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mercredi 19 avril 2017

April 19 Wikipedia featured article

A 19th century reproduction of an impression of Donnchadh's seal
Donnchadh's seal

Donnchadh (Duncan), Earl of Carrick (died 1250), was a Gall-Gaidhil prince and one of the longest serving magnates in medieval Scotland. His father, Gille-Brighde of Galloway, and his uncle, Uhtred of Galloway, were the two rival sons of Fergus, Lord of Galloway. As a result of Gille-Brighde's conflict with Uhtred and the Scottish monarch William the Lion, Donnchadh became a hostage of King Henry II of England. He probably remained in England for almost a decade before returning north on the death of his father. Although denied succession over all the lands of Galloway, he was granted lordship over Carrick in the north. Allied to John de Courcy, Donnchadh fought battles in Ireland, acquiring and losing land there. A patron of religious houses, particularly Melrose Abbey and North Berwick priory nunnery, he attempted to establish a monastery in his own territory, at Crossraguel. He married the daughter of Alan fitz Walter, a leading member of the family later known as the House of Stewart—future monarchs of Scotland and England. His descendants include the Bruce, the Stewart Kings of Scotland, and probably the Campbell Dukes of Argyll. (Full article...)



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mardi 18 avril 2017

On this day: April 18

April 18: Tax Day in the United States (2017)

Bolesław I of Poland
Bolesław I of Poland

Lucrezia Borgia (b. 1480) · John Leland (d. 1552) · Albert Einstein (d. 1955)

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April 18 Wikipedia featured article

Roman glass cup unearthed at a Han tomb in Guangxi, China
Roman glass cup unearthed in China

Sino-Roman relations refers to the flow of trade goods, information, and occasional travelers between the Roman Empire and Han Empire of China, and between the later Eastern Roman Empire and various Chinese dynasties. These empires inched progressively closer in the course of the Roman expansion into the ancient Near East and simultaneous Han Chinese military incursions into Central Asia. Mutual awareness remained low and firm knowledge about each other was limited. Only a few attempts at direct contact are known from records. Several alleged Roman emissaries to China were recorded by ancient Chinese historians. The indirect exchange of goods along the Silk Road and sea routes included Chinese silk, Roman glassware (example pictured) and high-quality cloth. Roman coins minted since the 1st century AD have been found in China. A coin of Maximian and medallions from the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius were found in Vietnam. Roman glasswares and silverwares have been discovered at Chinese archaeological sites dated to the Han period. Roman coins and glass beads have also been found in Japan. (Full article...)



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lundi 17 avril 2017

On this day: April 17

April 17: Patriots' Day in Maine and Massachusetts (2017)

Kaunas Castle (reconstructed)
Kaunas Castle (reconstructed)

Karen Blixen (b. 1885) · Sean Bean (b. 1959)  · Elda Emma Anderson (d. 1961)

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April 17 Wikipedia featured article

Villa Park

Villa Park is an association football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. Formerly a sports ground in a Victorian amusement park, it has been the home of Aston Villa Football Club since 17 April 1897. The ground has hosted sixteen England internationals at senior level, the first in 1899 and the most recent in 2005. It has hosted 55 FA Cup semi-finals, more than any other stadium. The club has initial planning permission to redevelop its North Stand, which will increase its capacity to around 50,000. Aside from football-related uses, the stadium has seen concerts and other sporting events, including boxing matches and international rugby league and rugby union matches. In 1999, the last ever final of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup took place at Villa Park. It also hosted the 2012 FA Community Shield, as Wembley Stadium was being used for the final of the Olympic football tournament. (Full article...)

Part of the Aston Villa F.C. series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.



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dimanche 16 avril 2017

April 16 Wikipedia featured article

Political cartoon depicting Kalākauaauctioning off the Hawaiian Islands
Political cartoon depicting Kalākaua
auctioning off the Hawaiian Islands

King Kalākaua's world tour in 1881 made him the first monarch to circumnavigate the globe. His agenda was to negotiate contract labor for the Kingdom of Hawaii's sugar plantations, with hopes of saving the dwindling Native Hawaiian population by drawing immigration from Asia-Pacific nations. Rumors circulated that the King secretly intended to use the trip to sell the Hawaiian Islands to the highest bidder. He visited American legislators and had an audience with the Pope in Rome. He also met with European and Asian heads of state, and was influenced by their ornate ceremonies and displays of military power. In between negotiations, Kalākaua and his companions visited tourist sites and attended local Freemasonry lodge meetings. As a result of his visit with Thomas Edison on the return trip through New York, Iolani Palace later became the first building in Hawaii with electric lighting. Kalākaua's amiable personality generated goodwill around the world, and he succeeded in increasing Hawaii's labor force. The Japanese workers he attracted were commemorated a century later with a new statue of Kalākaua in Waikiki. (Full article...)



