but it can live in open areas. The Cougar is territorial and persists at low population densities, with individual territory sizes dependent on terrain, vegetation, and prey abundance. While a large predator, it is not always the dominant species in its range, competing with other animals such as the Gray Wolf for prey. It is a reclusive cat and usually avoids people. Attacks on humans remain rare, despite a recent increase in frequency. (more...)

Recently featured: Flag of Portugal – Aaron Sorkin – Atheism

June 12

El Hatillo Municipality is an administrative division of the State of Miranda, Venezuela. One of the five municipalities of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, it is located in the southeastern area of Caracas. The seat of the municipal government is El Hatillo Town, founded in 1784 by Don Baltasar de León, who was instrumental in the area's development. Although the town had its origins during the Spanish colonization, the municipality was not established until 1991. In 2000—the year after a new constitution was enacted in Venezuela—some of the municipality functions were delegated to a consolidated mayor's office called Alcaldía Mayor. El Hatillo preserves some of its colonial architecture, including an 18th century parish church and a unique Romanian Orthodox Church. The municipality also has a rich artistic culture, with at least two important musical festivals celebrated yearly, and numerous holiday celebrations reflecting the heritage of El Hatillo. The culture, the pleasant temperature, the rural landscape, and the gastronomy of the municipality have made it a place of interest for visitors to the city, and a desirable place to live. (more...)

Recently featured: Cougar – Flag of Portugal – Aaron Sorkin

June 13

"Hollaback Girl" is a pop song written by Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams for Stefani's debut solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. As part of Stefani's vision of creating "a silly dance record", the song is strongly influenced by 1980s dance and hip hop music. Stefani and Williams wrote the song as a confrontational response to a derogatory comment that Courtney Love made about Stefani in an interview with Seventeen magazine. The song was released as the album's third single in early 2005. It was one of the year's most popular songs, reaching the top ten in most singles charts. In the United States, "Hollaback Girl" topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks and became the first digital download to sell more than one million copies. The song received numerous award nominations, including Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Record of the Year at the 48th Grammy Awards. Despite its commercial success, it had a polarizing effect on pop music critics, especially criticized for its repeated use of the word shit. (more...)

Recently featured: El Hatillo Municipality – Cougar – Flag of Portugal

June 14

Kazi Nazrul Islam was a Bengali poet, musician, revolutionary and philosopher who is best known for pioneering poetic works espousing intense spiritual rebellion against orthodoxy and oppression. Popularly known as the Bidrohi Kobi (Rebel Poet), Nazrul is officially recognised as the national poet of Bangladesh and commemorated in India. After a stint in the Indian Army, Nazrul established himself as a journalist in Kolkata (then Calcutta). He assailed the British Raj in India and preached revolution through his poetic works, such as "Bidrohi" ("The Rebel") and "Bhangar Gaan" ("The Song of Destruction"), as well as his publication "Dhumketu" ("The Comet"). His impassioned activism in the Indian independence movement often led to his imprisonment by British authorities. While in prison, Nazrul wrote the "Rajbandir Jabanbandi" ("Deposition of a Political Prisoner") and condemned Islamic fundamentalism and bigotry in society. Exploring the life and conditions of the downtrodden masses of India, Nazrul agitated fiercely for their emancipation. Nazrul's writings explore themes such as love, freedom, and revolution. Nazrul wrote and composed music for his nearly 3,000 songs which are collectively known as Nazrul Sangeet and widely popular today. (more...)

Recently featured: Hollaback Girl – El Hatillo Municipality – Cougar

June 15

The meteorological history of Hurricane Katrina, an extremely destructive Category 5 hurricane, began on August 23, 2005 when it originated as Tropical Depression Twelve near the Bahamas. The next day, the tropical depression strengthened to a tropical storm, receiving the name Katrina. The storm made landfall on southern Florida as a minimal hurricane. After passing through Florida, Katrina weakened back to a tropical storm; however, the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico allowed it to rapidly intensify to the sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane in history. Afterwards, Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana, and once more near the Mississippi/Louisiana border. Following its landfall, Katrina progressed up through the central United States and finally dissipated near the Great Lakes, where it was absorbed by a cold front. (more...)

