Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-05-28/Featured content



This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 18 May through 24 May. Quoted material is from the relevant lists and articles, see the lists and articles for attribution.

Featured articles
Seven featured articles were promoted this week.
 * WINC (AM) (nominated by Neutralhomer) "WINC (1400 AM) is a broadcast radio station licensed to Winchester, Virginia, United States. The station carries a news, talk, and sports format. WINC serves Winchester along with Frederick and Clarke Counties in Virginia. Launched on June 26, 1941, by Richard Field Lewis, Jr., WINC was Winchester's first radio station. It remained in the hands of the Lewis family until sold to North Carolina-based Centennial Broadcasting in 2007. The station's current format, established in 1996, consists mostly of conservative talk programs and top-of-the-hour news from Fox News Radio. Sports programming from Virginia Tech is also broadcast. Prior formats heard on WINC include middle of the road music, adult contemporary, and classic hits."
 * Marquee Moon (nominated by Dan56) "Marquee Moon is the debut album by American rock band Television. It was released in February 1977 by Elektra Records. By 1974, the band had become a prominent act on the New York music scene and generated interest from a number of record labels. They rehearsed extensively in preparation for the album and, upon signing to Elektra, recorded most of the songs in single takes. Television's frontman Tom Verlaine produced the album with recording engineer Andy Johns at A & R Recording in September 1976. For Marquee Moon, Verlaine and fellow guitarist Richard Lloyd eschewed contemporary punk rock's power chords in favor of rock and jazz-inspired interplay, melodic lines, and counter-melodies. Verlaine's lyrics for the album combined urban and pastoral imagery, references to lower Manhattan, themes of adolescence, and influences from French poetry. He also used puns and double-entendres to give his songs an impressionistic quality." The album "has... been viewed by critics as one of the greatest albums of the American punk rock movement and a cornerstone of alternative rock. The band's innovative post-punk instrumentation on the album strongly influenced the indie rock and new wave movements of the 1980s, as well as rock guitarists such as John Frusciante, Will Sergeant, and The Edge."
 * Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (nominated by GabeMc) "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 1 June 1967, it was an immediate commercial and critical success, spending 22 weeks at the top of the albums chart in the UK and 15 weeks at number one in the US. Time magazine declared it "a historic departure in the progress of music" and the New Statesman praised its elevation of pop to the level of fine art. It won four Grammy Awards in 1968, including Album of the Year, the first rock LP to receive this honour."
 * Thorpe affair (nominated by Brianboulton) "The Thorpe affair of the 1970s was a British political and sex scandal that ended the career of Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal Party and Member of Parliament (MP) for North Devon. The scandal arose from allegations by Norman Josiffe (otherwise known as Norman Scott), that he and Thorpe had shared a homosexual relationship in the early 1960s, at a time when such relationships were illegal in the United Kingdom."
 * Audie Murphy (nominated by Maile66) "Audie Leon Murphy (20 June 1925 – 28 May 1971) was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II, receiving every military combat award for valor available from the U.S. Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. The 19-year-old Murphy received the Medal of Honor after single-handedly holding off an entire company of Germans for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France in January 1945, then leading a successful counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition."
 * Orel Hershiser's scoreless innings streak (nominated by TonyTheTiger) "During the 1988 Major League Baseball (MLB) regular season, pitcher Orel Hershiser of the Los Angeles Dodgers set the MLB record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched. Hershiser pitched 59 consecutive innings in which opposing hitters did not score a run against him. During the streak, he averted numerous high risk scoring situations... The streak spanned from the sixth inning of an August 30, 1988 game against the Montreal Expos to the tenth inning of the September 28, 1988 game against the San Diego Padres. The previous record of 58 innings was set by former Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale in 1968; as the team's radio announcer, Drysdale called games as Hershiser pursued his record. Commentators have described this streak as among the greatest individual streaks in sports and among the greatest records in baseball history."
 * No. 1 Flying Training School RAAF (nominated by Ian Rose) "No. 1 Flying Training School (No. 1 FTS) was a school of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). It was one of the Air Force's original units, dating back to the service's formation in 1921, when it was established at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria. By the early 1930s, the school comprised training, fighter, and seaplane components. It was re-formed several times in the ensuing years, initially as No. 1 Service Flying Training School (No. 1 SFTS) in 1940, under the wartime Empire Air Training Scheme. After graduating nearly 3,000 pilots, No. 1 SFTS was disbanded in late 1944, when there was no further requirement to train Australian aircrew for service in Europe."

For other featured article news, please see the accompanying Signpost report on Casliber becoming Wikipedia's second featured article centurion.