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On this day: April 16

April 16

Bernard Baruch
Bernard Baruch

Tabinshwehti (b. 1516) · Francisco Goya (d. 1828) · John Millington Synge (b. 1871)

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samedi 15 avril 2017

April 15 Wikipedia featured article

Me and Juliet is a musical comedy with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II. The story deals with romance between the cast and crew backstage at a long-running musical, a show-within-the-show (also named Me and Juliet). The musical premiered in 1953 and ran for almost a year on Broadway, closing after it exhausted its advance sales. It received no Tony Award nominations. The play required complex machinery, designed by Jo Mielziner, so that the audience could view action not only on the stage but also in the wings and high above the stage near the spotlights. The show garnered less than favorable reviews, though Mielziner's staging won praise from audiences and critics. With the exception of a short run in Chicago, there was no national tour, and the show is rarely seen—although a small-scale production was presented by London's Finborough Theatre in 2010. "No Other Love" from the show became a hit record in 1953 for Perry Como and in 1956 for Ronnie Hilton. (Full article...)



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April 15 Wikipedia featured article

Me and Juliet is a musical comedy with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II. The story deals with romance between the cast and crew backstage at a long-running musical, a show-within-the-show (also named Me and Juliet). The musical premiered in 1953 and ran for almost a year on Broadway, closing after it exhausted its advance sales. It received no Tony Award nominations. The play required complex machinery, designed by Jo Mielziner, so that the audience could view action not only on the stage but also in the wings and high above the stage near the spotlights. The show garnered less than favorable reviews, though Mielziner's staging won praise from audiences and critics. With the exception of a short run in Chicago, there was no national tour, and the show is rarely seen—although a small-scale production was presented by London's Finborough Theatre in 2010. "No Other Love" from the show became a hit record in 1953 for Perry Como and in 1956 for Ronnie Hilton. (Full article...)



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On this day: April 15

April 15: Day of the Sun in North Korea

Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson

Leonardo da Vinci (b. 1452) · Leonhard Euler (b. 1707) · Greta Garbo (d. 1990)

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vendredi 14 avril 2017

April 14 Wikipedia featured article

Crucifix, attributed to Cimabue

The Crucifix by Cimabue at Santa Croce is a large wooden crucifix painted c. 1265, one of two attributed to the Florentine painter and mosaicist Cimabue. Painted in distemper, it was commissioned by the Franciscan friars of Santa Croce and is built from a complex arrangement of timber boards. Displaying technical innovations and humanistic iconography, it is one of the first Italian artworks to break from the late medieval Byzantine style. The gilding and monumentality of the cross links it to the Byzantine tradition. Christ's static pose is reflective of this style, while the work overall incorporates newer, more naturalistic aspects. It presents a lifelike and physically imposing depiction of the passion at Calvary. Christ is shown nearly naked: his eyes are closed, his face lifeless and defeated. His body slumps in a position contorted by prolonged agony and pain. The painting is a graphic and unflinching portrayal of human suffering, and has influenced painters from Michelangelo to Francis Bacon. It has been in the Basilica di Santa Croce since the late 13th century, and at the museum at Santa Croce since restoration following flooding of the Arno in 1966. (Full article...)



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On this day: April 14

April 14: Good Friday (Christianity, 2017); Bengali New Year, Tamil New Year, and other New Year festivals in Asia (2017); Day of the Georgian language in Georgia (1978)

Gnassingbé Eyadéma
Gnassingbé Eyadéma

Rod Steiger (b. 1925) · Rachel Carson (d. 1964) · Sarah Michelle Gellar (b. 1977)

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jeudi 13 avril 2017

April 13 Wikipedia featured article

Fez is an indie puzzle-platform video game developed by Polytron and published by Trapdoor, first released on April 13, 2012, for Xbox Live Arcade. The player-character Gomez receives a fez that reveals his two-dimensional (2D) world to be one of four sides of a three-dimensional (3D) world. The player rotates between these four 2D views to realign platforms and solve the game's puzzles. Designer Phil Fish appeared in the 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie, which detailed Fez's final stages of development and Polytron's related legal issues. Reviewers commended the game's emphasis on discovery and freedom, but criticized its technical issues, in-game navigation, and endgame backtracking. They likened the game's rotation mechanics to the 2D–3D shifts of Echochrome, Super Paper Mario, and Crush. Fez won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Eurogamer's 2012 Game of the Year award. It sold one million copies by the end of 2013, and influenced games such as Monument Valley, Crossy Road, and Secrets of Rætikon. (Full article...)