Recently featured: Kazi Nazrul Islam – Hollaback Girl – El Hatillo Municipality

June 16

Robert Garran was an Australian lawyer and public servant, an early leading expert in Australian constitutional law, the first employee of the Government of Australia and the first Solicitor-General of Australia. Garran spent thirty-one years as permanent head of the Attorney-General's Department, providing advice to ten different Prime Ministers (from Barton to Lyons). He played a significant behind-the-scenes role in the Australian federation movement, as adviser to Edmund Barton and chair of the Drafting Committee at the 1897–1898 Constitutional Convention. In addition to his professional work, Garran was also an important figure in the development of the city of Canberra during its early years. He founded several important cultural associations, organised the creation of the Canberra University College, and later contributed to the establishment of the Australian National University. Garran published at least eight books and many journal articles throughout his lifetime, covering such topics as constitutional law, the history of federalism in Australia, and German language poetry. (more...)

Recently featured: Meteorological history of Hurricane Katrina – Kazi Nazrul Islam – Hollaback Girl

June 17

Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. Norwich play in the Football League Championship, last appearing in the FA Premier League in 2004–05, having first been promoted to the top flight in 1972. Norwich have won the League Cup twice, in 1962 and 1985. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their home games at Carrow Road and have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with East Anglian rivals Ipswich Town, with whom they have contested the East Anglian Derby 134 times since 1902. The fans' song "On The Ball, City" is regarded as being the oldest football song in the world. (more...)

Recently featured: Robert Garran – Meteorological history of Hurricane Katrina – Kazi Nazrul Islam

June 18

The history of Puerto Rico began with the settlement of the archipelago of Puerto Rico by the Ortoiroid people, sometime between 3000 and 2000 BC. At the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World, the dominant indigenous culture was that of the Taínos. The Taíno culture died out during the latter half of the 16th century because of exploitation, war and diseases brought by the Spanish. Puerto Rico was the key to the Spanish Empire from the early years of the exploration, conquest and colonization of the New World. The smallest of the Greater Antilles, Puerto Rico was a major military post during many wars between Spain and other European powers for control of the region during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Puerto Rico was invaded and subsequently became a possession of the United States. The first half of the 20th century was marked by the struggle to obtain greater democratic rights from the United States. The Foraker Act of 1900, which established a civil government, and the Jones Act of 1917, which granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship, paved the way for the drafting of Puerto Rico's Constitution and the establishment of democratic elections in 1952. However, the political status of Puerto Rico, a Commonwealth controlled by the U.S., remains an anomaly, more than 500 years after the first Europeans settled the island. (more...)

Recently featured: Norwich City F.C. – Robert Garran – Meteorological history of Hurricane Katrina

June 19

Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is often referred to as The Father of Medicine in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field as the founder of the Hippocratic school of medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields that it had traditionally been associated with (notably theurgy and philosophy) and making a profession of it. As such, the achievements of the writers of the Corpus, the practitioners of Hippocratic medicine and Hippocrates himself are often commingled; very little is known about what Hippocrates actually thought, wrote and did. Nevertheless, Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the paragon of the ancient physician. In particular, he is credited with greatly advancing clinical medicine, summing up the medical knowledge of previous schools, and prescribing practices for physicians through the Hippocratic Oath and other works. (more...)

Recently featured: History of Puerto Rico – Norwich City F.C. – Robert Garran

June 20

Final Fantasy VI is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) in 1994. The game initially appeared on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and has since been ported by TOSE with minor differences to the Sony PlayStation and the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. It was first released in North America as Final Fantasy III, although the original title has been restored in later releases. The game's story focuses on a group of rebels as they seek to overthrow an imperial dictatorship. Final Fantasy VI was the first game in the series to be directed by someone other than producer and series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi; the role was filled instead by Yoshinori Kitase and Hiroyuki Itō. Originally released to significant critical acclaim, it is still regarded as a landmark of the series and of the role-playing genre. It had a significantly greater number of battle customization options than its predecessors and the largest playable cast in the Final Fantasy series to date, excluding spin-off titles. It remains widely praised for its storyline, characters and non-linear style of play. (more...)

Recently featured: Hippocrates – History of Puerto Rico – Norwich City F.C.

June 21

Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a state in the United States. The largest city in New England, it is considered the unofficial capital of the New England region. The city-proper had an estimated population of 596,638 in 2005, and lies at the center of America's eleventh-largest metropolitan area, Greater Boston, which is home to 4.4 million people. Founded in 1630, Boston was the location of several major events during the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. With many colleges and universities within the city and surrounding area, Boston is a center of higher education and a center for health care. The city's economy is also based on research, finance, and technology — principally biotechnology. Boston is struggling with gentrification issues, and has one of the highest costs of living in the United States. (more...)

