Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 July 20

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From today's featured article

Ramesses VI was the fifth ruler of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt. He succeeded Ramesses V and reigned for about eight years in the mid-to-late 12th century BC before dying in his forties. Egypt lost control of its last strongholds in Canaan around the time of his reign. The pharaoh's power waned in Upper Egypt during his rule, while the high priest of Amun, Ramessesnakht, was turning Thebes in Upper Egypt into the religious capital and a second center of power on par with Pi-Ramesses in Lower Egypt, where the pharaoh resided. He was fond of cult statues of himself; more are known to portray him than any other Twentieth-Dynasty king after his father, Ramesses III. He usurped KV9, a tomb in the Valley of the Kings planned by and for Ramesses V, and had it enlarged and redecorated for himself. His mummy lay untouched for fewer than 20 years before pillagers damaged it. The Egyptologist Amin Amer characterises him as "a king who wished to pose as a great pharaoh in an age of unrest and decline". (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Rene Strange
and puppet

... that Rene Strange's (pictured) puppets included Annie Pride of the Rockies, Mr Bertram, and Samoa the Hula Hula Girl?
... that the majority of Bloody Henry starfish are host to a parasitic copepod?
... that the conductor Michael Hofstetter has performed and recorded rarely played operas at the Ludwigsburg Festival, including Salieri's Les Danaïdes?
... that more than 500 people were arrested at the Women Disobey protest in Washington, D.C. in June, including U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal and actress Susan Sarandon?
... that Tuluhan Tekelioğlu made a documentary film on organ transplantation while her father was undergoing and recovering from bypass surgery in a hospital in Antalya?
... that 2018 Queen's Plate winner Wonder Gadot was named for Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot?
... that the 63rd Street Line, a three-station subway line in New York City, was initially described as a "tunnel to nowhere" because it had no connections to other subway lines in the borough of Queens?

In the news

France national football team

In association football, the FIFA World Cup concludes with France (team pictured) defeating Croatia in the final.
At least 154 people are killed and more than 220 others are injured in multiple bombings in Mastung and Bannu, Pakistan.
Scientists announce the discovery of stone tools dating to 2.1 million years ago in Shangchen, China, the oldest evidence of hominins outside Africa.
In Germany, the National Socialist Underground trial ends after more than five years with the sentencing of the main defendant, Beate Zschäpe, to life in prison.

On this day

July 20: Independence Day in Colombia (1810)

Special Olympics athletes in 2013

792 – Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Bulgarian forces under Kardam routed the Byzantines, forcing them to retreat to Constantinople.
1807 – French brothers Claude and Nicéphore Niépce received a patent for their Pyréolophore, one of the world's first internal combustion engines.
1922 – The German protectorate of Togoland was divided into the League of Nations mandates of French Togoland and British Togoland.
1968 – The first Special Olympics games (athletes at 2013 games pictured) were held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
2001 – Twenty-three-year-old Italian anti-globalist Carlo Giuliani was shot dead by a police officer while protesting during the 27th G8 summit in Genoa, Italy.

Ibn Muqla (d. 940) · Miron Cristea (b. 1868) · Chris Cornell (b. 1964)

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From today's featured list

Karan Johar in 2018

Dharma Productions is an Indian production company established by Yash Johar in 1976. The company has produced 45 Hindi films and presented four regional language films from other companies. Their first release came in 1980 with the Raj Khosla-directed Dostana which was followed by a series of commercial failures. Karan Johar's (pictured) directorial debut Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, and Rani Mukerji, was highly successful and established Dharma Productions as a leading production company in India. Their subsequent releases, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003) and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), all starring Khan, emerged as top-grossing Hindi films in overseas sales. In the late 2000s and 2010s, the company introduced the directors Ayan Mukerji, Shakun Batra and Shashank Khaitan, and the actors Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. They worked on several successful films for the company, including Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), Kapoor & Sons (2016), Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017), and Raazi (2018). (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

A newsreel depicting the first successful underwater launch of the UGM-27 Polaris on July 20, 1960. This two-stage submarine-launched ballistic missile began development in 1956 and was meant to provide second strike capabilities. After several successful test firings on land, the missile was scheduled for an underwater test, being loaded onto USS George Washington at Cape Canaveral before being fired from the Atlantic Missile Test Range at a target 1,100 miles (1,800 km) away.

Film: Universal International Newsreel

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