Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 July 15b

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From today's featured article

1930 Viking

In the late 1920s, American automaker General Motors (GM) introduced four brands to supplement its five existing brands of passenger cars. In descending order of price, these were LaSalle, to supplement Cadillac; Viking (example pictured), to supplement Oldsmobile; Marquette, to supplement Buick; and Pontiac, to supplement Oakland. The brands were introduced in an effort to fill gaps in GM's pricing ladder and produce cars that were cheaper to make for its existing divisions. The Great Depression resulted in the failure of most of these brands. Viking and Marquette were each discontinued within two years of their introductions, and LaSalle after slightly more than a decade. Pontiac had the opposite fate; it was Oakland that would be discontinued, while Pontiac would continue until 2010. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

The Angel with Golden Hair

... that The Angel with Golden Hair (pictured) is one of Russia's oldest icons?
... that in the 1920s Edward A. Everett, with help from his stenographer Lulu G. Stillman, concluded that the Iroquois had been defrauded of their land, but their report was "buried" until the 1970s?
... that rugby league's Hull F.C. forced rugby union's Hull KR out of their home ground by paying triple the rent before the teams became part of rugby league's Hull Derby?
... that when María Elena Medina-Mora Icaza was appointed to lead the psychology department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, she proposed a "zero tolerance" policy for gender violence?
... that government-funded non-profits are not subject to a special motion to strike, and so are exempt from California's anti-SLAPP law?
... that William Lovelady, who wrote Incantations for guitar, set Psalm 104 as a cantata on a request from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh?
... that in the United States, Black people are twice as likely as the general population to identify as vegan?
... that the Latin meaning of rostrata is 'beaked', suggesting that the eastern shovelnose ray was named after its triangular snout?

In the news

Sher Bahadur Deuba

In South Africa, protests and subsequent unrest over the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma result in 117 deaths and more than 2,200 arrests.
The Supreme Court of Nepal designates Sher Bahadur Deuba (pictured) as prime minister.
The Party of Action and Solidarity wins a majority of seats in the Moldovan parliamentary election.
Anti-government protests occur in Cuba amid food shortages and a surge in COVID-19 infections.
In association football, the Copa América ends with Argentina defeating Brazil in the final.

On this day

July 15

Emil Kraepelin

1815 – Aboard HMS Bellerophon, French emperor Napoleon surrendered to Royal Navy captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, concluding the Napoleonic Wars.
1910 – Emil Kraepelin (pictured) published a new edition of his Textbook of Psychiatry, including for the first time Alzheimer's disease, named after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.
1966 – Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese troops began Operation Hastings to push North Vietnamese forces out of the Demilitarized Zone.
2014 – A Moscow Metro train derailed, killing 24 people and injuring 160 others in the deadliest accident in the metro system's history.

Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps (b. 1793; d. 1884)
Manuel Torres (d. 1822)
Nina Bari (d. 1961)

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Today's featured picture

Calumma crypticum, the blue-legged chameleon, is a species of chameleon found in eastern Madagascar. As with other chameleons, an individual's colour is variable and depends on its surroundings, the ambient temperature, and variations in the level of light. The species is usually quite colourful, with rich browns, blues and greens; the legs are often marked with blue. This C. crypticum individual was photographed in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar, and can be identified as a male by its long snout with a horn-like protrusion.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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