Recently featured: Final Fantasy VI – Hippocrates – History of Puerto Rico

June 22

Antioxidants are molecules that slow or prevent the oxidation of other chemicals. Oxidation is a redox chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can involve the production of free radicals, which can form dangerous chain reactions. Antioxidants can terminate these chain reactions by removing radical intermediates and inhibiting other oxidation reactions by being oxidized themselves. As a result, antioxidants are often reducing agents such as thiols or phenols. Although oxidation reactions are critical for life, they can also be damaging; hence, plants and animals maintain complex systems of multiple types of antioxidants, such as glutathione, vitamin C, and vitamin E as well as enzymes such as catalase, superoxide dismutase and various peroxidases. Low levels of antioxidant molecules or inhibition of these antioxidant enzymes causes oxidative stress and may damage or kill cells. As oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many human diseases, the use of antioxidants in pharmacology is intensively studied, particularly as a treatment for stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. (more...)

Recently featured: Boston – Final Fantasy VI – Hippocrates

June 23

Turkish is a language spoken by 65–73 million people worldwide, predominantly in Turkey, with smaller communities of speakers in Cyprus, Greece and Eastern Europe, as well as by several million immigrants in Western Europe, making it the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages. The roots of the language can be traced to Central Asia, with the first written records dating back nearly 1,200 years. To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish—the immediate precursor of today's Turkish—spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's Reforms in the early years of the new Turkish Republic, the Ottoman script was replaced with a phonetic variant of the Latin alphabet. Concurrently, the newly founded Turkish Language Association initiated a drive to reform the language by removing Persian and Arabic loanwords in favor of native variants and coinages from Turkic roots. The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination. The basic word order of Turkish is Subject Object Verb. Turkish has a T-V distinction: second-person plural forms can be used for individuals as a sign of respect. Turkish also has no noun classes or grammatical gender. (more...)

Recently featured: Antioxidants – Boston – Final Fantasy VI

June 24

The B-52 aircraft crash at Fairchild Air Force Base was a fatal air crash that occurred on June 24, 1994, killing the four crew members of a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52 Stratofortress during a training flight. In the crash, Bud Holland, who was the command pilot of the aircraft based at Fairchild Air Force Base, call sign Czar 52, flew the aircraft beyond its operational parameters and lost control. As a result, the aircraft stalled, impacted the ground, and was completely destroyed. Video of the crash was shown throughout the United States on news broadcasts. The accident investigation concluded that the chain of events leading to the crash was primarily attributable to Holland's personality and behavior, USAF leaders' reactions to it, and the sequence of events during the mishap flight of the aircraft. Today, the crash is used in military and civilian aviation environments as a case study in teaching crew resource management. Also, the crash is often used by the USAF during safety training as an example of the importance of compliance with safety regulations and correcting the behavior of anyone who violates safety procedures. (more...)

Recently featured: Turkish language – Antioxidants – Boston

June 25

The All Blacks are New Zealand's national rugby union team. Rugby union is New Zealand's national sport, with the All Blacks a formidable power in international rugby, possessing a winning record against all nations. The All Blacks compete annually with Australia and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with Australia. They have been Tri-Nations champions seven times in the tournament's eleven-year history, have twice completed a Grand Slam (in 1978 and in 2005), and currently hold the Bledisloe Cup. They are the top ranked team in the world, and the 2006 International Rugby Board (IRB) Team of the Year. Twelve former All Blacks have been inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame. (more...)

Recently featured: 1994 Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crash – Turkish language – Antioxidants

June 26

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was the Queen Consort of George VI from 1936 until his death in 1952. After her husband's death, she was known as Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her elder daughter, Elizabeth II. In 1936, she unexpectedly became Queen when her brother-in-law, Edward VIII, suddenly abdicated in order to marry his mistress, the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. During World War II, her seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public, so much so that, in recognition of her role as a propaganda tool, Adolf Hitler described her as "the most dangerous woman in Europe." After the war, her husband's health deteriorated and she was widowed at the age of 51. With her brother-in-law living abroad and her elder daughter now Queen at the age of 26, when Queen Mary died in 1953, Elizabeth became the senior royal and assumed a position as family matriarch. In her later years, she was a consistently popular member of the British Royal Family, when other members were suffering from low levels of public approval. Only after the illness and death of her own younger daughter, Princess Margaret, did she appear to grow frail. She died six weeks after Margaret, at the age of 101. (more...)

