Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 February 24

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From today's featured article

Clare Stevenson (1903–1988) was the inaugural director of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF), from May 1941 to March 1946. As such, she was described in 2001 as "the most significant woman in the history of the Air Force". Formed as a branch of the Royal Australian Air Force in March 1941, the WAAAF was the first and largest uniformed women's service in Australia during World War II. Born and educated in Victoria, Stevenson was an executive with the Berlei company when she was appointed Director WAAAF. Initially ranked squadron officer, she rose to become group officer by April 1942. Stevenson resumed her civilian career following her discharge from the Air Force in 1946. Long active in adult education and social welfare, she helped form aid organisations including the Carers Association of New South Wales (now Carers NSW) after retiring from Berlei in 1960. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Five views of a laciniate conch shell

... that the laciniate conch (shell pictured) is able to flip itself off the seabed using its muscular foot?
... that Virginia Walker was signed to a Hollywood film contract on the basis of her picture in a magazine advertisement for soap?
... that Scandinavian sagas were the first to use Eistland as a name for Estonia?
... that Enno Stephan's book Geheimauftrag Irland caused embarrassment in Ireland when it revealed details of Nazi espionage in the country?
... that The Other Side of Heaven 2: Fire of Faith was filmed in Fiji to take advantage of the country's 47-percent tax rebate for films made there?
... that the Leeds-based software company Visionware represented a management buyout success story from the failure of a once much larger British company?
... that after Caroline Pafford Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her first novel, she received a letter from Margaret Mitchell saying that it was her "favorite book"?
... that rappers Future and Drake worked at McDonald's for a day?

In the news

The Dáil chamber

Shootings in Hanau, Germany, leave eleven people dead and five others wounded.
The Irish general election concludes with no party holding a majority of seats in Dáil Éireann (chamber pictured).
South Korean film Parasite wins four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Bong Joon-ho.
A mass shooting in Korat, Thailand, leaves thirty people dead and more than fifty others injured.

On this day

February 24: Shrove Monday (Western Christianity, 2020); Independence Day in Estonia (1918)

Andrew Johnson

303 – The Diocletianic Persecution, the last and most severe episode of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, began with the publication of a first edict by Roman emperor Diocletian.
1607 – Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, considered the first fully developed opera, premiered in Mantua.
1868 – Andrew Johnson (pictured) became the first U.S. president to be impeached.
1875 – The steamship SS Gothenburg hit a section of the Great Barrier Reef at low tide and sank northwest of Holbourne Island, resulting in more than 98 deaths.

Joseph Banks (b. 1743) · Carlo Buonaparte (d. 1785) · Sridevi (d. 2018)

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From today's featured list

Bing Crosby

Eight albums from five different artists reached number one on the Billboard Best-Selling Popular Record Chart in 1945. The chart was first published in the magazine dated March 24, and included ten positions, "based on reports received from more than 200 dealers" throughout the United States. The first number-one album on the chart was the King Cole Trio's self-titled debut, released by Capitol. It topped the charts for three weeks, until it was replaced by the soundtrack of Song of Norway, an operetta written by Robert Wright and George Forrest. Bing Crosby (pictured) was the only artist to have two albums on top of the chart: Selections from Going My Way for six weeks, and Merry Christmas for four weeks. King Cole Trio was the longest reigning album of the year, with twelve weeks at number one, followed by Glenn Miller, with seven weeks. Albums released by Decca topped the charts for a total of eighteen weeks, followed by Capitol at seventeen weeks and Victor at nine weeks. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Equestrian Portrait of Charles V is an oil-on-canvas painting by Italian Renaissance artist Titian. Created between April and September 1548, while Titian was at the imperial court of Augsburg, it is a tribute to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, following his victory in the Battle of Mühlberg of April 1547 against the Protestant armies of the Schmalkaldic League. The portrait gains its impact in part by its directness and sense of contained power: the horse's strength seems just in check, and Charles's brilliantly shining armour and the painting's deep reds are reminders of battle and heroism. Titian recorded all of the foreground elements – the horse, its caparison, and the rider's armour – from those used in the actual battle. Both the armour and the harness survive, and are kept at the Royal Armoury of Madrid. In 1827, the painting was acquired by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, where it hangs at present.

Painting credit: Titian

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