Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 June 24

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From today's featured article

The Battle of Sluys was a naval battle fought on 24 June 1340 between England and France, in the roadstead of the since silted-up port of Sluys. The English fleet of 120–150 ships was led by Edward III of England and the 230-strong French fleet by Hugues Quiéret, Admiral of France, and Nicolas Béhuchet, Constable of France. It was one of the opening engagements of the Hundred Years' War. Edward sailed on 22 June and encountered the French the next day; they had bound their ships into three lines, forming large floating fighting platforms. The English were able to manoeuvre against the French and defeat them in detail. Most of the French ships were captured, and they lost 16,000–20,000 men killed, against 400–600 for the English. The English were unable to take strategic advantage, barely interrupting French raids on English territories and shipping. Operationally the battle allowed the English army to land and to then besiege the French town of Tournai, albeit unsuccessfully. (Full article...)

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A coalition led by President Aleksandar Vučić (pictured) and his Serbian Progressive Party wins a majority in parliamentary elections boycotted by the main opposition parties.
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On this day

June 24

Julia Gillard

474 – Western Roman emperor Glycerius, who was not recognized by his Eastern counterpart Leo I, was forced to abdicate.
1314 – In the decisive battle of the First War of Scottish Independence, Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeated English troops under Edward II near Bannockburn, Scotland.
1717 – The first Grand Lodge of Freemasonry, the Premier Grand Lodge of England, was founded in London.
1940 – Second World War: The British Army carried out Operation Collar, its first commando raid into German-occupied France.
2010 – Julia Gillard (pictured) was sworn in as the first female prime minister of Australia after incumbent Kevin Rudd declined to contest a leadership spill in the Labor Party.

William Arnold (b. 1587)
Eleanor Norcross (b. 1854)
V. V. Giri (d. 1980)

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Today's featured picture

The Child's Bath is an 1893 oil-on-canvas painting by American artist Mary Cassatt. She was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists.

This painting depicts a mother figure and a young child, a genre scene based on the everyday activity of bathing a small child. Cassatt was heavily influenced in her work by some of her fellow Impressionist peers, especially Degas. She also took inspiration from the prints of Japanese woodcuts exhibited at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, being drawn to the simplicity and clarity of the Japanese designs, and the skilful use of blocks of color. The work is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Painting credit: Mary Cassatt

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