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On this day: April 13

April 13: Maundy Thursday (Western Christianity, 2017); Vaisakhi (Sikhism)

Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods

Thomas Jefferson (b. 1743) · Annie Jump Cannon (d. 1941) · Günter Grass (d. 2015)

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mercredi 12 avril 2017

April 12 Wikipedia featured article

Sunset over Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park is a U.S. National Park in Florida that protects the southern 20 percent of the original Everglades. It is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and is the third-largest national park in the lower 48 states after Death Valley and Yellowstone. The park was established in 1934 when canal-building projects in South Florida were threatening the quickly vanishing Everglades, a network of wetlands and forests fed by a river flowing out of Lake Okeechobee into Florida Bay. It was the first national park created to protect a fragile ecosystem. The park is the most significant breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America and contains the largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere. It is home to 36 threatened or protected species including the Florida panther, the American crocodile, and the West Indian manatee, and supports 350 species of birds, 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish, 40 species of mammals, and 50 species of reptiles. Most of South Florida's fresh water comes from the Biscayne Aquifer, which is replenished by the Everglades. (Full article...)

Part of the Everglades series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.



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On this day: April 12

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

Terry Fox
Terry Fox

Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood (d. 1866) · Beverly Cleary (b. 1916) · Xin Fengxia (d. 1998)

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mardi 11 avril 2017

April 11 Wikipedia featured article

Margaret Lea Houston
Margaret Lea Houston (April 11, 1819 – December 3, 1867) was First Lady of the Republic of Texas, First Lady of the state of Texas, and a founding member of Concord Baptist Church in Grand Cane, Texas. She was a poet and an accomplished musician. Her influence on husband Sam Houston persuaded him to give up alcohol and profane language. Margaret gave birth inside the governor's mansion to the youngest of their eight children, as angry mobs gathered outside in response to her husband's opposition to Texas signing the Ordinance of Secession of the Civil War. He was removed from office for refusing to swear loyalty to the Confederacy. Their eldest son joined the Confederate army and was left for dead on the battlefield at Shiloh, saved by a Union Army clergyman who found a Bible from Margaret in his pocket. Sam Houston died of illness before the end of the war, as Margaret sat by his bed reading to him from the 23rd Psalm. She became the keeper of his legacy and opened his records to a trusted biographer. When she died of yellow fever, Margaret could not be buried with her husband in a public cemetery for fear of contamination, and was instead interred on private family property. (Full article...)

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On this day: April 11

April 11

Emir Abdullah of Transjordan
Emir Abdullah of Transjordan

Llywelyn the Great (d. 1240) · Christopher Smart (b. 1722) · Ewelina Hańska (d. 1882)

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lundi 10 avril 2017

On this day: April 10

April 10: Fast of the Firstborn begins at dawn and Passover begins at sunset (Judaism, 2017)

F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Gabrielle d'Estrées (d. 1589) · Frances Perkins (b. 1880) · Hayley Westenra (b. 1987)

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April 10 Wikipedia featured article

Victorian housing on Darwin Road, Noel Park, London

Noel Park in north London is a planned community designed by Rowland Plumbe in the late 19th century, consisting of 2,200 model dwellings. It was developed in open countryside to the north of London between the historic villages of Highgate and Tottenham by the Artizans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company. One of the earliest garden suburbs in the world, it provided affordable housing for working-class families wishing to leave the inner city. Every property had a front and rear garden, and it was close enough to the rail network to allow its residents to commute to work. In line with the principles of the company's founder, William Austin, it had no pubs, and there are still none today. As a result of London's rapid expansion during the early 20th century, and particularly after the London Underground was extended to the area in 1932, Noel Park was surrounded by later developments. In 1965, it was incorporated into the newly created London Borough of Haringey. Despite damage during World War II and demolition work during the construction of Wood Green Shopping City in the 1970s, it remains largely architecturally intact. (Full article...)



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