Wikipedia:Main Page history/2019 April 12

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From today's featured article

Allison Guyot is an undersea volcanic mountain with a flat top in the Mid-Pacific Mountains. West of Hawaii and northeast of the Marshall Islands, it rises 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) above the seafloor to a platform 35 by 70 kilometres (22 mi × 43 mi) wide. It was probably formed by a hotspot before plate tectonics moved it north to its present-day location. Radiometric dating puts the formation of a volcanic island at around 111 to 85 million years ago. The island was eventually buried, forming an atoll-like structure and a carbonate platform. The platform emerged above sea level at some time in the Albian or Turonian ages before eventually drowning about 99 million years ago for unknown reasons; it is possible that the emergence damaged its reefs. After a hiatus lasting until the Paleocene, pelagic sedimentation deposited limestone, ooze and sand, which bear traces of climatic events and ocean currents. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Leroy Daniels (left) with Fred Astaire

... that choreographer Alex Romero hired a shoeshiner, Leroy Daniels (pictured), to dance with Fred Astaire in the 1953 film The Band Wagon?
... that indigenous resistance by mainland Caribs and Island Caribs played a major role in the failure of Dutch, British, French, and Courlander attempts to colonise Tobago in the 17th century?
... that Patrick Lange, who conducted a Stephen Sondheim musical in a youth club production at age 16, became chief music director of the Wiesbaden State Opera at age 36?
... that the Holby City production team worked with Parkinson's UK to create a Parkinson's disease storyline for the character Alex Adams?
... that Indian social worker Sharda Mehta organised a protest against indentured servitude in 1917?
... that the former Marysville Cotton Mill now houses a data centre for departments and agencies of the Government of New Brunswick?
... that Tsutomu Kawabuchi was referred to as the "father of Japanese women's ice hockey"?
... that the mottled piculet likes to drum on bamboo?
... that Bulgaria's first cosmonaut, Georgi Ivanov, safely returned to Earth despite a failing main engine and a damaged backup engine on his Soyuz 33 spacecraft?
... that Meghan Trainor requested the removal of her song "Me Too" from Vevo, due to unapproved digital manipulation of her body in the video?

In the news

Omar al-Bashir

Amid mass protests, Omar al-Bashir (pictured) is deposed as President of Sudan in a coup d'état, after nearly 30 years in office.
The Event Horizon Telescope publishes the first direct image of a black hole.
Homo luzonensis is identified as a new species in the genus Homo.
In basketball, the Virginia Cavaliers defeat the Texas Tech Red Raiders to win the NCAA Division I Men's Championship.

On this day

April 12: Yuri's Night; Cosmonautics Day in Russia

Terry Fox

1776 – The fourth North Carolina Provincial Congress passed the Halifax Resolves, the first official action in the American colonies calling for independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution.
1807 – The Froberg mutiny at Fort Ricasoli in Malta came to a close when the rebels blew up 600 barrels of gunpowder and escaped, although they were later caught and executed.
1831 – Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, collapsed, reportedly because of mechanical resonance induced by troops marching in step over the bridge.
1910 – SMS Zrínyi, one of the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, was launched.
1980 – Terry Fox (pictured), an athlete with an artificial leg, began running his "Marathon of Hope" from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, intending to reach Vancouver, to raise funds for cancer research.

George N. Briggs (b. 1796) · Imogen Holst (b. 1907) · Karim Fakhrawi (d. 2011)

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From today's featured list

Hurricane Matthew

The 2016 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest, as well as the first above-average, Atlantic hurricane season in four years. It featured the highest number of deaths since the 2008 season and also yielded the highest number of named storm landfalls on the United States since that year. The season officially began on June 1 and concluded on November 30. The season's first cyclone, Alex, developed on January 12, while the final storm of the season, Otto, ultimately dissipated on November 26. A total of 16 tropical depressions were recorded, of which 15 further intensified into tropical storms. Of those 15, a total of seven strengthened into hurricanes, while four attained their peaks as major hurricanes. In late September and early October, Hurricane Matthew (pictured) wrought destruction throughout the Caribbean Sea and the Southeastern United States, resulting in $15.09 billion (2016 USD) in damage and 603 deaths; it remains the ninth-costliest hurricane on record in the Atlantic, as well as the tenth-costliest in the United States. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The French franc is a former currency of France and Monaco and, alongside the Spanish peseta, a former de facto currency in Andorra. The first franc was a gold coin introduced in 1360, which showed King John II of France on a richly decorated horse, earning it the name franc à cheval. A later coin, showing Charles VII on foot, under a canopy, was named the franc à pied. The decimal franc was established by the French Revolutionary Convention in 1795 as a decimal unit, and became the official currency of France in 1799. France joined the euro in 1999, and the franc was replaced by euro notes and coins in 2002.

This picture shows a 20-franc coin, dated 1803. The obverse shows an image of Napoleon.

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