Recently featured: All Blacks – 1994 Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crash – Turkish language

June 27

Slayer is an American thrash metal band, formed in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame as a leader of the American thrash metal movement with their 1986 release Reign in Blood, which has been called "the heaviest album of all time." The band is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal bands along with Megadeth, Metallica, and Anthrax. Slayer is known for its musical traits, involving fast tremolo picking, guitar solos, double bass drumming, and screaming vocals. The band's lyrics and album art, which cover topics such as serial killers, satanism, religion and warfare have generated album bans, delays, lawsuits and strong criticism from religious groups and the public. Since their debut record in 1983, the band has released two live albums, one box set, two DVDs, two EPs, and ten albums, four of which have received gold certification. The band has received two Grammy nominations, winning one in 2007 for the song "Eyes of the Insane", and headlined music festivals worldwide, including Ozzfest, The Unholy Alliance and the Download Festival. (more...)

Recently featured: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon – All Blacks – 1994 Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crash

June 28

The Wonderbra is a type of push-up brassiere that gained worldwide prominence in the 1990s. Although the Wonderbra name was first trademarked in the U.S. in 1935, the brand was developed in Canada. Moses (Moe) Nadler, founder and majority owner of the Canadian Lady Corset Company, licensed the trademark for the Canadian market in 1939. By the 1960s the Canadian Lady brand had become known in Canada as "Wonderbra, the company." In 1961 the company introduced the Model 1300 plunge push-up bra. This bra became one of the best-selling Canadian styles and is virtually identical to today's Wonderbra. In 1968 Canadian Lady changed its name to Canadian Lady-Canadelle Inc., was sold to Consolidated Foods (now Sara Lee Corporation), and later became Canadelle Inc. In 1991 the push-up Wonderbra became a sensation in the UK, although it had been sold there since 1964 under license by the Gossard division of Courtalds Textiles. Sara Lee Corporation did not renew Gossard's license and redesigned the push-up style for the reintroduction of the Wonderbra to the U.S. market in 1994. Since 1994, the Wonderbra has expanded from the single push-up design into a wide-ranging lingerie fashion label in most of the world. (more...)

Recently featured: Slayer – Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon – All Blacks

June 29

The Shuttle-Mir Program was a collaborative space program between Russia and the United States, which involved American Space Shuttles visiting the Russian space station Mir, Russian cosmonauts flying on the shuttle and American astronauts engaging in long-duration expeditions aboard Mir. The program, under the code name 'Phase One', was intended to allow the United States to learn from Russian experience into long-duration spaceflight and to foster a spirit of cooperation between the two nations and their respective space agencies, NASA and RKA, in preparation for further cooperative space ventures. Announced in 1993 with the first mission occurring in 1994, the program continued until its scheduled completion in 1998, and consisted of eleven shuttle missions, a joint Soyuz flight and almost 1000 days in space for American astronauts over seven expeditions. The program was, however, marred by various concerns, notably the safety of Mir following a fire and collision on board the station, financial issues with the cash-strapped Russian Space Program and worries from astronauts about the attitudes of the program administrators. Nevertheless, a large amount of science, expertise in space station construction and knowledge in working in a cooperative space venture was gained from the combined operations, allowing 'Phase Two' of the joint project, the construction of the International Space Station, to proceed much more smoothly than otherwise possible. (more...)

Recently featured: Wonderbra – Slayer – Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

June 30

The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League. The Devils have won the Stanley Cup three times, in 1995, 2000, and 2003. The club was founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1974, moved to Denver, Colorado after only two seasons, and then settled in New Jersey in 1982. Under current general manager Lou Lamoriello, the Devils have made the playoffs in 17 out of 19 seasons, including each of the last 10. Since their move to New Jersey, the Devils have played their home games at the Continental Airlines Arena. Next season, the team will switch arenas to the Prudential Center, which is under construction in the city of Newark. They have rivalries with their trans-Hudson neighbor, the New York Rangers, and with the Philadelphia Flyers, as either the Devils or Flyers have won the Atlantic Division title every season since 1995. (more...)

Recently featured: Shuttle-Mir Program – Wonderbra – Slayer