Featured lists
Three featured lists were promoted this week.
 * Axis order of battle for the invasion of Yugoslavia (nominated by Peacemaker67) "The Axis order of battle for the invasion of Yugoslavia includes a listing (or order of battle) of all operational formations of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS, Italian Armed Forces and Hungarian Armed Forces that were involved in the World War II invasion of Yugoslavia which commenced on 6 April 1941. It involved the German 2nd Army, with elements of the 12th Army and a panzer group combined with overwhelming Luftwaffe (German Air Force) support. The eighteen German divisions included five panzer divisions, two motorised infantry divisions and two mountain divisions. The German force also included two well-equipped independent motorised regiments and was supported by over 800 aircraft. The Italian 2nd Army and 9th Army committed a total of twenty-two divisions, and the Royal Italian Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) had over 650 aircraft available to support the invasion. The Hungarian 3rd Army also participated, with support from the Royal Hungarian Air Force (Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő, MKHL)."
 * List of National Natural Landmarks in Illinois (nominated by Dana boomer) "The National Natural Landmarks (NNLs) in Illinois include 18 of the almost 600 such landmarks in the United States. They cover areas of geological, biological and historical importance, and include lakes, bogs, canyons and forests. Several of the sites provide habitat for rare or endangered plant and animal species. The landmarks are located in 13 of the state's 102 counties. Five counties each contain all or part of two or more NNLs, while one landmark is split between two counties. The first designation, Forest of the Wabash, was made in 1965, while the most recent designation, Markham Prairie, was made in 1987. Natural Landmarks in Illinois range from 53 to 6,500 acres (21.4 to 2,630.5 ha; 0.1 to 10.2 sq mi) in size. Owners include private individuals and several county, state and federal agencies."
 * List of SpongeBob SquarePants guest stars (nominated by Mediran) "In addition to the show's regular cast of voice actors, guest stars have been featured on SpongeBob SquarePants, an American animated television series created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. SpongeBob SquarePants chronicles the adventures and endeavors of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Many of the ideas for the show originated in an unpublished, educational comic book titled The Intertidal Zone, which Hillenburg created in the mid-1980s. He began developing SpongeBob SquarePants into a television series in 1996 upon the cancellation of Rocko's Modern Life, which Hillenburg directed."

Featured pictures
Four featured pictures were promoted this week.
 * Charlie Murder screenshot (created by Ska Studios, nominated by Sven Manguard) "Charlie Murder is an action role-playing beat 'em up video game developed by Ska Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. First revealed in January 2010 as an Xbox Live Indie Games title, the studio announced in May 2010 that the game would undergo a "complete overhaul" and be published in 2012 through Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360. Charlie Murder was eventually released on 14 August 2013 to positive reviews, with critics praising the game's soundtrack and hand-illustrated visuals."
 * The Last of the Mohicans (created by Frank T. Merrill and restored by Crisco 1492, nominated by  Crisco 1492) "The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826) is an historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper. It is the second book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy... The Last of the Mohicans is set in 1757, during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years' War), when France and Great Britain battled for control of North America. During this war, the French depended on its Native American allies to help fight the more numerous British colonists in the Northeast frontier areas."
 * Memorial tower of the Netherlands American Cemetery (created by Godot13, nominated by Godot13) "The World War II Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial is a war cemetery which lies in the village of Margraten six miles (10 km) east of Maastricht, in the most southern part of the Netherlands. It is administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission... The walls on either side of the Court of Honor contain the Tablets of the Missing on which are recorded the names of 1,722 American missing who gave their lives in the service of their country and who rest in unknown graves. Beyond the chapel and tower is the burial area which is divided into sixteen plots. Here rest 8,301 American dead, most of whom lost their lives nearby. Their headstones are set in long curves. A wide tree-lined mall leads to the flag staff which crowns the crest."
 * Refunding Certificate (created by The Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, nominated by Godot13) "The Refunding Certificate, issued only in the $10 denomination depicting Benjamin Franklin, was a type of interest-bearing banknote issued by the United States Treasury. Their issuance reflects the end of a coin-hoarding period which began during the American Civil War, and represented a return to public confidence in paper money. In 1879, when the bonds were issued, silver coins were in wide circulation and coins minted in gold were just beginning to make their appearances at banks nationwide. Notes totaling $40,012,750 were paid out, including the majority, some $39,398,110 in the fourth quarter of 1879, as long lines of people gathered at Post Office branches and Treasury offices. The Refunding Certificate originally promised to pay 4% annual interest in perpetuity."